Bush's Economy: Unpaid credit card bills are on rise!
By John Amato Sunday Dec 23, 2007 8:31pmWhat a shock... The very wealthy 1% are buying villas instead of mansions while many Americans live off their credit cards.
Americans are falling behind on their credit card payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults surging by double-digit percentages in the last year and prompting warnings of worse to come. An Associated Press analysis of financial data from the country's largest card issuers also found that the greatest rise was among accounts more than 90 days in arrears.
Experts say these signs of the deterioration of finances of many households are partly a byproduct of the subprime mortgage crisis and could spell more trouble ahead for an already sputtering economy.
Seems like the credit card industry used a crystal ball to write that nasty Bankruptcy bill. Actually it was just a little common sense.
Login or Register to post comments.
Those fucking rich people! All they do is make us slaves to their whim. If only we could force their wealth to be redistributed amongst the working class!
If you want to read an excellent essay about this very topic go to:
http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/2007/12/merry_christma...
well, it took me a little more than 3 years, but i payed off all my credit cards and have begun rebuilding the credit that i destroyed (and yes, i take responsibility for my idiocy, even though i fell pray to some unsavory credit practices)
but surprise...now you cant declare bankruptcy, thanks to the former repug congress and a few choice dems
the middle class will be bled dry and will all end up in debtors prisons before this is through
scrooge has come to america
There is no doubt about it, this country's debt is being paid for by foreign corporations and governments who are buying us out at bargain basement prices. I guess that is what happens when our prick head of a President and his sycophants in Congress are willing to sell out our children by going to war and cutting taxes. Sheeesh.
This is a temporary phenomenon.
Wednesday, National Gift Return Day, will see credit balances fall as returns are credited to accounts, and within a month, the unpaid balance amount should drop to, on average, only three times the national average income, which will be a giant improvement over where it is now.
Unless of course, the unfortunate holders of mortgages whose payments have doubled this Christmas day, decide to float their increased mortgage payments on their credit cards.
FLASH! Per CNN, latest Iowa poll, December 20-23, has Hillary at 34%, Obama at 19%, Edwards at 20%.
Bet the Clinton's will rack up some bills on their credit cards tonight.
site monitor: What's a 'draft'?
Our nations largest mortgage brokers are claiming bankruptcy because of their own practices in greed. Now the credit cards are coming due and can't be paid. What a wonderful world. We new it would all come to a head but hoping it would be later than sooner. Actually it was them hoping. This will make it so much easier for the Dems in 2008. But I wouldn't want be the ones to bear the responsibility. Who in their right mind would want to run for POTUS knowing they would have to clean up this mess and not get blamed for it? Let a conservative win the White House, so he can have GW Bush's legacy as the worse president in history. What's another four more years? I know, but you know who will get blamed.
AnimalFarm @ 1:
Animal Farm thinks they are being funny.
Yup, I laugh my ass off when I hear about somebody who loses their job because the CEO who makes over 10 million times an employee's average pay, decides it is best that the job be shipped overseas so that employee can not only lose their job, but also their health insurance and their home. It is a side splitter alright.
My latest post wouldn't take for several tries, with the message,
'You cannot post on a draft'
What's a 'draft'?
I suspect many of C&L's servers and hard drives are out celebrating the holiday.
Preacher Boob @ 9:
I had the same thing. It is a perfect pun for this thread.
What about paid credit card bills?
If they're rising as fast, or faster, than unpaid credit card bills, there may not be a problem.
oncall @ 11:
Thanx. Glad to hear it. I was getting paranoid, which is an inappropriate mood for Christmas. Although, come to think of it, with Huckabee surging................
We're all pretty much the same in this country.
I bought a Villa on my credit card.
But I had a bit of bad luck.
Before I had it paid off, my damned dog sat on it and crushed it.
A bit off-topic, but a wonderful bit of Christmas irony.
BBC announced that an Italian cement company was moving out of Sicily because of extortion threats from the Mafia.
Hope to hell they had the sense to get out of town before they delivered that last mixer load of cement the Godfather ordered.
When chimpy brags about how good the economy is I was calling him a stinkin liar. he also told US citizens to go shopping. Terrible!
Damn straight the credit cards paid for the change in bankruptcy laws. One becomes an indentured slave to the plastic.
I always see people using their credit card for food.
It's more of chimpy's backward ass policies.
No matter how many Hooverist tent citydom stories break Larry Kudlow of CNBC has "goldylocks economy" and "greatest story never told" chyrons
Everyone has their own way of preparing for the coming financial crash.
A friend of mind has a unique approach. He's taking every opportunity to fly everywhere he can, charging his tickets to various credit cards. He figures when the recession hits, he's gonna have a ton of frequent-flyer miles, and he hopes to spend the depression flying all over the world, subsisting on packets of crackers and nuts, observing the bread lines from 30,000 feet.
