It was in May of this year that Congress enacted into law sweeping reforms on banks’ credit card businesses.  This popular piece of legislation put a stop to many egregious practices that loaded unfair fees and interest on unsuspecting credit card customers.  One of the worst practices was charging customers with a myriad of fees that put them over their line of credit, then assessing  huge over limit penalties. Another unfair practice was to begin charging a higher rate of interest on credit card balances that were incurred before the rate change went …

The bad news is that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) issued a grim report on the financial state of the worlds airlines this week.  The IATA stated that the world’s air carriers did much worse than anticipated in 2008, and that 2009 is projected to bring further losses, amounting to about $4.7 billion.  The good news is that North American carriers actually produced a small profit in 2008, and are expected to also show profits in 2009.  The dismal overall figures are largely a result of Asian and European …

As the sun begins to set across the “fruited plain”, here in America, the world’s capital markets, from Tokyo around the world to New York, have registered one of their worst performances on record.  Just when we thought it might be safe to get back in the water, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged below 7,000, marking a mind-numbing fifty percent decline from its 2007 high of 14,164.  The announcement on Friday that the U.S. gross domestic product sank by 6.2 percent at the end of last year further shook the confidence of Asian …