As I stated in my Bailout Plan, once the government gave money to these companies to bail them out, they would continue to abuse the American public with unscrupulous tactics when giving credit. I just read an article that talks about how the credit card companies are cutting people's credit limit in half without notifying them. They are cutting limits close to and below their outstanding balances causing people who have good credit to have to pay overlimit fees, and the government says this is legal!!! Combine that with the disclosure today that AIG got $170 billion in Bailout money and is paying $165 million in bonuses to employees. Again, the government says that there is nothing they can do about it because the company has a contract with it's employees to pay out these bonuses.
This comes from being in a rush to solve a problem that' can't be rushed. Would the government have given AIG this money if they had known about this contract? I don't think so. We know Pres. Obama has a devastating task ahead of him and he is anxious to get things moving in the right direction, but he is learning that his lack of experience in the Senate is a slight setback. He is learning that a lot of the people he thought he could trust to put in various positions of authority weren't as honest as he thought they were, most of them having problems paying taxes.
Pres. Obama made a lot of promises in his first State of the Union Address, but all presidents do. In order to make these promises come true he needs good help. He has to run his administration like a corporation, in the sense that he has to first create a business plan. This he has done by outlining his vision with distinct tasks and time limits. Next he has to put people that he can trust to get things done in charge of each division. Together they create a plan on what needs to be done and the necessary staffing. This is where Obama has hit snags because he has worked with most of these people in the past and thought of them as trustworthy, much like some of the people that were named to try to undermine him during his campaign, such as William Ayers.
This proves that Pres. Obama truly is naive when it comes to American politics. By not being a Washington Insider, he only looked at people from what he accomplished or tried to accomplish while working with these people on various committees or certain issues and felt they needed to be in a position to lead under him. It's been like adding Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez to your team. You know these guys can help you win a championship, but they have violated your policy of honesty. By the way, has anyone noticed how many Texas Rangers were using steroids while Bush owned the team? Don't remember them ever winning anything though. Another article on steroids later. You should also read about how Bush cheated the people of Arlington by having them pay for his stadium.
http://www.angelfire.com/ok5/pearly/htmls/bush-sec5.html
So now Pres. Obama has to choose replacements for people he thought he could trust with people he may not know as well, but will have to trust. That's the purpose of the business plan, knowing what has to be fixed in order to get things running smoothly again, or at least running. It will also let him know what adjustments need to be made within each department. I'm willing to bet that some people are turning down appointments to avoid being investigated. For example, it was pointed out on "Meet the Press" this morning that the Treasury Department has no staff members appointed under the Secretary of the Treasury. That's not good with the economy in the shape it's in.
So hopefully Pres. Obama has learned that he has to slow down and be the analytical man that he is. He can't let the Republicans and the media rush him into bad judgments trying to fix this mess. They knew this before the election so there is no need to panic less than two months into his administration. Besides, who is going to be stupid enough to listen to them anyway since they are the ones who created this mess.
But the two topics that I mentioned at the top of this article are a direct result of rushing to a fix. There is still no better plan than my Bailout Plan in the previous article. No one deserves the money more than the American people because of the way these banks, credit card, and mortgage companies have treated us and continue to treat us since some of them have received money from the government. Just look at two of the examples from the article. One man had his unlimited American Express limit reduced to $5000 when he owed $10,000. If you don't know, you have to pay your entire balance on American Express each month. Why would you attack a customer like this? The other example had a limit reduced from $9000 to $300 when the cardholder only owed $360, thus putting him over the credit limit and he had to pay a penalty. How in the hell can this be legal? Here is another article where you can read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/15/AR2008111500216.html
By reducing your credit limit, it reduces your available credit, and reduces your credit ratio, which in turn reduces your credit score. So now some people with excellent credit scores will be lowered into the good bracket, thus costing them more in interest rates IF they can get more credit. This is the thanks the American taxpayers get for bailing out these companies, much as I predicted in my previous article. Then you have AIG. Not only are they paying bonuses to employees, they are going mostly to the division of the company that caused them to fail in the first place. All of this comes from not investigating these companies before giving them money. They should have been investigated and audited to find out why they went under, not just take their word for it. Hell, before they give you money they want to know your life history, so they should be subjected to even more scrutiny since their business failed.
So Pres. Obama, you face your first major setback as an administrator because you rushed to solve a problem that needs precise detail and judgement. I'm not saying your plan won't work, it has to be given time. But I guarantee my plan will show improvement much faster if implemented properly. Maybe even a combination of the two plans. As you are finding out, a lot of the people you trusted can't be trusted. They are only going to continue to come up with weak solutions that will benefit their ties to their corporate backers while the American people continue to suffer.
The credit card industry has been compared to loan sharks with their ability to increase interest rates above the 20 % level and to change terms at their leisure to further reduce your credit worthiness. At the same time, I can remember when banks gave you as much as 8% interest on savings and 6% on checking accounts. Now you get zero on checking and less than one percent on your savings. Remember, banks use your money to operate and this is how they repay you. Actually, you are loaning the banks money. It's like giving money to your brother to hold and he invests it behind your back, makes millions and doesn't give you any of the profits. He just gives you back what you ask for. In conclusion, I can't see how any plan to rescue the loan sharks is going to help the sheep that have been fleeced.
