Trump’s Credit Cap: A Looming Crisis or a Silver Lining?

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The colossus of JPMorgan Chase, that titan of finance, now whispers warnings to the American soul, foretelling a time when the golden threads of credit may fray, unraveling the tapestry of countless lives under the shadow of Trump’s proposed rate cap. A dire prophecy, indeed, as if the banks themselves were oracles of doom, clutching their ledgers like ancient scrolls.

During a recent symphony of numbers, the maestro of JPMorgan’s finances, Jeremy Barnum, conducted a somber aria, forecasting a dirge for both the consumer and the economic symphony at large. One might wonder if the banks have finally cracked under the weight of their own hubris, or if they’re merely rehearsing for a tragic opera.

“Just assume for the sake of argument that something in the general mode of price controls on credit card interest rates goes through, what would be the consequences of that…”

“The right assumption about what the response of the system is going to be to the imposition of price controls is not that you will simply compress the profit margins, which are already at their sort of competitively optimal level, and thereby pass on benefits to consumers.”

“What’s actually simply going to happen is that the provision of the service will change dramatically. Specifically, people will lose access to credit, like on a very, very extensive and broad basis, especially the people who need it the most, honestly.”

“And so that’s a pretty severely negative consequence for consumers and frankly, probably also a negative consequence for the economy as a whole right now.”

Earlier this month, Trump, the architect of the unexpected, unveiled his grand design: a 10% cap on credit card interest rates for a year. The stock market, that fickle lover, trembled at the news, as if the very foundations of capitalism were crumbling under a populist sledgehammer.

Trump, the unlikely alchemist, now finds an ally in the enigmatic form of Senator Elizabeth Warren, a figure as mysterious as a riddle wrapped in a conundrum. She questions the morality of 36% interest rates, a number as foreign as a star’s whisper, while the banks, those guardians of the financial cosmos, wail like broken hymns.

“I also just want to start with the big picture here. Is there anybody defending 36% interest rate on credit cards or 28% interest on credit cards? Anybody out there who isn’t paid by the industry that’s putting out those credit cards?”

“They say, oh no, you can’t touch credit card interest rates. No matter what, it will be the end of the world. We will shut down credit cards. They go on and on and on.”

“And basically it’s the same song they sang over what would happen if the CFPB put some caps on overdraft fees. What would happen if the cfpb put caps on fees on credit cards?”

“You know, the credit card companies literally make billions of dollars. Last year they made $150 billion in profits off the credit cards that american families are holding. So we have some choices to make. Do the investors and the corporate executives keep that $150 billion, or does some chunk of that go back to hardworking families who are just trying to pay their mortgage, just trying to pay for groceries every month?”

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2026-01-26 11:29