The Tell
There is a long history of detecting deception by finding the key inconsistency in what someone says. Sherlock Holmes may be the most prolific such detector in literature. For example, in “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” Holmes realizes that the perpetrator’s actions belied his words.
The latest example from the bank lobby is their overwrought protestations that adding the Marshall-Durbin Amendment (the Credit Card Competition Act) to the GENIUS Act would be a “poison pill” sinking the GENIUS Act.
Of course, that is nonsense. The Marshall-Durbin Amendment will only be added to the GENIUS Act if it gets 60 votes in the Senate. And the amendment has broad bipartisan support and is backed by a broad stakeholder coalition including business, labor, consumer, Native American tribes, military stores and pro-competition groups. If anything, it will bring more votes to GENIUS and almost no one supporting GENIUS would change their vote with the Amendment in it.
So, what is the tell that bankers aren’t telling the truth?
Well, bankers have opposed and tried to undermine the GENIUS Act.
If they actually thought the Amendment was a “poison pill” then they would welcome it being added to the bill because it would help them kill the GENIUS Act. But, they know it isn’t true so they fight against the Amendment while also fighting against GENIUS.
By contrast, the Merchants Payments Coalition has endorsed the GENIUS Act.
So, the bankers would have you believe that they, as opponents of the GENIUS Act, have its best interests at heart and want to avoid a “poison pill,” while Main Street businesses, who support the GENIUS Act, are trying to kill it by adding a “poison pill.”
Talk about a tell.
It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out the bankers are playing games with the truth.
COMPETITION IS BETTER FOR EVERYONE
IT'S TIME TO PASS THE MARSHALL-DURBIN AMENDMENT