Again, because it was deleted by C&L censors, the great Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson had died. Is it because he isn't American that his death wasn't noted on this site? Or is it because John Amato doesn't understand Jazz?
Canuknotusa @ 19:
rip oscar...he was brilliant
oh, and can someone explain how the liberal media talked all those well off people to default on their credit cards....cuz we all know that the economy is great...the chimp told me so
Buy First Floor & Get Second Floor Free!!
http://tinyurl.com/2azo8v
With the paucity of Railroad lines in the country today, I wonder if the coming Hobo camps will be clustered around LAX, O'Hare, Reagan National, and Miami-Dade?
It'll be kind of neat to see ex-CEO's cooking beans-in-the-can over an open fire, as your Airbus 380 from London settles in on the final approach to Washington.
The acknowledgment by the media that credit card delinquencies are skyrocketing is way past due. It has actually been happening for quite some time now. The mortgage crisis is not the culprit but just part of the problem. The actual problem is the failed bush administration policies. This administration has been a total disaster.
Many Americans still have the same credit cards as they had in the 90's when the economy was good and paid them off when they were used. In the past 7 years, they have become more reliant on those credit cards for use in last choice desperation to make their rent, house payment, buy groceries, pay medical bills etc..The wingers that will try to say that it's because Americans are buying things that they don't need but what would you do if you had no other choice if you had no food, couldn't pay the rent or house payment, had a child that had to go to the doctor but you couldn't come up with the money for the astronomical bill or simply couldn't afford the gas to get to work and back (if you're lucky enough to still have a job)? The entire credit problem is the direct result of an economy that is swirling down the toilet. The Bush administration has dramatically cut financial support for states, local municipalities and for American infrastructure in which cities and states have increased fees and taxes for services that are still rapidly deteriorating. Let's list some of the other contributors to this economic crisis..skyrocketing energy costs, gas costs, Health insurance costs, prescription drug costs, rent, the incentives for corporations to outsource American jobs, NAFTA (yes I know Clinton unfortunately signed it but George H.W. Bush was the original author) and illegal immigrant "slave" labor lowering wages of what used to be decent paying jobs. Those are just some of the causes of our collapsing economy. Open your eyes and look at the big picture.
Ah, the ownership society... feeling completely owned yet?!?
Of course the response to just seems to be "let's raise the interest rates!". I've had cards literally double in interest or more seemingly out of nowhere. In the past some cards would be willing to work with you if you threatened dumping them, but now they just won't even bother anymore.
It looks as though, once again, this year, all us C&L posters will have to put up with a little disappointment.
But we can keep hoping, and maybe next year, things will be different.
Just think, maybe next year we'll all get an invitation to stop by the Amato Villa for a few moments, on Christmas eve, for a bit of Christmas cheer, and a chance to wassail.
Perhaps if we all offer to wear pocketless clothes, he'll trust us to visit his Villa.
How is this Bush's fault?? Some guy spent more money than he had so now its a bad economy? No, he's just an idiot!
Ofcourse the Libs want to give em a pay raise, they will just spend that to!!! Don't you get it, they can't handle there money, its that simple, giving them more than they rate is not going to help!
Wonder why Hillary didn't vote yea or nay on the bill?
Not to worry, the answer to all ills is to spend more money... in the immortal words of GWBush after 9/11: "Don't worry, go shopping." Don't worry about the credit card debt, we'll just get China to cover it like our national debt... it's called arbitrage, people... sheesh... what is the problem.
John @ 27:
Yes.
If a lot of people spent more than they had or borrowed for houses they couldn't afford and are now in trouble, it's a bad for the economy.
Why are you having trouble with that concept?
Where did you learn that massive loan defaults were good for the economy?
Back in the 1970s, there was usury limits that limited the amount of interest that could be charged on a loan. During the inflation of the late 1970s, those limits were lifted. Now, if a borrower goes into default, the interest rate balloons, while recent legislation prevents some borrowers from declaring bankruptcy. It amounts to legalized loansharking, again pointing how this government of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation are working against the working class of people. The usury limits were never reinstated when the inflation abated.
The sub-prime mortgage problem has exacerbated the problem, because home equity loans were a bailout to high credit card balances. Now, with declining home prices, no one wants to make a loan that relies on the real estate appreciating.
Seems to me the bubble in the real estate market was caused by these sub prime loans being bundled into securities graded AAA and sold to unwitting investors. Without a market to dump these loans onto, loans of this type (where the borrower is given a period of interest only payment while he figures out how to pay the principle), loans of these types would have been curtailed. There MAY have been some fraud in the grading of the securities that included these types of loans. Of course, the corporate media is telling us to forget how we got into this mess, and focus on a federal bailout of these securities. I think there should be an investigation on whether fraud happened in creating a secondary market for sub prime loans.
