I'm pleased, I think, that the House is moving to regulate credit card issuers by limiting late fees, overlimit charges, and changes in the interest rate. This isn't, of course, any real solution to the problems that vex the banking and financial industries, but it's a feel-good measure that will get a lot of public support.
A few years ago Congress responded to the increasing number of consumer bankruptcies and the losses to issuers of credit cards by passing a bankruptcy reform act. The act requires consumers who want to file for bankruptcy to take a credit counseling course first. The idea is that some of those who get into serious financial trouble do so through their own irresponsibility, and before the government bails them out by cancelling their debts, they need to learn the basic skills of managing their loans and finances.
Let's not stop there. Congress could reasonably require banks that receive TARP money (which is a government bailout, like the cancellation of debts in a bankruptcy) to send their officers and directors to credit management school, so that they learn how not to get into a similar financial bind again. The banks whose directors and officers pass the test with high marks should be allowed to charge what they want on their credit cards. The banks whose staff, even after remedial education, still don't get the point should have to stick with the Congressional limits -- if they can't manage their money wisely, they shouldn't look to Joe and Jane Consumer to bail them out.