fiat
PBS Frontline Secret History of the Credit Card
In “Secret History of the Credit Card,” FRONTLINE® and The New York Times join forces to investigate an industry few Americans fully understand. In this one-hour report, correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt.
“The almost magical convenience of plastic money is critical to our famously compulsive consumer economy,” Bergman says. “With more than 641 million credit cards in circulation and accounting for an estimated $1.5 trillion of consumer spending, the U.S. economy has clearly gone plastic.”
Millions of American families use their personal, general-purpose credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover to make ends meet; credit cards have been a discreet lifeline for families in financial straits.
But other consumers, like actor and author Ben Stein, use plastic purely for convenience. While it would appear that Stein — who says he charges a small fortune every month on his credit cards — is the ideal customer, in reality, he is what some in the industry call a “deadbeat.” That’s because he pays his balance in full every month.
The industry’s most profitable customers, the ones being sought by creative marketing tactics, are the “revolvers:” the estimated 115 million Americans who carry monthly credit card debt.
Ed Yingling, incoming president of the American Bankers Association, tells FRONTLINE that revolvers are “the sweet spot” of the banking industry. This “sweet spot” continues to grow as the average credit card debt among American households has more than doubled over the past decade. Today, the average family owes roughly $8,000 on their credit cards. This debt has helped generate record profits for the credit card industry — last year, more than $30 billion before taxes.
Some experts say the profitability of credit cards really began twenty-five years ago, when the banking industry successfully eliminated a critical restriction: the limit on the interest rate a lender can charge a borrower. Deregulation, coupled with a revolution in technology that enables the almost real-time tracking of personal financial information and the emergence of nationwide banking, has facilitated the widening availability of credit cards across the economic spectrum. But for some, the cost of credit is often far greater than it appears.
According to Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, the credit card companies are misleading consumers and making up their own rules. “These guys have figured out the best way to compete is to put a smiley face in your commercials, a low introductory rate, and hire a team of MBAs to lay traps in the fine print,” Warren tells FRONTLINE.
Warren and other critics say that a growing share of the industry’s revenues come from what they call deceptive tactics, such as “default” terms spelled out in the fine print of cardholder agreements — the terms and conditions of which can be changed at any time for any reason with 15 days’ notice.
Penalty fees and rates are sometimes triggered by just a single lapse — a payment that arrives a couple of days or even hours late, a charge that exceeds the credit line by a few dollars, or a loan from another creditor which renders the cardholder “overextended” as defined by the nation’s three all-powerful credit bureaus. This flurry of unexpected fees and rate hikes come just when consumers can least afford them.
“[Banks are] raising interest rates, adding new fees, making the due date for your payment a holiday or a Sunday on the hopes that maybe you’ll trip up and get a payment in late,” says Robert McKinley, founder and chairman of Cardweb.com and Ram Research, a payment card research firm. “It’s become a very anti-consumer marketplace.”
Banking Association spokesman Yingling defends industry practices. Because the credit card business is basically unsecured lending, he says, the risks associated with the business must be offset.
But that’s of little consolation to consumers who may be in trouble. According to the Better Business Bureau, credit card and banking companies are the subject of a record numbers of complaints. “It’s not an accident that the banking and credit card business generates more complaints nationally, across the country, than any other industry…Out of one thousand industries that we track, they are number one,” says Pat Wallace, head of the San Francisco Bay Area Better Business Bureau. “There are irritated, unhappy, dissatisfied customers in this industry.”
As Professor Warren sees it, the industry is operating without fear of penalty. “There’s no regulator, and there’s no customer who can bring this industry to heel,” Warren says.
Duration : 0:56:9
1. GOLD & SILVER INVESTING MOVIE! (Part 1) Mike Maloney – ‘Why Gold & Silver?’
GET THE FULL MOVIE HERE: http://goldsilver.com/why-gold-silver-the-movie/ref/1052/dc/sgpromo/
Welcome to the first episode in our 10 part series!
We have been collectively hoodwinked into believing that our paper currencies are ’as good as gold’. Nothing could be further from the truth. Originally, our paper currency was a receipt for gold or silver held on deposit. But since 1971, all world currencies have been fiat -backed by nothing of physical value. Take a $10 bill from your wallet. Do you really think that the paper is worth $10? Welcome to the Matrix…
Buy the whole video, online version only $9.95: https://whygoldandsilverdvd.com/start/youtube?affid=7&s-site=youtube&s-page=gse1
If you like the title music (the NZ Dub part) please check out the site of the most amazing Aaron Saxon – http://www.aaronsaxon.com Music for liberating your mind. Thanks for believing in me bro. Dan.
You can also keep up with our latest filming efforts on the official Facebook page for ‘Why Gold & Silver’, get the latest developments and see behind the scenes photos here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Why-Gold-and-Silver-The-Movie/129698967041133?ref=sgm
Please click the ‘Like’ button and help us spread the hard money message on Facebook!
