celebrity sighting on wall street! and my monitor. ...in tandem? (sigh) *ALSO new cc regulations?

Gimme a f*cking break Grimm! anyways...moving on...

***ON DEC. 18TH. Feds review and vote on new credit card regulations. This could be minor relief for the consumer w/ the following inplace:

" * Banks would be prohibited from increasing the rate on a pre-existing credit card balance (unless 30day defaults)

* Banks would be prohibited from using the universal default system (changing cc terms at their discretion if you default on a totally separate bill, PGE, comcast for example.)

* Banks would be required to give consumers the full benefit of discounted promotional rates on credit cards by applying payments in excess of the minimum to any higher-rate balances first, and by providing a grace period for purchases where the consumer is otherwise eligible.

* Banks would be prohibited from imposing interest charges using the "two-cycle" method, which computes interest on balances on days in billing cycles preceding the most recent billing cycle.

* Banks would be required to provide consumers a reasonable amount of time to make payments."

This could spawn direct negative impact for issuers like visa, master, discover, a.express not to mention the banks behind them. To keep it simple, the consumer saves on fees and erratic interest adjustments, but this means limiting the amount of credit available (hell yeah, if i can't charge late fees or raise interest, wtf would i lend you more money?), higher interest rates for new applicants, more stringent terms and more risks for the issuers, ultimately this alone will not stimulate consumer spending as "needed".

I do however agree that reform in the credit system is a must. BOA, Citi, Chase (jp morgan), all have their hands in this. Now if this takes a further toll on the behind-the-scenes assett-backed security investors, if unemployment continues to rise equating to higher probable debt defaults... I wouldn't be surprised if we witness another wave of financial institutes being on I.V bags in 2009...let's hope not. (i wish i acted on the dec. 35 RIMM puts week ago, and I am really looking into January 10 BAC puts, but I can't do shit with my capital strapped up in these decembers!)

- cheers the hot revolver