Originally Posted by Marathon Man

The NPR and now Yahoo articles may kill this. I do hope I am very wrong.

Sadly, there are always going to be those out there (and in here) who say that thoughtless phrase: "well, it worked for a while and something else will come up so it's no big deal!"

And some already think that since it ran in WSJ years ago and did not die, that it will not die now. But yeah, I think it will. I think this because now the pressure is on the mint PR-wise. It all LOOKS bad now and that is what matters most to people/companies these days.

The way I see it is:

• reporters who put together this story deem it as unethical, etc.
• they then weave that opinion into a story of facts (wrong in my opinion but what do I know)
• their doing this now nudges the mint, the banks and the credit cards to change rules
• this closes or sharply reduces the gig
• and if it shuts down, these reporters can say, "see? we DID expose something we thought was wrong! We are great!"
• because for some (especially for some reporters) it's all about notoriety.