"The Card Game" - New Doc Investigates History of Credit Card Industry and Proposals for Reform

We take a look at how the consumer loan industry continues to squeeze customers. Last year the Federal Reserve Board announced new rules for banks to remove unfair credit card practices and in May of this year Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. Both will only become effective next February. But in the meantime banks have raised interest rates, imposed higher fees, and reduced credit lines on customers before the new rules can take effect. The House voted earlier this month to make the rules effective immediately. Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd is pushing to freeze interest rates on existing credit card balances until the law takes effect.
And this Thursday the Senate Banking Committee will take up the proposal to create a Consumer Finance Protection Agency.

How will all the new rules change the way banks function? And how much can they protect consumers?

That’s the subject of a joint FRONTLINE –New York Times investigation called “The Card Game.” Longtime investigative journalist and Frontline correspondent Lowell Bergman talked to industry insiders, lobbyists, politicians and consumer advocates about how to reform the way the consumer loan industry has done business for decades.

We speak with award-winning investigative journalist and Frontline correspondent Lowell Bergman about his new documentary, “The Card Game” which airs next Tuesday November 24th at 9:00 pm eastern on PBS.

Lowell Bergman, producer and reporter for the PBS documentary series Frontline, and a professor at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Related Links

• Frontline: The Card Game

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