The White House could be planning to start charging banks new fees as a way to trim the deficit, get paid back for the bailout, and teach bankers a lesson they hasn’t sunk in yet. What?! A fee on banks? You’re crazy. Only banks are allowed to make up fees.

“The president has made a commitment to the American people that he will recoup their investment in the financial industry,” a senior administration official told Politico.

The plan is to make it a fee that can’t be easily passed on to customers, so it can’t be one that’s based on customer behavior, like deposits and withdrawals.

If banks start charging yet more new fees, then the government can just make a new rule that for every new fee the bank comes up with, Obama hits him with another fee. And another and another until they get the message that you’re not allowed to make so much money anymore. We’ll just call it a fee fee.

Forget it. It will never work. The banks will always figure out a way to pass it on to customers. Years ago, they decided a golden profit ratio per customer and it can never be messed with.

Bankers to pay fee for bailout [Politico]

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