Credit, where it is due

BusinessWeek:

[Credit card] companies have already rethought [interest] rates. Under the new law, issuers can't raise them without 45 days' notice. But there's a loophole: The rules don't apply to variable-rate cards, with rates that float up and down. That's why companies are moving more consumers into such cards, whose rates are likely to soar from their record lows.
...
C.D. Reimer of San Jose was switched to a variable card last month. At the same time the issuer, Barclaycards, upped his rate to 26.99% from around 16%. Reimer could have canceled the account. But the 40-year-old was laid off from his software support job and depends on plastic. Barclaycards declined to comment. 

I'll tell you what: Capitalism today really puts the "dick" back in Dickens!