In the late 1990s, the Nasdaq bubble was unfolding, where we were told that it was a "new economy" where "earnings didn't matter". In some cases, supposedly, revenues didn't matter. Like any bubble, it came to an end when earnings did indeed matter.
Now, we're being told that debt doesn't matter. Dick Cheney specifically points to the Reagan administration proving that national debt doesn't matter. Well, it may be manageable so long as the economy is growing faster than the national debt, but I don't think that is the case. There has been a borrowing binge on the Federal level, the corporate level, and on the citizen level and common sense tells us it can't carry on forever.
I think the issue facing the economy is a general debt problem, and not simply a sub prime issue. The bill for all the borrowing is in the mail. Of course, it does achieve one of the Republican's objective, which is to stick the nation in such a hole that the Social Security IOUs can't be repaid. That is the crux of Social Security reform, you know, the issue on which all of the candidates for President are sticking their heads in the sand about.
John @ 27:
why do all wingnuts not see reality?
hey dumbfuck...if your neighbor cant pay the bills, it doesnt affect you??
if people cannot pay for goods and services, it affects the maker of those goods and services...which affects the employees of that manufacturer...and then those employees cant buy goods and services or pay their bills either...and then finally it comes down to you...when you get shit canned from your job at mickey d's
the fact that bush is hoover redux escapes all you shits
and yes...killing the ability to declare bankruptcy, pushing for more globalization and outsourcing, opening our borders wide to cheap and illegal labor, and wasting billions on an illegal and immoral war is indeed the chimps fault
have a merry fucking christmas...now run back to redstate and tell them how all us libs are rude fucks
you make me puke
NoBuddy @ 31:
ya, the basic goal of reagan, which may indeed be achieved by bush was to go after and rip to shreds every new deal program
hope i die before i get old
I have created two websites that identify, explain and offer solutions to two of the biggest scams as they relate to credit card billing.
http://www.credit-card-cap.com
http://www.credit-protector.com
I have been researching this topic for the past couple of months and this website seems to have the most passionate group that I have come across.
The current bankruptcy law is amazingly short-sighted. But this is no surprise in an economic world of immediate gain. Creditors gain from the inability of the indebted consumer to find relief from perpetual debt. It's windfall cash. However, a point is reached where there is no more to wring out from those who default on loans. The creditors are then stuck without payments and/or acquire assets they cannot convert. This has a downwardly spiralling effect upon the economy in the long-term. Everybody is negatively impacted except those who never intended a long-term commitment. And that is the Bush Economic Doctrine--the fast f**k. A few cronies will always ride whatever waves pass.
Typical low-life hypocrites in Washington. They turn this country into the biggest debtor nation on the face of the Earth and they have the gall to point their twisted fingers at the little person to reprimand and punish them for their measly debts, many of which have been forced on those people though the psychotic government/corporate policies of the last 7 years. When will the pricks in Washington be forced to fork over assets and go though 2 sessions of "credit counseling"? The dumb asses have made us China's bitch.
Speaking of the bankruptcy bill, how many of the Democratic senators voted for it (Sen. Biden)?
Paul @ 37:
List of traitors here:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0312-03.htm
someone said once "the parasite gets fat before it explodes"
and so the argument goes:
The Bush Regime’s ability to wage war is dependent upon foreign financing. The Regime’s wars are financed with red ink, which means the hundreds of billions of dollars must be borrowed. As American consumers are spending more than they earn on consumption, the money cannot be borrowed from Americans.
The US is totally dependent upon foreigners to finance its budget and trade deficits. By financing these deficits, foreign governments are complicit in the Bush Regime’s military aggressions and war crimes. The Bush Regime’s two largest lenders are China and Japan. It is ironic that Japan, the only nation to experience nuclear attack by the US, is banker to the Bush Regime as it prepares a possible nuclear attack on Iran.
If the rest of the world would simply stop purchasing US Treasuries, and instead dump their surplus dollars into the foreign exchange market, the Bush Regime would be overwhelmed with economic crisis and unable to wage war. The arrogant hubris associated with the “sole superpower” myth would burst like the bubble it is.
The collapse of the dollar would also end the US government’s ability to subvert other countries by purchasing their leaders to do America’s will.
The demise of the US dollar is only a question of time. It would save the world from war and devastation if the dollar is brought to its demise before the Bush Regime launches its planned attack on Iran.
In the end, people will NOT dump the US dollar. The reason is simple: the other major economies of the world are on an even more unstable footing than the USA.
People forget that the equities market in China is over US$1 trillion in debt, and the economies of France and Germany are not much far behind. In fact, what will likely cause a worldwide recession is the collapse of the Chinese economy from its excessive debt load.
Good stuff Preacher Boob.
In my short lifetime (I'm 47), I think the USA (gov't and private) has spent enough money for about 3 generations worth of Americans. Something's gotta give. What happens when China doesn't OK the next loan? Scary thought.
the free market will work it out in the end. everybody gets gang raped except the top 1%.
