Below, CreditCards.com has provided a side-by-side comparison of the pending credit card legislation.

WASHINGTON – The Senate has cleared the way for a final vote on prohibiting credit card companies from arbitrarily raising an individual’s interest rate and charging many of the exorbitant fees.

With the House on track to endorse the measure by week’s end, President Barack Obama could see a bill on his desk by the end of the week.

If Obama signs the bill as expected, the credit card industry in the next year would have to change the way it does business.

Lenders would have to post their credit card agreements on the Internet and let customers pay their bills online or by phone for free. They’d also have to give consumers a chance to spare themselves from over-the-limit fees and give them 45 days notice and an explanation before interest rates are increased.

RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina has paid out so much in unemployment benefits that it may have to borrow from the federal government as early as next week to keep benefits flowing, an official said.

Deputy commission chairman David Clegg said the unemployment insurance fund had dropped to little more than $16 million Monday because more people can’t find jobs, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Tuesday.
  
North Carolina has a $540 million credit line with the federal government. The state would have until October to repay the money without paying interest.
 
“We’re making the same type of decisions that any large corporation on this planet makes,” Clegg said. “You just have to make these decisions. This is not a time to get squeamish. You just forge ahead.”

The state paid $160 million in unemployment benefits in December.

North Carolina has nearly 400,000 unemployed workers. The jobless rate was 8.7 percent in December, the highest since 1983.
  
Clegg says not only are more people without jobs, but it’s taking them longer to find work.

State officials are processing $100 million in quarterly unemployment tax payments from about 200,000 businesses that will be used to pay benefits. Clegg said the state still may need to borrow from the federal credit line.

North Carolina last tapped the credit line in 2002.

If the state can’t repay the loan by fall, it would issue special tax anticipation notes to borrow money. Clegg said the state also will get more tax payments in April and July, noting that April usually is the largest.

Federal economic stimulus payments also may help the unemployment fund, he said

“I think they’re going to enhance unemployment insurance benefits because it’s the fastest way to get money into the economy,” Clegg said.

WASHINGTON – The head of the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday asked regulators to report frequently to the panel on their progress to improve fraud detection after their failure to discover the multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme allegedly hatched by disgraced financier Bernard Madoff.

At a hearing, Sen. Christopher Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who is the committee’s chairman, closely questioned the enforcement director of the Securities and Exchange Commission and another SEC official as well as the interim chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the securities industry’s self-policing organization.

“What’s happened here?” Dodd asked. He said he wanted action “very quickly in this area.” He asked the regulators to report every three months to the committee on improvements they were making.
  
Linda Thomsen, the SEC’s enforcement director, said the agency is committed to finding ways to bolster fraud detection after its breakdown in the Madoff case. While the agency needs to improve its internal processes for pursuing cases, she said the SEC also needs authority to regulate parts of the financial system that escape oversight and more funding to carry out more investigations.

“While we always do our utmost to do more with less, if we had more resources, we could clearly do more,” Thomsen testified at the hearing, which was Congress’ first opportunity to question federal regulators responsible for inspecting investment firms and taking enforcement action against fraud.

Lori Richards, who heads the SEC’s inspections office, said agency officials are thinking “expansively and creatively” about changes that could improve the detection of fraud.

But Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the banking panel’s senior Republican, said that generally in cases of failure, regulators’ natural reaction “is to cry lack of resources.”
 
The SEC has faced heavy criticism over its failure to discover the $50 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly run by Madoff, the prominent Wall Street figure and money manager now fallen into disgrace – despite credible allegations against him that were brought to the agency over the course of a decade. Against the backdrop of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, the SEC also is accused of contributing to that disaster with lax oversight of Wall Street and the markets. Lawmakers of both parties are calling for a shake-up of the agency to help restore investor confidence.

Also appearing before the banking panel Tuesday was Stephen Luparello, the interim chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the securities industry’s self-policing organization.
  
