The Fight for the Middle Class: Calling on Banks to Do More

March 17, 2010— -- In nearly every corner of the country, there's a common denominator among a down-but-determined middle class -- frustration with the banks.

For so many, there's a simple question: If the banks that taxpayers propped up are now doling out record bonuses, why aren't they helping the taxpayer? Why aren't they refinancing mortgages or lowering credit card interest rates instead of spiking them?

Just this week, President Obama's top economic team was on Capitol Hill, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Council of Economic Advisers chairwoman Christina Romer and Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orzag. All said that the country has bounced back from the depths of recession.

That assertion drew a fiery response from lawmakers.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, said, "The people who caused this mess are doing just fine. The taxpayers bailed them out and my people are suffering. Where is the urgency!?"

To that, Geithner acknowledged, "The banks are not doing good enough."

Perhaps that's an understatement, particularly in light of the latest ABC News poll.

Seventy-seven percent of those polled said the banks should do more to make up for their role in the recession.

And what might they do? Simplify the paperwork with credit cards and loans, said some 83 percent of the people.

They have good reason for that request. According to Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor who heads up the Congressional Oversight Panel examining the banking bailout, American middle class families spent more than $100 billion on credit card penalties, fees and interest in last year alone.

"The large Wall Street banks that really run these credit cards have been able to borrow from the American taxpayer through the Fed, which is effectively zero percent interest," Warren said. "So what are they doing with credit cards? The answer is, they've often tripled interest rates."

Some raise the rates in deceptive ways, offering low interest rates up front on credit cards, only to boost the rates a year later with details buried in the fine print.

But getting the banks to listen has been difficult because so few banks hold so much of the nation's wealth.

There are 8,184 banks in the country, but nearly three quarters of all the deposits are held by just 117 banks. Those few financial giants wield huge power to raise penalties and fees, doubled from what they were just a decade ago.