The following content is Electronic Payments Union.
I heard the news that inflation is finally starting to decline, but prices are Remaining It’s stubbornly expensive. American families are squeezed to buy everyday necessities, not occasional luxuries.
CBS News Price Tracker show Since 2019, we’ve seen the cost of basic necessities like food, housing, and transportation rise dramatically. From buying groceries to enjoying the occasional takeout meal, Americans are spending more on food than they can afford. They spend 11% of their total income on food.This is the highest percentage since 1991.
As Americans struggle to make ends meet and put food on the table, retailers are looking for ways to increase their profit margins.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) The report was released Earlier this year, reports highlighted how grocery conglomerates used the COVID-19 pandemic to inflate prices of staples and increase their profits despite the economic hardships many Americans were experiencing at the time.
The report’s findings showed that retail grocers such as Kroger, Walmart and Amazon were seeing increased revenue, and the FTC said the findings “cast doubt on the assertion that grocery store price increases are simply keeping pace with retailers’ own rising costs.”
Instead of accepting responsibility, these giant retail giants are shifting the blame to the credit card companies and pushing for new credit card mandates, citing higher prices. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KY) are spearheading a harmful campaign to impose new credit card mandates. Credit card bill There is a push in Congress to further line the pockets of the big retail conglomerates.
The Durbin Marshall Credit Card Bill aims to introduce further regulation and give retailers more freedom to route in-store credit card transactions to alternative payment networks, circumventing the established secure payment systems that financial institutions currently have in place. The bill plans to change the current routing system, thereby allowing companies to make more profits without passing on the savings to their customers.
Historically, similar policies have backfired swiftly and harshly on ordinary households. In 2010, Congress passed the Durbin Amendment, which required the Federal Reserve to impose interchange limits on debit card purchases and pumped billions of dollars into big retailers. They promised to pass these savings on to consumers, but according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Indicated Despite the interchange adjustments, more than 98% of companies increased or kept their prices the same, according to another University of Chicago study. found After the Durbin Amendment went into effect in 2010, families lost about $25 billion.
We’ve seen this before, and Congress should reject this credit card bill before it’s too late and protect the lives and wallets of the American families they represent.