Dodd recently asked Mary Schapiro – President Barack Obama’s newly confirmed chairman of the SEC – about the failure of the industry regulatory organization to detect the alleged Madoff fraud in its inspections of his brokerage operation. Schapiro, who has led FINRA since 2006, said that the matter went undiscovered because the scheme was carried out through Madoff’s investment business and FINRA was empowered to inspect only the brokerage operation.

Christopher Cox, then the chairman of the SEC, last month pinned the blame on the agency’s career staff for the failure since at least 1999 to detect what Madoff was doing. He ordered the SEC’s inspector general, H. David Kotz, to determine what went wrong. Kotz told a House hearing recently that he was expanding the inquiry to examine the operations of the divisions led by Thomsen, who has been the enforcement chief since mid-2005, and Richards, who has held that position since mid-1995.
 
Kotz has also been examining the relationship between a former SEC attorney, Eric Swanson, and Madoff’s niece, Shana, who are now married. As an SEC attorney, Swanson was part of a team that examined Madoff’s brokerage operation in 1999 and 2004. Neither review resulted in any action against Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market who was a member of SEC advisory committees.
  
Lawmakers say Madoff’s alleged fraud, which caused massive damage to investors large and small around the world and may be the largest pyramid scam in history, reflects deep, systemic problems at the SEC.

Six weeks after Madoff’s arrest in New York, thousands of victims who lost money investing with him have been identified – including ordinary people and Hollywood celebrities – as well as big hedge funds, international banks and charities in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

WASHINGTON – John McCain’s health plan would reduce the ranks of the uninsured by about 21.1 million people if fully implemented by 2010, while Barack Obama’s would reduce the number by 26.6 million, a new analysis predicts.

Some previous reviews of the two presidential candidates’ health plans indicated that Republican McCain’s proposals would amount to little more than a wash when it comes to the number of uninsured in the United States, now at about 45 million. However, The Lewin Group, a consulting firm, drew a more optimistic scenario about the overall number of people who would get health coverage under McCain’s plan.

The cost for both candidates’ plans are enormous. McCain’s plan was projected to cost more than $2 trillion from 2010 through 2019. Democrat Obama’s plan would cost $1.17 trillion. Neither candidate provides specifics on how to cover the costs, The Lewin Group said.
 
The firm released its analysis Wednesday.

McCain has proposed two distinct changes to the current system. The first is a tax credit of $2,500 for individuals or $5,000 for a family that buys health insurance. The credit would replace the tax break people now get for obtaining health coverage through their work. Second, McCain calls for letting people shop across state lines when buying insurance, essentially letting millions bypass states where insurance is more expensive and comprehensive.
 
The Lewin Group agreed that many workers would lose their employer-sponsored health coverage under McCain’s plan. That’s because some firms would discontinue coverage if most of their workers can use the tax credit to get coverage elsewhere. In all, about 16 million would lose coverage, the firm said.

However, some firms would begin offering health insurance for the first time, partially offsetting those losses. In particular, firms with younger workers would benefit from McCain’s proposal to let them shop across state lines, said John Sheils, the firms’ senior vice president. They would find that lower premiums made it possible to offer a health insurance benefit.

Also, nearly 24 million people would use the tax credits McCain has proposed to buy coverage directly from insurers through the individual market.

About half of the nation’s uninsured adults are ages 19-34. They are the youngest and cheapest to cover, and they are the ones that would generally gain coverage under McCain’s proposal, Sheils said.

“The people who are sick are going to have a lot of trouble affording coverage, even with the credit,” Sheils said.

Sheils said Obama’s plan is friendlier to those with chronic health conditions. It will cover about half of the uninsured with chronic conditions, such as diabetes. Meanwhile, McCain’s plan will cover about a quarter of the uninsured with a chronic condition.

Obama’s plan would expand health insurance coverage through public programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. He requires all children to have health coverage. In all, about 16 million people would gain coverage through those programs. Another 10 million would use government subsidies to buy insurance coverage.