John @ 27:
You really don't get it , do you?............................. On second thought: You wouldn't understand it if I spelled it out for you.
What if everyone stopped paying their bills all at the same time? It would sure send a big fat message to the banks who are raping and pillaging the world.
I don't know about you but I'm sick of Credit companies suddenly changing their terms on a whim simply because they can.
I vote we burn all our credit cards like people did their bras and draft cards in the 60's.
John @ 27:
Let's stop giving the government money then. They've proven they can't handle money either. If we give them more they'll just spend that to!
I wonder, though I don't necessarily think this will be the case, what will happen when a significant portion of the borrowers simply cannot make good on their loan? If 30 some odd percent of the borrowers in the US defaulted completely, what will the banks/loan companies do with that red ink? The BBC has run a couple of stories in the last few months about the subprime bubble, with the most recent, here, stating that some of the larger banks involved have decided they no longer need to be 'propped up' by the proposed dump of $75 billion into the debt because 'they don't believe there's a danger of panic sales or runs on the banks involved.' I think, reasonably, that we're looking at 20 percent total default on those loans (not just housing, but also credit cards.) The current rate listed, here, is something in the neighborhood of nine percent, but I think this rate applies far more to the default on aggregate funds than I do specific borrowers. (*feels dirty having read anything on the IMF's website*) I think the combined rate on homes and credit cards (and the companies which handle these are frequently the same) is closer to double that. I would like to see that number approach 40 percent, but 20 percent is enough to sting.
The question is, as Dave put it, if enough people go into total default, will the banks be forced to bend with the times, or will they change the laws a little further and start sending people to your work to make sure your wage is garnished and everyone knows about it? Because the people at those banks who are making those decisions are obviously looking at the devaluation of the dollar, the oncoming loss of homes and the rising cost of living (see both links) very differently than I do. John @ 27, in a view which seems prevalent in a fairly good percentage of the economics blogs I've been tracking/lurking on (yay, the Chicago School strikes again; they run on raw denial, don't they). To wit, the assumption seems to often be that the poor are using that credit for extravagant purchases. Oddly, as this article suggests, a good percentage of that debt is actually living expenses, not the brand new Jacuzzi us poor people (I make about ten thousand dollars a year, so I qualify) are all apparently buying.
Maybe I'm strange, but it seems to me like if people are needing to use credit cards for groceries and rent, there is something wrong with how much they're being paid. In a sane economic environment, the idea is to insure that the people who are buying your product can continue to buy your product, which usually takes the form of 'sales', a slight reduction in the outrageous mark-up on most items (I worked a clothing store one year and got a chance to read the invoices. We were selling t shirts and sweatshirts (let alone pants, socks, etc) at a six hundred percent mark-up. They were paying most of us minimum wage, or $5.75, no benefits. And since this was a University Book Store, we were paying our own salaries through work-study grants, so they were not paying the vast majority of labor. You could not get hired there as anything under managment unless yo uwere work-study.)
If no one can buy your goods, you can blame them all you like for being not good enough, but you still take the hit. And they resent you for being ushered into a poker game that asks them to gamble with their cards facing the table with players who can randomly take their cards. I'm about to go all ancedotal on this; after fourteen years in the work-force, in mostly entry level jobs, I've seen a lot of people working 35+ hours a week (as close to full time without having to pay insurance or overtime as possible; I've gotten my managers drunk specifically to ask if they were paid a bonus if they under-scheduled people. After all, none of us are supposed to ask what anyone else is paid. The answer is a resounding 'yes.') who could not afford what we consider basic 'rights' when you have a job. You know, more than 75 square foot per person in a home, groceries more interesting than beans and rice, working plumbing.
The subprime ugliness is being overwhelmingly blamed on hedge funds, which is the practice of betting money on the failure or devaluation of a loan. These damn things are traded between professional investors or truly wealthy private investors who can afford to speculate on debt and undercut smaller investors and, of course, the original debtor. This is exactly the kind of system that basically crushes the fuck out of the poor. They aren't just being counted on to provide a lot of equity that does not have to be accounted for because the World Bank cannot get its member banks to agree to being audited and to consistent standards of audit. The poor are also being counted on to fail; because the private and by definition, secret (the ability to invest in a hedge fund is by invitation only) investors make a profit when they do. And since this list includes people who own a lot of property (I conjecture, since the names of the investors are guarded), what are the odds that they might be manipulating the companies they own to insure their continued profit. The Fed certainly thinks so.
I believe the phrase 'insider trading' applies here.
In any case, I'd love to see some of these scumbags (my apologies to scumbags, everywhere) get hit in the wallet for this one. If the Fed is sane, they'll get a move on the investigation (which will likely involve physically occupying the offices of the banks; but what an excellent use of search and seizure and eminent domain!) and start leveraging honking fines to apply to the national debt. These guys are so dirty I had to hold my nose while investigating, as is the whole stinking credit bubble. I'm not sure everyone knew what was going down (there are a lot of non-disclosure and arbitration agreements floating around as a part of being employed), but it becomes more and more plain at a very public level that these scumbags have been gambling with our lives.
