So Indebted To Debt

The economic situation that we’re experiencing in the United States won’t get much better any time soon. Just when Wall Street suggests we might soon hit bottom to the tumult, my notions put the economy high on the Richter scale of continued shaky financial ground.

Credit card debt is biting at the heels of stability of the banking industry with lenders writing off over $20B of unsecured consumer loans during the first six months of the year, with a strong likelihood that year-end figures of defaulted credit card debt will more than double. Credit card debt is the next ticking time bomb of financial doom.

I continue to get more offers for plastic than my wallet could possibly hold. I already have a number of cards that, if I were to carry all of them in my back pocket, they would give me a one-sided bubble-butt!

The banking industry has already done a good job to snag me into their web of irresponsible spending. Although I only carry one card at any given time, I typically only use it when absolutely necessary, using the debit card in most transactions; as I make entries into the checkbook, the balance shows me how seriously I must to do some penny-pinching.

On a recent timeout from the real life, I did some spending unbecoming of my pocketbook. From past experiences I've learned that there's little likelihood I'll revisit places I’ve been, although I did fall in love with the Black Hills with the mountains, rolling hills, canyons and the desert conditions of the Badlands. It may be another thirteen years before I visit other natural wonders in these United States. The Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and the Rocky Mountains are on my mind, just the other side of South Dakota. I can't disguise my yearning.

I splurged, within reason, by eating out every day and night, not willing to domesticate what was a time of freedom from everyday food preparations. I brought back a few souvenirs and momentos that I would never have the opportunity to cherish otherwise. Temporary housing was the major source of charges.

The bills are now due. The means of payment? They go on another credit card account, one that gives me a transaction fee of 3% and an "intoductory" interest rate of 0% through the billing period in July 2009. This was my “budgeting plan" for the trip. If I fail to make the minimum monthly payment or go over the credit limit, the default rate is over 25%. Depending on a person's credit score, the standard credit card company charges the prime lending rate plus 14% with the same aforementioned default rate. I’ve already made other charges toward auto and home insurance premiums. Property taxes will likely be next in line. It adds up quickly. And so do interest fees.

Keep in mind, if you believe you're doing the right thing by canceling a credit card, it's a negative effect on your credit score. Cut it up and feel empowered to negotiate with the lender a means to pay off the balance, if necessary. Consumer aren't meant to get too far ahead, just like indentured servants in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Just as payday loan sharks snag the workingman with exorbitant fees of 30%, so does the banking industry with rates not much less severe. The recent bailout of large financial institutions that's intended to ease borrowing between banks won’t help the little guy much toward meeting their monthly shortcomings of cash; those Big Government dollars are meant for businesses with that tricky trickle-down expectation.

Hopefully, the bailout success is just around the next bend and the unemployed will get back tens of thousands of jobs, again giving them a means to be consumers, who are the ultimate source for economic growth through spending, the very same source that will fund the bailout.

I was wrong earlier this year to believe oil futures would reach $200 per barrel by years’ end but who knew an alarm through financial markets would grind the wheels of transportation to a near halt? “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” but only if the driver pays attention to the warning signals. It didn’t happen, so the grease slick sent the economy slip-slidin’ away, now flat on its back. Where’s an honest chiropractic mechanic when you need one?

I’m not a financial swami, but more ongoing foreclosures and job losses will continue to lead people to max out their high-interest credit cards, declaring bankruptcy and leaving lenders in another round of what will be a further meltdown in this and world economies.

Hopefully, Election Day 2009 will bring leadership that will prompt changes in credit card interest rate lending practices that create too challenging an obstacle for consumers to pay off their debts. Consumers need a clean slate before they can give a real boost to the economy by, once again, using their credit cards. Indeed, it's a revolving door of credit debt.