Your Bank Is Ripping You Off

Your bank is your enemy, charges former Illinois banker Mrkvicka in this well-documented, convincing expose. He begins by pointing out that the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 violates the Constitution by giving ""the power to regulate money to a handful of unelected private bankers."" He excoriates the so-called prime rate as price fixing, and he labels bank deregulation a sham. As currently configured, he argues, banks exist principally to extract as much money as possible from their customers, with exorbitant interest rates on loans, pressure to encourage credit-card borrowing, outlandishly prolonged holds on checks deposited in checking and savings accounts and inflated charges for overdrafts. Worst of all, according to Mrkvicka, banks are shielded from lawsuits by federal regulations. Lest it be thought that the author is a radical, he stresses that he is a free-market conservative who believes there is nothing free-market about the banking business. (Mar.)