The following is an exchange between Obama and George Stephanopoulos, referring to Bank of America's new $5 fee:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Can you stop this service charge?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you can stop it because it-- if you-- if you say to the banks, "You don't have some inherent right just to-- you know, get a certain amount of profit. If your customers-- are being mistreated. That you have to treat them fairly and transparently." And-- and my hope is is that you're going to see a bunch of-- the banks, who say to themselves, "You know what? This is actually not good business practice." Banks can make money. They can succeed, the old-fashioned way, by earning it. By lending to small businesses.
I guess we're supposed to look past an American president dictating how and how much a bank can profit and focus instead on the lip service paid to "small businesses."
Keep in mind, Obama's fat cat buddy Warren Buffett now owns a pretty hefty chunk of Bank of America. This new fee comes roughly one month after Buffett bailed out BofA to the tune of $5 billion. Maybe this $5 fee is low-hanging political fruit for Obama, put there by Buffett? Who knows?
