A feelgood credit card bill
Although this may sound a bit unusual, I was pretty happy today when I got my credit card bill. It arrived with a balance of $0.00. I think it was last February that I realized I had six grand in credit card debt and soon after made the decision to eliminate much of my unnecessary spending (i.e. eating out, cable TV) and stick to gasoline, food and a/c on a few muggy July nights.*
And now I'm reading a NYTimes piece by an anonymous banker (and published by Joe Nocera) on the looming credit card crisis:
Today, we are bailing out the banks because of their greedy and deceptive lending practices in the mortgage industry. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. More is coming, I’m sorry to say. Layoffs are being announced nationwide in the tens of thousands. As people begin to lose their jobs, they will not be able to pay their credit card bills either. And the banks will be back for more handouts.
If you read the whole article, it paints a very troubling picture of the not-so-distant future. The past ten years of 0.00% APR** junk mailers will soon come back to haunt America.
Tim White
* I recall splurging once (under $100) to go camping in DC for a weekend attending a Ron Paul rally.
** introductory for up to three hours. Then it will adjust to our low 24.9% per day interest rate.
2 comments:
congrats Tim on paying your credit card bill--that is what EVERYBODY is doing which is contributing to the economic slowdown... (it is the right thing to do) $950 BILLION of cc card debt in the US...
So China not only made the goods we purchased this century, they also loaned us the money to "buy" their goods.
Clever.
Now I'm wondering if
1) they actually thought they were going to be paid back...
2) they wanted to undermine the American economy, then the American military... or
3) they wanted a combination of 1 & 2 and set forth on this path with no clear deadline for a return to world domination... just as long as it was achieved within a few decades.
I'm guessing #3.
Btw, I had no idea our CC debt was nearly a trillion bucks.
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