Last time I looked, American Express was not a bank. They were a credit card company like VISA and MasterCard. However, unlike its revolving debt counterparts, when AMEX gave you plastic and you racked up debt, you had to pay-off each month. Because of this, American Express was a great card to give your college-bound teenager. It was a lesson in fiscal responsibility and living within your means.
Those days, like so many other fine things here in America, are gone. Now, AMEX is a bank.
The Bank of AMEX
The change is not precisely unexpected. We live in perilous times with the government pumping out money at an unprecedented rate to “bail out” Wall Street, AIG, banks, the automakers, the mortgage market, so on and so forth. They say the next wave in the money-tide will cover credit card debt gone bad. American Express couldn't wait for the next crap sandwich of economic largess to be pushed down the taxpayers' throats, they wanted a bite from that or...
By Charles M Cooper ยท November 11 2008
small business, american express, bank, bailout