Or at least, that's what I'd call betting that my debt (mostly medical bills, student loans and groceries) will fail, which leaves me with no groceries, no utilities and no place to sleep. Which has happened while I've been in grad school, in the last two years.
Play poker with this, bitches. *shakes her sleep-deprived fist in general direction of local financial district*
NiceNCool1 @ 46:
Before anyone pays another dime to the IRS they should look into the legality of income-tax. Find one law that says you have to pay income tax first, then pay.
The situation is only going to get worse. How much Christmas spending was done on credit by folks that can hardly pay the minimum every month? But the government is doing the same thing. We have over 9 trillion in debt that the government isn't even making the minimum payment on with no hope of ever paying off. How much does it cost to just service this debt every year?
The maddening thing is why is this not being addressed in the presidential debates? How about some questions about the debt, the true inflation rate, or the devaluation of the dollar? Maybe those topics rather than "Do you believe in UFOs?" or "Diamonds or pearls?" Maybe this country just gets the leadership it deserves.
Yes, and thank god so many democrats voted for the Bushist 'Bankruptcy Bill'. Another in a long, too long list of Bushist sellouts...
We (at every level of American society) have been placing short-term gain above long term sustainability for so long that we don't even realize it anymore.
It explains our willingness to off-shore labor/manufacturing to China; didn't that look nice when the stock market was going up, up, up, and away?
It explains our willingness to buy homes we cannot really afford, or refinance our current home to take that vacation we've always dreamed of.
It explains our willingness to buy the newest, coolest TV now and on credit.
And it has convinced many members of the middle class that they are now part of the upper class; le petit bourgeois has grown fat on portfolios and bubbling home prices.
The profits of doom...when did Americans become convinced that liquidity was the same as wealth? And when did we decide that the NYSE generates wealth? It converts wealth into monetary liquidity and transfers that wealth to others, who believe they are growing rich...until a bad day comes along. That's all it takes for the wealth on paper to flutter away, leaving those who thought they were rich to chase it down the windblown street.
The Economist is predicting recession for '08. Pray tell, how does a consumer/service economy dig itself out of recession? The banking system is in crises mode, writing down losses left and right. CC debt has gotten bundled in derivatives just like the sub-prime mortgages. Central bank fixes are pretty well limited to cash injections, which only compounds the problem of the falling dollar.
This may well be how it all comes crashing down around us...at least one government agency is commissioning sociological statisticians to figure out how many people rural America can absorb in the event of an urban exodus (a family friend is one such sociologist).
And don't forget that farmers are simply crossing their fingers that the bee populations will make it through the '08 pollination season; we only just squeaked through '07.
Merry Christmas, may you live in interesting times.
Libs, I never said that it was good for the economy for these people to be in debt you guys want to blame bush. Its not his fault people are dumb..
Edwin @ 41:
Gratzie.
So does this mean more re-possessed houses and more homeless people fighting over large empty boxes for shelter?
It's not MY fault that Bush is an idiot either, and I didn't vote for the asshole.
Look at it this way, You make a reasonable salary... Then Your washer machine breaks, you need a new washer. But ah!.Your son got hit by a car, and all of a sudden the hospital saddles you with a deductable payment due, and a bill for non covered services. Thankfully, he recovers, but expensive therapies are needed, which means time off from work getting to appointments, excessive communting, Then you gas up your car at 3.25 a gallon, OH and your heating oil is not much cheaper either......
You do what you can to cope.. You may need to dip into credit to make it through. Then other circumstances come about, and you may be forced to dip into it again. You might even work a second job and STILL aren't getting ahead.
Think of the parents that depend on credit to send kids to college.
These are the people getting squeezed. Wingnuts have even no compassion for those who try their hardest, and still can't get ahead. and then fall behind in credit.
It's call "Survival", Someone needs to teach these wingnuts, they themselves may be a paycheck or two away from a money crisis. Surviving in a world they don't really have much control over. The Sean Hannitys of the world will preach "You live in the greatest country in the world, you can be whatever you want to be".. And this is in fact, true...But it it isn't easy, and takes less skill than it does "luck". If anything, this is a feel good statement that really says "You're on your own, Pal".
Notice to those that use autopay for your credit card, watch it like a hawk. If they raise the minimum payment on your, autopay may not catch on to it, you get stuck with the penalty, and an automatic interest rate increase. Nice isn't it?
So then I ask, John..."Whos side are you on anyway"?
...when did we decide that the NYSE generates wealth? It converts wealth into monetary liquidity and transfers that wealth to others, who believe they are growing rich…until a bad day comes along. That’s all it takes for the wealth on paper to flutter away, leaving those who thought they were rich to chase it down the windblown street.
