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With the lousy employment picture, sagging home values and falling stock portfolios, some Americans are putting their expenses on plastic. And in many cases, it's killing them slowly financially.
Many of these people have no one to blame but themselves. They couldn't wait to get their hands on the newest big-screen TV, pricey computer or some other doodad that they didn't really need. For them, I have little sympathy. They are paying the price for not taking to heart a simple lesson they should have learned as children -- if you can't afford it, don't buy it. ...
But another category of people drowning in credit card debt is the subject of President Obama's weekly address: Folks who were screwed by their credit card companies. They found their interest rates boosted without fair notice or had their credit limits slashed without cause or advance warning.
As Obama correctly points out this week, the troubling financial times are bad enough without greedy credit card companies playing fast and loose with the truth to milk extra cash from their customers.
Obama was light on the specifics he would like to see in the legislation now being debated in Congress. But we know this for sure. Obama is continuing his campaign to look out for middle America, and that is the kind of change we should be thankful for.
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Paul Shepard blogs the Democrat side of politics for Black Voices. He has been a journalist for 16 years on the national urban/minority affairs beat for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and for AP in Washington, D.C. He now runs his own public affairs firm, Shepard Strategic Communications
Comments: (6)
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By: kcn9971 on 5/11/2009 10:34AM
Obama is always"....light on specifics". Are you aware Mr. Shepard that Joe biden was a Senator of a state that PROTECTED the interest of Credit Card Companies? Are you also aware that Joe Biden voted with the Credit Card Companies to PREVENT people who declare bankruptcy from filing their credit card debt? Are you aware Mr. Shepard that Joe Biden's son was a consultant for a major Credit Card Corp. Let's be realistic, these people are all in bed together,they all conspire to keep the American people financial slaves. Citibank and Bank of America are also credit lenders which Barack Obama helped BAIL OUT!! If your going to enlighten the BV community, TELL THE ENTIRE TRUTH...and nothing less!!
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By: Judy Lynn Clark Ferguson on 5/12/2009 9:06AM
President Obama did not go quit far enough with the Credit Card Lenders. First of all Credit Card lenders targeted people with no income, low income, and those who had just freshly filed bankruptcy with pre-approved credit cards that had high interes rates, then you have "PAY-DAY"
and "CAR TITLE" lenders on every corner in every city who made bad loans at high interest rates. If your going to correct the problems you must first find out what the problems are that so many Americans can't afford to pay their bills. The major banks may have shut down their credit lines but these smaller lending instutions took advantage of the credit freeze, I know because I must have received at least 15-20 pre-approved peices of PLASTIC in my mailbox in since the announcement that I have cut the hell up. The only credit I want is my own money that is being passed out to the BBB's for their fraudulent behavior, betting, tradding, credit default swaping, hedging, derivatizing, securitizing bad paper across the Globe. They have been rewarded and the middle class has been penalized!
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By: Judy Lynn Clark Ferguson on 5/12/2009 9:18AM
NO ONE, NO ONE, NO ONE, has yet to tell the TRUTH about where the American's money deposited in these big banks disapeared and went to including the high insurance premiums. Everyone of these Banks where borrowing and lending to one another and taking shot term longs from the Federal Reserve and this has been going on for years. If Americans even think or want to blame the Mortgage Crisis on people that took out loans that could not afford them is stupid. That was not the case then and it is not the case now. They where robbed and cheated while the BBB's where taking and bundling,packaging, and selling the loans to investors across the Globe. They sold the BAD and the GOOD. The money that citizens deposited for savings, etc. was not in the banks vaults, it went out the door as fast as it went in the door because of all of the bad lending practices. Now they want Americans to purchase and invest in penny stock. The stock was not worth nothing then, and it is worth absolutely nothing now. Until the Federal Government put some rules and regulations into place with the BBB's everyone needs to check with credit unions and smaller banks that do not gamble with your money.
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By: minuscraigespy on 5/13/2009 11:12PM
Please tell me that Chase Bank and Washington Mutual will not get another dime from the taxpayers. These banks have screwed people big time. Instead of decreasing loans thru modification they have increase loans on these poor people. The have increase the interest rates on credit cards like no other I have seen. Please Obama team these Ceo's needs to be prosecuted and people need to come forward with a suit against them.
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By: Basil on 5/14/2009 6:43AM
On One of My Credit Cards, I have a Minium Payment that comes out of My Checking account of $425.00 per Month The balance Jan 03 was $36,000.00. The Bank raises the rates from 12 t0 15 whenever they want to, when I get well below the $36,000.00. The rate goes up and the Payment goes Up and I still owe the same amount after 6-1/2 Years, after paying over $40,000.00 on It
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By: HERNOT VERSAINT on 5/15/2009 9:40PM
Any responsible person or investor can keep silence on this hot issue that the parents and children are so concerned. Therefore, would the president be used in bailing out the CEO's group without a serious interrogation about the real cause of their failure? Of course the economic crisis did not start on jan 21, 09, but if this administration must work to help them as it requests, in fact, the nation needs to be edified in enduring the such unusal econonic misleading and wrong-doing JOB...
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