Reply #2: I was listening to a story on NPR yesterday, about

[enlightenment]

c.c. companies revising their 'target' audiences because of the high default rates . . . I wonder if it occurs to them that jacking up interests rates on existing debt to levels that would make a medieval moneylender cringe is one reason more and more people who are struggling to pay their bills are throwing their hands up in the air and saying "f**k it - why bother paying when less than a dollar goes to principal?"

The companies would probably see a bigger 'profit' if they cut their interests rates to single digits - at least people would feel like they had a chance of getting out from under the debt and make payments, rather than just walking away from it.