For what it's worth, most folks round out their portfolios with bonds. Few can stomach the ups and downs of 100% stocks.
That said, some bond funds are infected with bad mortgages, so you're right to be wary.
AnimalFarm @ 1:
That would require a communist revolution.
You know, I think "John" unwittingly brought up the great unspoken truth - that roughly half the people in this fine country *ARE* stupid. Imho, it's always been the duty of the body politic to protect these nimrods from themselves, that's why we have laws and regulations and streetsigns, to keep the stupid from doing stupid things.
When the Raygunites and free-market jihadists were finally able to undo or emasculate government regulation and regulators, we've seen what happens, the little guys take it in the shorts. Same thing here. Duh gee, who would think that people buying houses that they couldn't afford (but deregulation allowed) or lending restrictions and requirements are dropped or ignored would lead to trouble? Didn't take a MENSA card to see that one coming but clearly "the other half" didn't and those are the folks we need to feel bad for and protect in the future.
The next president really, really, really needs to start RE-regulating this country but will it happen? Hey, it's Holiday Day, miracles can happen!
tHeGaMeOfLiFe @ 16:
I use what looks like a "credit card" for food. Actually it's a check card and the money comes directly from my bank account. It's not buying on credit. The money must be in the account in order for the card to process.
Financial servitude is what most Americans find themselves in, and "credit" should be something that requires an IMMEDIATE explanation of its consequences, its the minefield that is always growing, waiting to blow up those unlucky enough in their walk
So the chimp says economy is good. Now I am worried, has the chimp ever been right ? No. Has the chimp ever told a self serving lie? Most definitely.
Coffins draped in flags @ 58:
Sounds like what is most common here in Norway. Looks like a credit card with your picture on it, but it goes directly to your bank account. Works as a VISA/Mastercard as well. I think most of our credit card purchases, are over the internet, as it is safer to use a credit card on the internet, than your bank card.
Then again, we who actually use banking systems in our work, are continually amused as norwegian banking system are world leading in security, while apparently cheques are still in common use over in the US.
We have some who do use credit cards for ordinary purchases, but that is a minority.
Fritz @ 23:
You have said it all!
chimpy has managed to strip the US of all that is decent and good. He has managed with the help of congress and senate to destroy our beautiful and young nation.
The Constitution of the United States is useless and meaningless. chimpy proved that.
Time for a big time change. Out with all that is broken and in with all that is better. More rights for the people. The ones that make up the US.
BTW -- stop with the daylight saving time bs. Believe it or not the US doesn't control time.
This supremacy bs is getting on my last fucking nerve.
repugs you don't have to be a liberal/dem or a Christian/Muslim to believe in the truth
John @ 27:
See folks...a repug's logic.
NiceNCool1 @ 46:
The government is suppose to be US citizens. It doesn't feel that way.
Coffins draped in flags @ 58:
Like I said I see people using their credit cards to pay for food.
One has to sign a receipt if one is using a credit card.
OK?
My Prediction:
2015 - The US is the new "third world". The US government has reinstitued debtor's prisons and revived the Edwardian era's concept of "workhouses" for the poor and destitute.
You can say you saw this prediction here.
But-- but-- I voted for Bush! says the newly declared bankrupt.
Mouthyb, I've begun to wonder if perhaps this whole credit crunch / housing bubble hasn't been orchestrated to purposely collapse the value of real estate so that the wealthy can buy more. Because when you factor in low inflation for the past 15 years, plus skyrocketing rents, property bought on leverage 25 - 30 years ago or longer might have returned a profit 100x over on the original investment. Wealthy owners can stand to lose 25% of the current value on paper because they've profited so much already.
And when you extrapolate median home values from WW2 through the 1980s, most homes in most areas of the US are actually historically underpriced.
It really comes down to being Greenspan's economy. An easy money era, like the 1920's.
History does not repeat, but it rhymes. A credit bubble is what is going on and it is not just happening here.
tHeGaMeOfLiFe @ 63:
Ron.j @ 71:
Tony @ 25:
Our credit card bills have doubled since the repukes passed the "legalized loan-sharking banking scam."
We haven't missed a payment on anything in over 18 years! Not even 30 days late!
Yet, we are constantly having our interest rates raised. Some of these cards we have had for 20 years, with rates that were fixed at 8-10% during the 90's. They are now over 20%!
When my wife calls to inquire why the bank has raised the rates, she is basically told "because we can!" If this isn't loan-sharking, I don't know what is? And everyone we know complains about the same treatment. Like us, they have excellent credit, no late payments (ever), yet the rates keep going up and up because "they can".
All of our "disposable" monthly income has been eaten-up by these credit card theives! I really wish some FDR type democrat would start talking about this issue. I think they would benefit greatly in the pols. And any democrat who voted for this working-class destroying piece of stink-bomb legislation; has some explaining to do.
