[RobertoG]

I don't think he is missing it, it's kind of the point of what is saying: the price is disconnected of the cost, it's a function of the money available to the customers who are, also, a captive market.

In standard economic teaching, Is not this what happens when there is a cartel acting?

[cjmb]

Hey, OP of the article here, didn't realize someone submitted it here too!

Yeah, this is exactly a rephrasing of the point I was trying to get across.

[phkahler]

Toward the end you said because you paid off your loans in 2 years instead of 10 that they didn't charge enough. I understand that seems to be how they think, but it's just not right. That's the problem.

It reminds me of when I realized that banks have an interest in balancing income from issuing more loans with default rates. Someone responded who was close enough to banking to say that they were aiming for about a 7 percent default rate as optimal. In other words, lower lending standards until you're at that rate for optimal profit. These forces are obviously financially good for the institution, but bad for the public. We need to find a way to fix that and the only thing I can think of is educating people on how they are getting screwed so they can make their own judgements on when to participate in such games.