Spin Dry

According to the Forbes 2000 list of the world's largest firms:

Citigroup was No. 1 overall on Forbes' (sic) list with a market value of $247.7 billion. General Electric, which controls NBC Universal, was No. 2 with $372.1 billion, and AIG was third with $174 billion.

That's Citigroup as in Citibank as in one of the largest credit card providers in the world.

In their own words:

Fourth Quarter Net Income Increases 12% to a Record $5.32 Billion
Fourth Quarter EPS [Earnings per Share] of $1.02, Up 12%
Revenues Increase 9% to $21.9 Billion
Citigroup 2004 Net Income of $17.0 Billion, EPS of $3.26
Revenues Increased 11% in 2004 to $86.2 Billion

In any other world, people who charge near 20% interest, set the terms to make it very difficult to pay off and then change the rules along the way to make it impossible to pay off would be called loan sharks.

Customer-inducing credit application bonus............................$ 200
Customer-inducing free iPod shuffle (wholesale).......................$  75
Marketing to lure the people in (millions)............................$  30
Bribing Congress to rewrite bankruptcy laws in your favor.............PRICELESS

For the little people, there's phone calls and letters and emails and petitions and getting ignored. For the credit cards companies, there's outright bribery.