Yesterday we released a new report: Total Recall: The Need for CPSC Reform Now. The report's key finding: Recalls are up 22% in 2008, despite the toy industry's claims they've cleaned up the worldwide mess they made just last year. Meanwhile, 50 members of the House, led by Rules Chair Louise Slaughter and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), sent conferees a strong new letter urging swift action to finish action on CPSC reform before the August recess. (Note: The current total is 50 signers, although this original letter had 37.)

While 95% of the conference is done, the Senate awaits an offer from the House on critical issues including the Senate bill's phthalate ban (we're for it and Exxon Mobil's against it) and the Senate bill's requirement that all toy hazards be subjected to the new third party testing requirements in both bills (we're for it). Yet, some House conferees are siding with the toy industry, which is demanding that a new provision (in neither bill now) be added that permanently preempts states from auditing or reviewing that new, untested third party testing requirement, or requiring new tests as new hazards arise. We are against that. These and other remaining conference issues, such as why whistleblower protection will improve product safety, are discussed in the report. Links to ExxonMobil lobby reports listing their phthalate lobbying efforts are after the "continue reading" jump:

Notable findings:

Four of the top ten credit card issuers cited factors beyond a consumer’s control that might cause an interest rate increase such as: "market conditions," "the economy," and "business strategies."

77% of surveyed credit card issuers (17 of 22) answered "Yes" to the question "Can you increase my APR or change my terms 'any time for any reason'?" This includes all Top Ten issuers - even Citibank which pledges not to change a customer’s terms before the card's expiration date.

Five financial institutions told CA surveyors that they would reduce a cardholder's credit limit because of perceived customer risk. Factors include: a decline in credit scores, late payments and balances that go too close to the credit limit.

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ExxonMobil makes phthalates, the toxic chemicals that are endocrine disruptors linked to developmental disorders. The Senate version of the CPSC Reform Act would ban phthalates in children's products and toys to limit this risk. The House has so far refused to take the provision.

The toy industry is insisting on adding a new harmful layer of preemption to the CPSC Reform Act's (both House and Senate) centerpiece requirement that all toys undergo independent third party testing. It is always a mistake to preempt the right of the states to solve consumer or environmental problems. Some mistakes are bigger than others, though. When you have a new, untested federal law provision -- such as third party testing -- that may not work and may not completely solve the problem addressed by Congress, it would be one of those big mistakes to tell the states they have no authority to to fix what Congress didn't fix.

Why should Congress listen to the companies that created the mess that Congress is trying to clean up on this matter anyway? Shouldn't Congress listen instead to the state Attorneys General who've been leaders in protecting consumers and who oppose this provision, too?

America’s digital divide is delineated by class, location and race. Only 35 percent of American homes with less than $50,000 in annual income have broadband, according to the Census Bureau, while 76 percent of households earning more than $50,000 per year are connected. Meanwhile nearly 20 million Americans live in areas not served by a single broadband provider, while tens of millions more live in places with just a single source for high-speed Internet. Just 39 percent of rural households subscribe to broadband service, compared to 54 percent of urban dwellers.

Industry lobbyists have been fighting some of the most critical reforms. The conferees need to stand strong.[...]C'mon, this is a battle between child-safety advocates and anti-breast cancer activists fighting for public health against the toy and chemical industries, who are fighting to protect their bottom line. Is it really so hard for members of Congress -- of both parties --to decide which side to come down on?

Kenneth D. Lewis, chairman and chief executive officer, said: "Outside of real estate-related products, our operating results were quite good [...] Record quarterly net revenue of $20.32 billion was driven by an expanded net interest yield, loan growth and higher income from service charges, mortgage banking and investment and brokerage services [...]

From Earnings Fall 44% at Bank of America by Eric Dash on the New York Times website:

While the circumstances surrounding these downfalls vary, one element is identical: the lucrative lending practices of America’s merchants of debt have led millions of Americans — young and old, native and immigrant, affluent and poor — to the brink. More and more, Americans can identify with miners of old: in debt to the company store with little chance of paying up. It is not just individuals but the entire economy that is now suffering. Practices that produced record profits for many banks have shaken the nation’s financial system to its foundation. As a growing number of Americans default, banks are recording hundreds of billions in losses, devastating their shareholders.

Lenders have found new ways to squeeze more profit from borrowers. Though prevailing interest rates have fallen to the low single digits in recent years, for example, the rates that credit card issuers routinely charge even borrowers with good credit records have risen, to 19.1 percent last year from 17.7 percent in 2005 — a difference that adds billions of dollars in interest charges annually to credit card bills.

Average late fees rose to $35 in 2007 from less than $13 in 1994, and fees charged when customers exceed their credit limits more than doubled to $26 a month from $11, according to CardWeb, an online publisher of information on payment and credit cards. Mortgage lenders similarly added or raised fees associated with borrowing to buy a home — like $75 e-mail charges, $100 document preparation costs and $70 courier fees — bringing the average to $700 a mortgage, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. These “junk fees” have risen 50 percent in recent years, said Michael A. Kratzer, president of FeeDisclosure.com, a Web site intended to help consumers reduce fees on mortgages.

"Today the focus for lenders is not so much on consumer loans being repaid, but on the loan as a perpetual earning asset," said Julie L. Williams, chief counsel of the Comptroller of the Currency, in a March 2005 speech that received little notice at the time.

A new academic paper, Bankruptcy Reform and Foreclosure, argues that the 2005 bankruptcy amendments are deepening the mortgage crisis. The article was written by David Bernstein, an economist at the U.S. Treasury who chose to post this analysis as private citizen listing only his home address and home e-mail address. Drawing on data from the Survey of Consumer Finance, he links credit card debt, access to bankruptcy, and mortgage foreclosures.

Using state public disclosure laws, BusinessWeek has obtained more than two dozen confidential contracts between major schools and card-issuing banks keen to sign up undergraduates with mounting expenses for tuition, books, and travel. In some instances, universities and alumni groups receive larger payments from the banks if students use their school-branded cards more frequently.

The growing financial alliance between schools and banks raises questions about whether universities are encouraging students to incur additional high-interest debt at a time when many young people graduate from college owing tens of thousands of dollars. Most undergraduates lack substantial income of their own and are especially vulnerable to late fees and other penalties if they fall behind on monthly payments.

In today’s conference meeting, U.S. PIRG urges the conferees to accept measures to: