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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
Market sell off, bogus GDP, Japan downgrade, credit cards
Schiff Report video blog Jan 28th 2011
http://www.schiffradio.com/
Duration : 0:9:56
Peter Schiff explains how the new college loan plan will back fire
Peter breaks down the economic inanity of Obama’s new college tuition program passed in March of 2010. Once again the government cure is worse than the disease. Please donate to Peter’s Senate campaign at www.Schiff4Senate.com
Duration : 0:7:21
Dollar rally, sovereign debt, black Friday, Schiff Radio.com
Schiff Report Video Blog Nov. 26th 2010 Listen to “The Peter Schiff Show” for free live at 6PM Eastern or for 24 hours on demand at www.SchiffRadio.com.
Duration : 0:9:55
Jobs, global economy, SBA loans, stimulus, GI bill
Schiff Report Video Blog Sept. 3rd 2010
Duration : 0:9:58
National Debt/Deficit Road Trip
Eleven Trillion Dollar Drive
By Jason Goldtrap
JasonGoldtrap.com
03.23.09
I will be on the Fox Business Network, Thursday, June 18 at 4pm EST.
Comments with profanity will not be posted
Hi. My name is Jason Goldtrap. I love America. Let’s pretend I have the Trans Am from the movie Smokey and the Bandit, that’d be cool. I want to visit every state capital in the lower 48, from Maine to Washington. I have chosen a route whereby I can drive from one capital to another. I am travelling at a constant rate of 60 miles and hour, no bathroom breaks, no naps, no lunch at Cracker Barrel, no souvenir shopping, I am just driving and driving and driving. The roads are clear, the weather is perfect, let’s roll.
My journey begins in Augusta, Maine. I drive to Montpelier, Vermont then to Concord, New Hampshire down to Boston for some clam chowder back southwest to Providence and across Hartford. I then go up to Albany south to Trenton and Harrisburg then down to Dover. I skip across Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis, see the sights in DC before heading down to Richmond, continuing my journey to Raleigh, Columbia, Tallahassee, and a surprisingly traffic free Atlanta. Next I hit Montgomery and Jackson down to Baton Rouge, up to Little Rock east towards Nashville, Frankfort, Charleston, Columbus and Lansing. I win the Indianapolis 500! Then west to Springfield, up to Madison, I say hello to Garrison Kellior in St. Paul, then down to Des Moines and Jefferson City. In Austin I mess with Texas before heading up to Ooooooooklahoma City where the wind comes sweeping down the plains. Up to Topeka, Lincoln, Pierre and Bismarck and Cheyenne. I catch a Broncos game before I press the pedal to the metal to make it to Santa Fe, Phoenix, Sacramento, Carson City, Salt Lake City north to Helena west to Boise, north to Salem and finally, I arrive in Olympia, Washington where there’s a parade in my honor with Bigfoot serving as the grand marshal. All total I’ve driven 13,105 miles in 218 hours, roughly 9 days.
But wait, there’s more. I feel so good that I put the car in reverse and drive back to Augusta which would make it a 26,210 miles round trip in 436 hours, roughly 18 days. Boy am I tired!
And now I’m gonna get crazy! I’m going to place one dollar bills on the road, line them end to end during my entire journey. Zoom. Ok, its 18 days later and I’m back. I have just placed on the road 276,777,600 dollars! Wow! That’s a lot of money! Or, is it?
I forgot to tell you that my Trans Am is also a time machine, using a misapplied principle of Einstein. The more I drive time itself begins going backwards! The hours pass by swiftly, then the days and months become a blur. The Earth starts spinning around the sun and I am now driving my car in a different millennia!
According to the US National Debt Clock we owe approximately $11,100,000,000,000. On my drives, what would it take to equal that staggering amount? Well, going on round trips from Augusta to Olympia, dropping one dollar bills from my Trans Am and going back in time I will have made a total of 40,104 round trips which comes to about 721,872 days or 1,978 years which would make it about 31 AD when I could have heard in person Christ say “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
So, how do we fix this mess? Beats me. I’m unemployed right now so I’m not the one to give financial advice. Is there a way to pay off these bills? I hate to say this but probably not. This message is intended for future generations. This is my way of saying “Sorry we gave you such an insurmountable debt and, take my advice, don’t spend what you don’t have.” -The End-
Jason Goldtrap is not a politician, lawyer, activist or anything else. I’m just a regular guy. I am an author from Central Florida. My novels can be viewed online at www.JasonGoldtrap.com. My novel “Teen Girl From Mars” is a optimistic, romantic, funny story about a sixteen-year-old girl living on Mars in the year 2191. My story is clean, values oriented, funny, adventurous and heartwarming. JasonGoldtrap.com for more info.
Duration : 0:2:50
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
Money as Debt II Promises Unleashed (7 of 8)
Quick easy way to accumulate silver
http://silversnowball.com/1861/
Bailouts, stimulus packages, debt piled upon debt, where will it all end?
How did we get into a situation where there has never been more material wealth & productivity and yet everyone is in debt to bankers?
And now, all of a sudden, the bankers have no money and we the taxpayers, have to rescue them by going even further into debt!
Money as debt II Explores the baffling, fraudulent and destructive arithmetic of the money system that holds us hostage to a forever growing DEBT…and how we might evolve beyond it into a new era.
http://www.moneyasdebt.net/
Duration : 0:9:55
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