Free checking checks out?

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday in depth about the looming demise of free checking at America's banks.

The article reports that free checking was almost universal throughout the land until the Reagan regime deregulated big banks in the early '80s, allowing banks to impose a fee for checking accounts. Later, however, many of these same banks saw dollar signs from low-income customers and decided to drop these fees in an effort to lure them in.

But now these confiscatory fees are roaring back with a vengeance, thanks to the almost total lack of banking regulations. This is expected to mean the end of free checking altogether.

Nothing like having to pay a fee to use your own money, huh?

Sillier yet, some banks apply these fees only to customers that have less than a certain amount in their account - so really it's yet another right-wing assault on the poor.

Congress needs to reinstate regulations of bank fees. If Congress doesn't act, the states must act with all deliberate gusto.

For most Americans, conservaworld means a life of Allowed Clouds. You can't do this, you can't do that. Unless of course you're a big corporation like a bank, which have almost no controls at all.

How long are our lawmakers going to sit back and stink?

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703513604575311093932315142.html)