September 23, 2005
MarkBernstein.org
 

What happened to those debit cards?

Remember those $2000 debit cards that everyone in New Orleans was going to get? And then they were going to get direct deposit payments instead?

Many poor people don't have bank accounts: what happens to them?

$2000 a person is hundreds of millions of dollars. Who appropriated this? What's the rationale? Just wondering...

And what was the debit card idea, anyway? Did the issuing banks get a windfall for servicing the cards? 1.5% of a hundred million dollars is real money; who got lucky?