Gourmet magazine is closing its pages in November. Conde Nast made this decision (due to lagging advertising sales), to the surprise of Ruth Reichl, Gourmet’s Editor in Chief. It is unfortunate because of Gourmet’s long history (it was started in 1941), and Ms. Reichl’s vision and brilliance in running the magazine. Gourmet’s closing came as a surprise to its subscribers as well. Prior to this decision, subscribers received numerous, and increasingly aggressive, offers to renew their subscriptions.

In perhaps a similar case of desperation, credit card companies and banks with outstanding loans, have dramatically increased the number and frequency of phone calls to those with outstanding credit. Just as unemployment is not a good indicator of the end of a recession, delinquency in paying credit cards is often a harbinger for a coming recession.

These creditors, who aggressively pushed their products on people whose credit did not warrant holding such cards, now find themselves in the position of hounding their customers for even minimal payments.

Gourmet magazine’s closing is a result of a slow economy and a lack of advertising dollars. The difficulty in which credit card companies find themselves, is due to their actions solely. Setting increasingly high interest rates, charging hidden fees at the smallest provocations, and disseminating their products willy-nilly, has led them to hire phone banks to contact customers around the clock.

Just as pushing the button for the elevator many times doesn’t make it come faster, calling a debt-holder many times a week does not mean they will have extra money to pay a bill that never decreases.

The most difficult part of this to swallow, are the salaries and bonuses the presidents and CEO’s of these banks receive. Some of these companies exist because we, the taxpayers, bailed them out as part of Toxic Asset Relief Program (TARP). The very people who have jobs due to our money, are making policy decisions about our credit cards that force us to give them more money. They then use that money to line their personal pockets.

Should it take action by President Obama to limit salaries and bonuses of TARP recipients? Shouldn’t those of us who are immediately affected by their decisions be credited? The loss of Gourmet is regrettable. The loss of our money is a crime.