This comes from being in a rush to solve a problem that' can't be rushed. Would the government have given AIG this money if they had known about this contract? I don't think so. We know Pres. Obama has a devastating task ahead of him and he is anxious to get things moving in the right direction, but he is learning that his lack of experience in the Senate is a slight setback. He is learning that a lot of the people he thought he could trust to put in various positions of authority weren't as honest as he thought they were, most of them having problems paying taxes.
Pres. Obama made a lot of promises in his first State of the Union Address, but all presidents do. In order to make these promises come true he needs good help. He has to run his administration like a corporation, in the sense that he has to first create a business plan. This he has done by outlining his vision with distinct tasks and time limits. Next he has to put people that he can trust to get things done in charge of each division. Together they create a plan on what needs to be done and the necessary staffing. This is where Obama has hit snags because he has worked with most of these people in the past and thought of them as trustworthy, much like some of the people that were named to try to undermine him during his campaign, such as William Ayers.
This proves that Pres. Obama truly is naive when it comes to American politics. By not being a Washington Insider, he only looked at people from what he accomplished or tried to accomplish while working with these people on various committees or certain issues and felt they needed to be in a position to lead under him. It's been like adding Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez to your team. You know these guys can help you win a championship, but they have violated your policy of honesty. By the way, has anyone noticed how many Texas Rangers were using steroids while Bush owned the team? Don't remember them ever winning anything though. Another article on steroids later. You should also read about how Bush cheated the people of Arlington by having them pay for his stadium.
http://www.angelfire.com/ok5/pearly/htmls/bush-sec5.html
So now Pres. Obama has to choose replacements for people he thought he could trust with people he may not know as well, but will have to trust. That's the purpose of the business plan, knowing what has to be fixed in order to get things running smoothly again, or at least running. It will also let him know what adjustments need to be made within each department. I'm willing to bet that some people are turning down appointments to avoid being investigated. For example, it was pointed out on "Meet the Press" this morning that the Treasury Department has no staff members appointed under the Secretary of the Treasury. That's not good with the economy in the shape it's in.
So hopefully Pres. Obama has learned that he has to slow down and be the analytical man that he is. He can't let the Republicans and the media rush him into bad judgments trying to fix this mess. They knew this before the election so there is no need to panic less than two months into his administration. Besides, who is going to be stupid enough to listen to them anyway since they are the ones who created this mess.
But the two topics that I mentioned at the top of this article are a direct result of rushing to a fix. There is still no better plan than my Bailout Plan in the previous article. No one deserves the money more than the American people because of the way these banks, credit card, and mortgage companies have treated us and continue to treat us since some of them have received money from the government. Just look at two of the examples from the article. One man had his unlimited American Express limit reduced to $5000 when he owed $10,000. If you don't know, you have to pay your entire balance on American Express each month. Why would you attack a customer like this? The other example had a limit reduced from $9000 to $300 when the cardholder only owed $360, thus putting him over the credit limit and he had to pay a penalty. How in the hell can this be legal? Here is another article where you can read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/15/AR2008111500216.html
By reducing your credit limit, it reduces your available credit, and reduces your credit ratio, which in turn reduces your credit score. So now some people with excellent credit scores will be lowered into the good bracket, thus costing them more in interest rates IF they can get more credit. This is the thanks the American taxpayers get for bailing out these companies, much as I predicted in my previous article. Then you have AIG. Not only are they paying bonuses to employees, they are going mostly to the division of the company that caused them to fail in the first place. All of this comes from not investigating these companies before giving them money. They should have been investigated and audited to find out why they went under, not just take their word for it. Hell, before they give you money they want to know your life history, so they should be subjected to even more scrutiny since their business failed.
So Pres. Obama, you face your first major setback as an administrator because you rushed to solve a problem that needs precise detail and judgement. I'm not saying your plan won't work, it has to be given time. But I guarantee my plan will show improvement much faster if implemented properly. Maybe even a combination of the two plans. As you are finding out, a lot of the people you trusted can't be trusted. They are only going to continue to come up with weak solutions that will benefit their ties to their corporate backers while the American people continue to suffer.
The credit card industry has been compared to loan sharks with their ability to increase interest rates above the 20 % level and to change terms at their leisure to further reduce your credit worthiness. At the same time, I can remember when banks gave you as much as 8% interest on savings and 6% on checking accounts. Now you get zero on checking and less than one percent on your savings. Remember, banks use your money to operate and this is how they repay you. Actually, you are loaning the banks money. It's like giving money to your brother to hold and he invests it behind your back, makes millions and doesn't give you any of the profits. He just gives you back what you ask for. In conclusion, I can't see how any plan to rescue the loan sharks is going to help the sheep that have been fleeced.