AnimalFarm @ 1:
Sounds good. Works for me!
John @ 27:
You are a moron! A typical dead from the neck up right-wing jack-ass. Even the wealthiest small bussiness owners I know are having cash flow problems you ignorant SOB.
And the fact that you are such a steaming pyle of idiot-shit, that you apparently like the fact that no-one has gotten a "liberal" raise, or any other type of raise in 35 years, just proves what a clueless bunch of economic suicidal loser-imbeciles the right-wing still attracts.
Two percent of the population has more wealth than half of the country, and you think that's just fine?
And the Bush family crime syndicate has had more to do with this than anyone. The massive transfer of wealth from dumb bastards like you, to rich, lazy, stupid trust fund pricks like GWB has been achieved largely through legislation like the GOP Bank bill, and your $100 republican tax-cut. That across the board tax cut scam the rich repukes used to bait and switch fools like you. The same tax cuts that have dropped the value of many houses by 25% - because rich people no lnoger pay hardly any taxes, and because of that, millions of good paying jobs are gone. But who cares if your house goes from a net worth of $200,000 down to $148,000, you got a $100 tax cut from the GOP!
Where do people as stupid as you are come from? What planet (or test-tube) did you sociopaths evolve on?
Ron.j @ 71:
NoGWBPolicyLeftinplace @ 73:
Are you saying, the CCCs can charge you interest if you pay within 30 days?
You are actually forced to pay 20% interest on your credit cards?
jeeeez,
one of the credit card companies here recruit people by giving 3,65 % return on everything you buy with their card, don't think there is much interest either.
Corporations squeeze more and more by hiring certain types of individuals to increase the company bottom line. These individuals come in and basically say to their corporate divisions, you're not producing enough, do better or you're gone.
Now imagine that scenario playing out in every big business in the country. There is no such thing as comfortably profitable anymore. The credit card division made ex amount of money last year, th special hire calls in the heads of that department and says, "increase youir bottom line by 10% or you are fired". The instillation of corporate fear among its own employees drives many of the horrible policies that really are acts of treason against americans.
I also agree that there is probably a game going on with getting people to crash and burn. The corporate zit manuever. They squeeze and squeeze, either the minions stay on the treadmill and work harder and harder for less and less, or they pop and get replaced. But when they pop, as was mentioned earlier, the financial corporations somehow also profit from that giant popping sound.
Is it possible that when a company reports a negative on a consumers credit score that they receive a kickback? The one time I have been in an ambulance in my adult life my medical insurance covered 80% of the cost and immediately paid the ambulance company. My insurance company had told me to wait to make my co-payments until all the bills came in so we could sort out what I actually owed. But because I didn't make my 50 dollar co-payment fast enough the ambulance company reported that to my credit service. The ambulance company seemed completely uninterested in removing the blemish even when I paid the difference. Their collection agency actually sent me a letter in writing that they would remove the remark, I paid, and then they never removed it. I am theorizing that anytime someone reports a ding against a consumer's credit score perhaps they receive some kind of reward??? Is that possible?
Fritz @ 72:
NoGWBPolicyLeftinplace @ 75:
-------------------
What planet do you both come from?
House values have dropped 25% because it was a housing bubble. Prices where i live, went from a median of 150,000 in 1995, to 600,000 in 2005. That is a quadrupling, not a 25% drop. Prices have dropped 25% or whatever, depending on the area, since the bubble burst.
The housing bubble was caused by FED 1% rate, aided by no down, interest only negatively amortized no doc loans.
Is it possible that when a company reports a negative on a consumers credit score that they receive a kickback? The one time I have been in an ambulance in my adult life my medical insurance covered 80% of the cost and immediately paid the ambulance company. My insurance company had told me to wait to make my co-payments until all the bills came in so we could sort out what I actually owed. But because I didn't make my 50 dollar co-payment fast enough the ambulance company reported that to my credit service. The ambulance company seemed completely uninterested in removing the blemish even when I paid the difference. Their collection agency actually sent me a letter in writing that they would remove the remark, I paid, and then they never removed it. I am theorizing that anytime someone reports a ding against a consumer's credit score perhaps they receive some kind of reward??? Is that possible?
----------------------
Whether it is probable or not, i do not know. Anything is possible.
It is partly Joe Sixpack's fault, though. We need to stop with the "gotta have it now" mentality, because that's how these guys get us--they milk it for what it's worth.
Prioritize. Buy only what you need, then if you have something left over get what you want. If you're having trouble making payments and you have a big house, sell the thing and get a smaller house. Don't live beyond your means.
That's a good way to nail these credit card companies--don't use them.
My grandpa told me a long time ago. If ya can't pay for it with cash, check, lay-away, ya probably don't really need it.
I'm 37, and I've never owned a credit card.
Alexandra @ 83:
You don't understand either. You sound sanctimonious or DonnaReedish.
