Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Per chi non gode la protezione delle banche centrali

L'articolo parla degli USA, ma la situazione (sia per quanto riguarda
la legislazione sulla bancarotta che per quanto riguarda gli "aiutini"
delle banche centrali) e' comparabile in UK.
Due anni fa (piu' o meno durante l'ondata di fallimenti causata da
Katrina), il congresso ha passato, e il presidente ha (ovviamente)
firmato, una "riforma" della legge sui fallimenti scritta a tavolino
dalla Lobby dei servizi finanziari
(I suoi contributi ai politici Americani:
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?ind=F06
   )
Il risultato:
---------------------------------------
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0312-03.htm
WASHINGTON - Millions of Americans could be plunged into financial
ruin if a bill giving credit card companies long-sought relief from
unpaid loans gets final Congressional approval, a broad array of
consumer protection, economic justice, and civil rights groups warned.
Senators on Thursday passed the bankruptcy reform bill, which
political observers said was largely crafted by the credit card
industry more than eight years ago, sending it to the House of
Representatives. Lawmakers there said they could vote on final passage
next month.
Every year, some 1.6 million Americans file for personal bankruptcy
protection--more than five times as many as in 1980. The process,
which in many respects mirrors corporate bankruptcy, allows them to
come up with a creditor-reviewed and court-approved plan to write off
some of their debts, pay off others, and reorganize their personal
finances so they can make a fresh start.
Opponents of the first revamp of the nation's personal bankruptcy laws
in more than a quarter-century said the legislation would deal a
ruinous blow to the overwhelming majority of those forced to declare
personal bankruptcy: moderate- and low-income families, many of them
black or migrant or with only one parent; and individuals of modest
means hit with large divorce losses or medical expenses.
''Families are borrowing to make ends meet, and they're one missed
paycheck away from collapse,'' said Tamara Draut, director of the
economic opportunity program at Demos, a think tank. ''The Congress
members of both parties who are embracing these punitive measures for
working families are dangerously out of touch with the grim economic
realities faced by ordinary families.''
Credit card issuers said they need the new law because well-off
consumers took advantage of loopholes in the old rules to rack up and
walk away from unpaid loans, saddling the industry with losses of $3-4
billion per year.
Credit card issuers including MBNA Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the
finance units of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., in lobbying
for the bill, said unpaid loans ended up costing every non-defaulting
cardholder, for example through higher late payment fees, higher
interest rates, and stiffer repayment conditions on car loans.
''This is a common-sense solution that's long overdue,'' said Edward
L. Yingling, executive vice president of the American Bankers
Association, the trade group for the credit card industry.
In Draut's view, however, the bill ''rewards a $30 billion industry
for egregious behavior.'' The legislation would do nothing to rein in
credit card solicitations or put caps on interest rates or late fees,
over-the-limit fees and other penalties, she said, yet these were
among the reasons people were forced to declare bankruptcy in the
first place.
The legislation is considered likely to garner House approval and
Bush's final signature because it was stripped of clauses that
appeared in earlier versions and that would have applied to
controversial constituencies such as anti-abortion groups. Previous
bills won lopsided majorities in the Senate only to stall in the
House.
The measure would make more people file under Chapter 13 of the
bankruptcy code, which requires consumers to pay back most debts over
five years. Currently, most debtors file under Chapter 7, which allows
many to keep some protected assets while discharging some debts and
walking away from most unsecured debts such as credit card bills.
At its heart is the creation of a means test to sift out those who can
afford to pay back at least a portion of such debts and those who
cannot. Individuals with incomes above the median for their state
would have to plead their case before a bankruptcy court.
Those deemed able to repay a lump sum of $10,000 would be forced into
Chapter 13. Those who could pay 25 percent of what they owe or $6,000
in monthly payments would also be barred from writing off their
unsecured debts.
Credit card companies estimated that about 20 percent of all
bankruptcy filers have some assets or means to pay off their debts.
The Senate rejected more than 25 Democratic amendments to soften the
bill's impact on bankrupt Americans. Including one that would have
helped people keep their homes when they are driven into bankruptcy by
medical expenses.
They approved, 99-0, one change that exempts from the bill's means
test disabled veterans who went bankrupt while in combat or on
homeland security duty.
Bankruptcy reform has been a top priority of banks, credit-card
companies, and retailers for the past decade. The credit card industry
has given $25 million to federal candidates and the political parties
since 1999 and commercial banks have given $76.2 million, according to
the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog
group. More than 60 percent of the donations went to Republicans.
That, according to consumer protection groups including the National
Consumer Law Center and Consumer Federation of America, has resulted
in a package that tilts the balance of power in individual bankruptcy
heavily in favor of the financial industry, at the expense of consumer
protection.
Civil rights groups also have rallied to oppose the new law, formally
called the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of
2005.
''Disadvantaged groups in our society disproportionately find
themselves in bankruptcy courts as a result of economic discrimination
in its many forms,'' said the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
(LCCR) in an e-mail urging members nationwide to lobby their
Representatives to reject the bill.
According to LCCR, divorced women are 300 percent more likely than
single or married women to find themselves in bankruptcy court because
of the combined effects of lower wages, reduced access to health
insurance, and the financial strain of rearing children alone.
''The proposed bill would harm hundreds of thousands of women and
children who are owed child support or alimony by forcing them to
compete with credit card issuers and therefore making it less likely
that support payments will be made to those in need,'' the group said.
African American and Latino home owners are 500 percent more likely
than white homeowners to find themselves in bankruptcy court, it
added, largely due to discrimination in home mortgage lending and
housing purchases and to inequalities in hiring opportunities, wages,
and health insurance coverage.
According to a recent Harvard study, around half of all personal
bankruptcies are the result of illness or medical bills.
-------------------------------------------------
E per quelli che hanno dovuto dichiarare fallimento a causa di
Katrina?
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/katrina_bankruptcy03.html
GT

 quel credito l'hanno concesso troppo facilmente.
Le ultime paragrafi dell'Articolo:
-------------------------
According to LCCR, divorced women are 300 percent more likely than
single or married women to find themselves in bankruptcy court because
of the combined effects of lower wages, reduced access to health
insurance, and the financial strain of rearing children alone.
...
African American and Latino home owners are 500 percent more likely
than white homeowners to find themselves in bankruptcy court, it
added, largely due to discrimination in home mortgage lending and
housing purchases and to inequalities in hiring opportunities, wages,
and health insurance coverage.
...
According to a recent Harvard study, around half of all personal
bankruptcies are the result of illness or medical bills.
------------------------
GT

 dalla Lobby dei servizi finanziari
mi pare un'ottima esemplificazione di quello che intendo quando parlo
di salvagente di classe a proposito delle Bance Centrali..ma
ovviamente i corifei del capitalismo non si scandalizzano....

luno...@gmail.com
 ha scritto:
[cut]
Non capiscono una sega, ma rosicano benissimo.
Questo bisogna riconoscerlo, agli analisti rossobruni.
Tb
-- 
E' una grande mitzvah essere sempre felici (R. Nachman di Breslavia)