Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Banks – Part of the free market?

Two quotes from "Why Big Banks Deserve to Get Slammed", Rick Newman, U.S. News and World Report, 2012-02-22.

"To the banks, the latest news from Washington represents a continued assault on the livelihood of fine working Americans, and on free enterprise itself."

"Banks are required to list all these fees on a fee schedule that they must provide to customers who ask for it, but banks rarely advertise all the fees they charge and obviously they hope customers won't notice."

If the buyers, bank customers, don't have complete information (one of the requirements of a free markets), then how can these banks be part of "free enterprise".  It is the banks that are making the assault on "free enterprise".