Do you think that when the BANKS and CREDIT CARD COMPANIES lobbied so hard to get the bankruptcy laws changed, oh... 3 -4 years ago that they saw this coming and wanted to make sure that the average American could not bail on them...no matter what!
Alexandra @ 83:
Some of you are missing the entire point and obviously many of you weren't yet working during the 90's before dumbya was appointed king. Tell the 55 year old man that dedicated his career to an American company that suddenly decided to implement that republican "trickle down" effect and trickle his job to China to utilize slave labor for maximum profits. The guy loses his group health insurance and has to visit the doctor regularly and take life saving prescriptions. There's no way he could afford health insurance on his own these days and even when he tried anyway, they turned him down because he had a condition that required regular visits. So the guy hears king Dumbshit on TV saying that he needs to be one of them there "entrepreneur's" so he decides he's going to go back to school and learn a new trade at night while working at wal-mart during the day since that's about the only job he could find for a 55 year old. Well, the guy couldn't support his family on a wal-mart wage and his wife had a menial job but she wasn't able to find a decent paying job either. Needless to say he couldn't afford the night classes and his prescriptions on a wal-mart wage so they decided to have a family meeting. They had 2 choices. They could rob a bank or whip out the credit card and hope that a Democrat will get elected and the economy and the job market will improve soon. So they decide to whip out the credit card so he can live. Well, with the 2004 election results, they were in for some devastating news. Now they continue trying to find better paying jobs, trying to better themselves although they're nearly at retirement age, but they have no choice to keep using that credit card to pay for their prescriptions and eat in hopes that a Democrat will be elected in 2008. Using the credit card isn't always about wanting things you don't need. Many today are using them just to survive in this shitty bush economy.
fritz @ 87:
------------------
A democrat is not going to save anyone. Inflation begets deflation. That is what China is all about. A billion people joining capitalism is deflationary. Call it slave labor, as you will, but China started at basicly Zero and has become producer to the world. A vaacuum is filling.
When the stock bubble burst in 1929, deflation followed. This time around, a housing bubble was engineered to replace the stock bubble. That has now burst. the day of reckoning should have come when the stock bubble burst in 2000, but it has been postponed by the housing bubble. It is a crappy economy, as every boom ends in a bust.
Hoover was President at the beginning of The Great Depression, but the depression lasted long after Hoover was gone. Likewise, having a democrat as President, if both the housing bubble and credit bubble have now burst, as Morgan Stanley analyst Stephen Roach believes has, is not going to solve the problems caused by a record credit bubble that needs to deflate.
If one wants to find an additional conspiracy in all of this, just what caused the housing market to jump in value from 1995 to 2005 by anywhere from 200-400%?
Overseas wealth pumped up the U.S. housing market as successful business people from all over the world migrated to america and bought homes. In essence, landowners in the United States were successfully bribed even as the work force was moving to China by successful Asian entrepreneurs coming to the U.S. and buying homes.
On the one hand, the manufacturing job base in the United States is shrinking, on the other hand, property owners got a huge real estate markup as a payoff. But if you didn't own property, you didn't recieve the real estate "bribe". If the housing market picks up again in this country, it will be because of another influx of buyers from other countries. Is that the way to run a country?
http://www.credit-card-cap.com
http://www.credit-protector.com
Alessandro Machi @ 89:
I agree with your bubble bursting analyses. The buyers from other countries created an artificial veneer to our own economy and it is now to the point where nobody wants to lift the veil to see what is really there.
The rich elite in this country will just wait it out and until the next wave of out of country purchasers comes in to "save" our economy, but what about those already here, those who have lived here for a generation or two.
In $GOD$ we trust. Forced slavery has changed to monetary slavery. Those that make the money out of thin air can buy any service they want.
New Form Of Slavery.
And the same families control it.
"The Credit Song",
by The Arrogant Worms
Best things in life are not free
But you don't need to have money
To get the things that you want to own
You just have to get a loan
When you buy, small or large
Just put it on your credit card
You can live like a king
Not paying for a single thing
Put it on credit and then forget it
Don't let it bother you no more, no more
Put it on credit and then forget it
And go back to the store
Every night I pray and thank
God above for creating the banks
They have been so kind to me
With their bounless generosity
If you cannot make your payments
Well, do like the national governments
And you can pay off what you owe
By taking out a bigger loan
You gotta put it on credit and then forget it
Don't let it bother you no more, no more
Put it on credit and then forget it
And go back to the store
Now I seem to have men after me
From the collection agency
And the bank came by the other day
Took everything I own away
Now I think that it is plain to see
That I must declare bankruptcy
But things aren't really all that bad
I can borrow from my dad
And put it on credit and then forget it
Don't let it bother you no more, no more
Put it on credit and then forget it
And go back to the store
You gotta put it on credit and then forget it
Don't let it bother you no more, no more
Put it on credit and then forget it
And go back to the store
Login or Register to post comments.