qotd (quote of the day)

And todays "Quote of the Day" segment is brought to you by the tomato growers association.

Ever since the banks raised many of their fees last month, there has been a debate going on about whether to, and how to, legislate the banking fees. The banks are pulling in record profits and they keep raising their rates for everything. In a free market, a bank could take the chance on raising its rates. A competing bank might lower some of its rates. The competing bank might pick up some business from disgruntled customers of the bank that raised its rates.

In Israel it does not work like that. There is a certain amount of collusion among the banks, so there is no free market and no real competition. As soon as one bank announces it is raising its rates, the others all fall in line and raise their rates as well.

The debate is still raging and nobody knows how it will turn out.

In the meantime the quote of the day comes from MK Yaakov Cohen of the UTJ party. He said, "God in His benevolence set it up that we purchase our tomatoes at the fruit and vegetable store and not at a bank. If we had to purchase them in a bank, we would pay fees for weighing the tomato, for bagging the tomato, for the right to select a tomato, etc."