President Obama to meet with credit card execs

Capitol Hill will witness a showdown of sorts today, as President Obama rides in on his white horse to face the black-capped bad guys from the credit card companies. This showdown will center on how to protect consumers in the current economic downturn. President Obama is pushing for legal protection for the millions of Americans using credit cards, which some of his aides have labeled as abusive. Joining the President on the Hill will be executives from Bank of America, American Express, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, Visa, and MasterCard.

Obama wants to make sure that consumers are protected from rates increasing "exponentially on a certain day based on fine print in a contract that no one is ever going to read." Today's showdown is set for 1 PM EST and comes a day after the House passed the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights. This legislation aims to stop credit card issuers from imposing interest rate increases and penalties.