I wish our govt. would go after credit card companies with the same passion they use to attack oil companies.
A few years ago I had TONS of credit debt, mostly gained from irresponsible spending in my 20's and early 30's. At one point I had called Discover card and ask them for help, in any manner. I wasn't asking for a reduction in my bill, just a stretch in payments. "There's nothing we can do." I was told (this is a billion$ company). I ended up working a second job for over a year to eliminate my credit debt. Once my beacon score was good again I started to get pre-approved credit mail from Discover. This realy PISSED ME OFF!!

Credit cards have understandably become a necessity, albeit a dishonest one. It's rare for me to say this about anything, but I think a little more regulation is need to keep these vultures in line.

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"The hardest thing in warfare is to counter someone or a group of individuals who are willing to take their own lives in order to take others."
John McCain

"Why do I have to keep proving to people that I am not a liar?!"(From the book "The Survivor," by John Harris, p. 382 - Hillary in her 2000 Senate campaign)

I am not sure we can pinpoint one thing or a couple of things that may cause this economic disruption. There certainly are a number of factors that have had their hand in this. My personal belief is tied to to the Federal Reserve and their policy to avoid inflation yet continue to promote growth through the easy availability of money.

I am not an economics major, did not see the relevance at 18, wished I'd majored in it now. But, I do understand human nature and by continuing to play on the fear that any inflation is bad and that sustained growth by any means is good just seems wrong. Someone is going to collect on the debts. Our inflated value of homes is going to have to correct itself as a previous poster stated. This, in large part is due to the low rates of lenders.

the federal reserve and fractional reserve banking creates inflation by default, that is how it works

money gets loaned into existence thus increasing the money supply which is inflation by definition

when loans are paid off or written off as a loss then the money disappears which is deflation by definition, the trick for the FED is to manage this in such a fashion to where the inflation rate is low and acceptable to all the players

problem here is there is nothing stopping the FED from over doing it, in fact they have the urge to overdo it as much as they can get away with

the other major problem is the system only works when its growing in size, it cannot handle prolonged contraction, it must grow or it fails.........

I recently watched a documentary called "Maxed-Out". Among other things pointed out in the film was the fact that they target college students for credit cards. If you don't go to college you might not get a credit card offer right away but... the moment you get that "Congratulations!" letter, you get the credit card companies rolling in. My mother wouldn't let me get a card (not that I fought tooth-and-nail to get one... I just kinda said "okay") and explained to me the value of buying things when you have the money for it so I didn't get my first credit card until about 3 years ago when my credit score basically said "Sorry, you don't have a credit card. Get one!"

Unfortunately, some college students aren't so lucky. In the film, two college students' parents talk about how their children hanged themselves in their DORM ROOMS... over credit card debt they had incurred in their first couple of years in college. Young people killing themselves over such a preventable thing. A year later one of the parents got a mailer from one of the card companies for her son... "You're a valued customer! Where have you gone? If you come back we'll offer you this, this and this!" type deal. Mimicking your situation.... in a more morbid way...

Earlier in the film an older woman's family was introduced. She had gone missing and within two days the billing companies were calling looking for payment. A year later they found her car in (I believe it was) the Mississippi River. Suicide again.

It's not always irresponsible spending that gets people into these messes but the credit card companies don't care. When they are offering credit cards to college students you know they don't give a isht if people can pay them back. They OWN you.

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I just watched a few clips of "Maxed-Out" on youtube. They should show that flick on the first week of school at every College. What an effect these companies have on our economy!

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"The hardest thing in warfare is to counter someone or a group of individuals who are willing to take their own lives in order to take others."
John McCain

"Why do I have to keep proving to people that I am not a liar?!"(From the book "The Survivor," by John Harris, p. 382 - Hillary in her 2000 Senate campaign)

the problem of this is that they try to push blame around to much..


im $10,000 in debt and it all visa's fault.
it has nothing to do with the 2k sound system in my car or the 5k tv that i have.
its not my fault.

This is quite true indeed. We've gotten too used to living beyond our means as a whole without thoughts of the economy tanking. The next few years will be interesting, but most likely trying times for the US.

This is only partly true. While Americans have been living beyond their means, generalizing to say that it's because of sound systems and big screen televisions simply isn't representative of the truth. Some people definitely spent unwisely and put a new car on their credit card... but the fact of the matter is that credit card companies go after those people who are least able to afford to pay them back. And they do it on purpose.
Nowadays many, many, many, many people are in debt with their credit cards from simply putting food, gas, bills, and other necessities on them. That is the real problem.

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Bear Stearns going under because of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The US Government bailed them out through JPMorganChase at $2 per share. Talk about de-valuation. And this all stems from people living way beyond their means in houses they cannot afford.

Alan Greenspan just wrote an article expressing concern that we are facing the most severe recession since WWII. That may be optimistic.