Duration : 0:9:16
Crash Course: Chapter 8 – The Fed & Money Creation by Chris Martenson
Chapter 8 (The Fed Money Creation): Chapter 7 explained money creation via money loaned into existence by banks, on the local level. Chapter 8 explains money creation by the Federal Reserve, where we learn that it is manufactured out of thin air. Perpetual expansion is a requirement of modern banking. The banking system MUST continually expand, because that is how it was designed. By understanding the requirement for continual expansion we will be in a better position to make informed decisions about what is likely to transpire and take meaningful actions to enhance our prospects.
http://www.chrismartenson.com
Duration : 0:7:23
Crash Course: Chapter 7 – Money Creation by Chris Martenson
Crash Course Chapter 7 (money Creation): Understanding how money is created provides a foundation for appreciating the implications of our massive levels of debt, because it tells us how that debt came into being. As John Kenneth Galbraith once said, “The process by which money is created is so simple, the mind is repelled.” Dr. Martenson walks us through this simple process of fractional reserve banking.
http://www.chrismartenson.com
Duration : 0:4:20
Crash Course: Chapter 12 – Debt (1 of 2) by Chris Martenson
Chapter 12 (Debt – Part 1 of 2): Dr. Martenson explains how, since debt is a claim on future money, it is therefore a claim on future human labor. To put it simply, debt is future consumption taken today. Key Concept 7 is introduced, that “ever-growing debts implicitly assume that the future is going to be larger than the present.” Dr. Martenson challenges this assumption, and what it means for us if that condition of growth is not met.
http://www.chrismartenson.com
Duration : 0:6:8
Crash Course: Chapter 6 – What is Money? by Chris Martenson
Chapter 6 (What is Money?): What is a dollar? Sure, it allows us to buy things like food, cars, and iPods; yet, most of us don’t really understand money beyond that. Dr. Martenson not only provides an understandable definition, but also explains what gives our green pieces of paper value, and what dangers any currency must face.
http://www.chrismartenson.com
Duration : 0:6:17
Sovereign Debt: The Next Crisis – Marc Faber
Posted Jan 13, 2010 01:00pm EST
After every financial crisis there’s a sovereign debt crisis, Marc Faber says. Countries that borrowed too much during the boom times start struggling to pay their competitors back, and eventually some of them default.
The countries most likely to blow up this time around are the “PIIGS”: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain. One ore more of them, Faber says, will likely default in the next couple of years. And, that could result in the death of the Euro currency.
Longer-term, Faber says, Japan and the US are in line for the same fate.
The US crisis won’t hit us this year or next year. But within 5-10 years, the United States will be forced to quietly default on its debt, most likely by printing money and destroying the value of the currency.
The main problem comes down to two things: 1) ballooning debts and 2) future interest costs.
As these charts from Faber’s Gloom, Boom, And Doom Report show, in the past decade, the U.S. government’s total debt and liabilities have gone through the roof, especially when Fannie, Freddie, Medicare, and Social Security are taken into account. This trend is unsustainable, and it will correct itself only through a rapid acceleration of economic growth and tax revenues, a new-found financial discipline, or a crisis–or a combination of all three.
The second problem is interest costs. Right now, the government’s debt and deficits aren’t creating an undue burden because the government can borrow so cheaply. Eventually, however, as the country’s financial situation gets weaker, interest rates will likely rise, and our interest costs will go through the roof.
According to Faber, our annual interest costs currently amount to 12% of the government’s tax revenue. Within five years, Faber estimates, these costs will soar to 35% of tax revenue. This will force the government to cut spending (unlikely) and/or frantically print money.
Duration : 0:3:48
Gold Ron Paul tells the Truth about money
Leverage Gold 100:1 We show you how
http://manoftruth.org/gold-forex-trading/
Duration : 0:3:23
DEBT FOR EVER
FKN Newz Blog – http://www.main.fknnewz.com/blog/index.php
debt Bomb in Wall Street , no one dead, no one injured ,no one bothered. Drug war fuelled by high profits and stating the obvious says Hilary clinton. Peace is ‘enduring goal’ says Netanyahu: a piece of palestine lebbanon,syria etc
In the UK terror fairy tale grows and spying becomes a way of life for 1000s
Hello disparate ineffective voices, welcome to the fkn news Im fat bald and ugly here are the headlies tonight….
Duration : 0:7:39
Crash Course: Chapter 12 – Debt by Chris Martenson
Chapter 12 (Debt): Dr. Martenson explains how, since debt is a claim on future money, it is therefore a claim on future human labor. To put it simply, debt is future consumption taken today. Key Concept 7 is introduced, that “ever-growing debts implicitly assume that the future is going to be larger than the present.” Dr. Martenson challenges this assumption, and what it means for us if that condition of growth is not met.
http://www.chrismartenson.com
Duration : 0:12:33
Search
Guaranteed Cash
Articles
- Credit Cards (392)
- Debt (403)
- Get Cash Now (484)
- Loans (419)
- Money (246)