Blog 4

My critique is over the cost of credit card swipe fees by the Star-Ledger editorial board linked with the Huffington Post. The author is commenting on the ever increasing credit card charges applied to credit card users. This article has an effect on any consumer who has credit cards. On average, an American has about 8 credit cards to their name. And the only people to be benefiting from this are the credit card issuers.
U.s. consumers and businesses pay higher charges than those in other developed nations, when it comes to purchasing with plastic according to a report by the Merchants Payment Coalition. The coalition, a group of retailers and other businesses wants Congress to crack down on what they claim are excessive charges. Excess and unnecessary charges are exactly what they are. Recently, Congress passed a bill about not increasing interest rates and credit card issues are retaliating against it and now are placing a charge on those consumers who actually pay their bill on time. The beauty part for the credit card issuer is that it scores twice-once in a transaction fee it gets from the merchant and again with an interest charge to the customer. In 2008, those charges produced $48 million for American banks, and avg. of $427 per household, the merchant coalition claims.
The Obama adminstration has criticized the banks for these high fees and lawmakers such as Senator Richard Durbin (R-Ill) have introduced legislation that would impose more restrictions on such fees. I agree that credit card issuers are the ones benefiting here and leaving consumers to hang dry. With all these fees coming form different directions it makes it difficult for one to try to even establish good credit. I feel its a constant game that I get tired of and I feel that most Americans get tired of to because it seems that we are on the losing team.

Blog 3

The article I choose to critique comes from the Austin Statesman Commentary section written by Lance Armstrong:Put Cancer at top of global agenda. Today is Friday Oct.2,2009 and it also happens to be Livestrong day which is a global day of action to raise awareness in our communities about the fight against cancer. Today is the 13th anniversary of Lance Armstrong's own cancer diagnosis and with no medical insurance. Had it not been for one of his sponsors, Oakley, who threatened their insurance company to cover him he may not be alive or he would but with a pile of medical bills.
Cancer is projected to become the world's leading cause of death next year. And without greater progress in detection,prevention, and treatment that number could triple by 2030. Also if the epidemic continues to grow, it will have a devastating effect on world economies. A new Economist Intelligence Unit Study commissioned by the Lance Armstrong Foundation pegs the global economic impart of the disease at more than $300 billion in 2009 alone. In coming years, developing nations will be forced to spend increasing amounts of money on treatment and on public assistance to patients. In the U.S. and Western Europe, where aging populations are already straining public health costs, the rise in cancer means an even greater percentage of national budgets will be devoted to healthcare.
But the disease has an even greater impact on personal economics. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, cancer survivors in the U.S. and Europe were 37 percent more likely to be unemployed than those who have not been afflicted by the disease. This is a health and economic crisis throughout the world.
In conclusion, cancer won't wait. The threat grows minute by minute and countries have to find a way to drive the cost of treatment down. Livestrong Day for the first time is being marked globally and events around the world are trying to make it a global agenda impossible to ignore.