Given that most countries do have enough resources to provide for their people, why should they have to tolerate a system that forces parents to watch their children die slowly? ... Indeed, why should the burden of debt fall to those least responsible for it? At the other end of the scale, why should British High Street banks get tax relief of more than a billion pounds just in case loans are not paid back. That amount of money would immunise four hundred million children against preventable disease. Above all, why should the lives of ordinary people be controlled by a few who are themselves unaccountable, and whose decisions and judgments are dictated by a belief that economics is meant not to serve people but as some kind of holy writ requiring regular offerings, even blood sacrifices to a god called The Bottom Line. The debts of poor countries amounts to less than five percent of the loans of commercial banks. If the debt was cancelled unconditionally the banks would hardly know the difference. John Pilger, War By Other Means
A church in Norfolk, Virginia, holds debt revivals – individuals with large debts are selected – and then donations from parishioners pay off those debts. The church members then destroy their credit cards. Danny Schechter, In Debt We Trust ***** PSTV 2007
(Debt & Credit Card) I pledge allegiance to the card of the United States of Credit. One nation under debt with bankruptcies, late fees and high interest for all. ibid.
Americans spend more than they earn. ibid.
Can we even live without credit cards? ibid.
From coast to coast and shore to shining shore in every mall and on every street Americans are hurting without always being aware of why. ibid.
The idea of credit used to be so simple. ibid.
Manning’s lecture the next day packs them in. A sign of widespread alarm about so many kids leaving college with an average of $20,000 of debt. ibid.
James Cunningham, called Funny Money, teaching financial literary for students. ibid.
Fewer and fewer banks, some say ten in all, dominate 92% of the industry, supplying get this, one point five billion cards worldwide held by a hundred and fifty-eight million card-holders. That averages to ten cards per person. ibid.
Fines For Overcharging Late Fees: Citibank $15.5m; Chase $22.2m; Bank One $40m; Providian: $405m. ibid.
The Marketing Machine: In 2005 the top ten credit card companies spent over two billion dollars on advertising and marketing. ibid.
Making Priceless Commercials: Tens of Millions
Making a Film About Credit Card Abuses: Tens of Thousands.
Getting Hooked on Credit Cards: Overpriced.
Creating Awareness of the Problem: Priceless.
There are some thing money can’t buy
For everything else, there is 29% interest. ibid.
As of Christmas 2005 the national debt stood at $8,179,165,267,626.42. Break that down and each American share comes to $27,439.48 and that’s per person. ibid.
Collecting debts today is a growing business with an army of companies out to pressure you and then sue you when you don’t pay off. Even when annoying, these calls seem to be an improvement over the days when a loan-shark might break your kneecaps if you didn’t pay up on time. ibid.
These loans are very expensive but very often the only funds small businesses can get. ibid.
Tamara Draut of the DEMOS think-tank says that while financial education can help some people it’s not the answer because credit card debt which has tripled since the 1990s is a symptom of other changes in the economy that it’s rarely connected to. ibid.
A Nation Transformed: How did it happen? How did we go from being a nation that made things to a nation that buys things? ibid.
The Crunch is Coming ... Today most families will never pay off their mortgage because of constant refinancing. Remember when we called our homes our castles? ibid.
Mortgage Debt: 2005 $8.8 trillion; 1995 $3.4 trillion. ibid.
More than two million Americans went bankrupt in 2005. ibid.
4The Politics of Credit: The Halls of Congress, quiet, clean, official: here’s where the people business supposedly gets done. ibid.
Who has the clout? 1) Financial Institutions; 2) Real Estate Developers. ibid.
This new book [The K Street Gang, Conitinetti] reports that the banks spent thirty-six million lobbying on the bankruptcy bill; credit card companies added another thirteen million; accounting firms put in another six million and business associations added almost a hundred million: a hundred and fifty-four million just to get one bill passed. ibid.
Home owners withdrew $600 billion in 2005 in equity for credit card bills and personal spending. ibid.
Pay-day loan stores charging interest that would make the Mob blush. ibid.
Settlement plan follows allegations of high fees: Fenwick & West Files Pro Bono Class Action: Alleging Predatory Lending Against Women and Communities of Colour. ibid.
How depressing to find so many suffering. ibid.
What can break through and create a sense of national outrage about credit scams and predatory practices? Can this problem become a national issue in a country that seems to believe in Debt We Trust? ibid.
A new cry for liberation is being heard. ibid.
I will argue that the most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan but our own fiscal irresponsibility. Patrick Creadon, ‘IOUSA – One Nation Under Debt. In Stress’
$8,7 trillion – just how much money is that? ibid.
1835: Federal Debt $0. ibid.
America was becoming addicted to debt. ibid.
Without the social security surpluses our real track record on deficits looks a whole lot worse. ibid.
During the Greenspan era, Wall Street came to rely on interest rate cuts. When new Fed chairman Ben Bernanke didn’t cut rates like Greenspan had, Wall Street wasn’t happy. ibid.
Americans must start saving again. ibid.
Their plan is to take you for every penny you’ve got. Your plan is to stop them! PSTV.tv – Jon Witterick, lecture ‘Get Out of Debt Free’
Your name is your token to play the game ... in upper case. ibid.
Being in debt is one of the consequences of playing game. Why do you think your government is in debt? ibid.
There isn’t enough money in circulation for everyone to pay off all the debts. ibid.
The secret of winning the game for everyone is to assume a deficiency of love in your opponent and apply some – Pleiadian Renegades. ibid.
Ask for an invoice; ask for it in your name; ask for proof of lawful contract; ask debt collectors for proof of agency, giving them ten days to respond. ibid.
The only power they have over you is fear. ibid.
A verbal agreement with the debt collector is more enforceable than the unilateral one with the bank! Do not agree to pay anything until they can provide you with evidence that you owe anything! ibid.
This is a scam ... We can beat them at it. ibid.
Tally sticks – it was a wonderful piece of kit. ibid.
We have unwittingly been sold into slavery, into bondage. ibid.
One trillion pound notes taped end to end – it would stretch from Earth to the Sun at its furthest distance from the Sun. ibid.
Money was never meant to be a commodity. ibid.
Fractional reserve banking has failed us. ibid.
The game has to end sooner or later. ibid.
The Deficit can never be paid back; the cuts simply keep us enslaved; the monetary system has to collapse. ibid.
‘Does America already owe too much? And are we running out of time?’ Frontline: Ten Trillion and Counting, PBS 2009
Even before Obama took office the government had committed hundreds of billions of dollars to shore up the economy. ibid.
The debt on inauguration day 20th January 2009: $10,626,877,048,913.08. ibid.
Republicans proclaimed themselves the party of small government and tax cuts. ibid.
Wars are expensive. ibid.
One of the largest tax cuts in American history was passed with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the decisive vote. ibid.
George Bush never vetoed a spending bill. ibid.
This year [2009] the deficit will be over $1.7 trillion, pushing the national debt to almost $13 trillion. ibid.
Greece would also go on a massive spending spree. Frontline: Money, Power and Wall Street IV, PBS 2012
Between 2001 and 2008 Greece’s debt had doubled. No-one it seemed wanted to ask any hard questions. ibid.