UH OH, SOMEBODY GOT THROWN UNDER the CASH for CLUNKERS BUS!

Apparently, used car dealers and car repair places are watching some of their best customers disappear right in front of their eyes as cash for clunkers gobbles up their pride and joy, oldish cars that still work and need to be maintained. Used Cars that can be repaired, reused, and resold.

Will the used car industry get a bailout?

One thing that remains obvious to me is, Consumer credit card debt MUST BE DRIVEN DOWN by offering incentives to those who have debt and are trying to pay their credit card debt down. If frugal people who were getting by on their older cars now have purchased newer cars, haven't they just taken on more debt?

I think the most obvious incentive to help our economy is to waive any future interest rate charges on existing credit card debt, not waive the debt, just waive future interest rate charges, penalties and fees for those who are trying to pay down their credit card debt.

I don't have a suggestion for the used car industry other than sorry you were in the way of the Barack Obama "throw em under the bus" Express. Lets just hope that Michelle didn't look around one day and say, "there's so many yucky cars on the road, do something about it, honey".

HOW YOU CAN HELP! MAKE A DAILY-PROTEST.com sign and put it where others will see it. Daily-Protest.com signs can be placed in a storefront window, a bulletin board at work, or a countertop. Raise curiosity and awareness about how Chase Bank is harming a LOT of of their BEST customers by making a Daily-Protest.com sign.

Putting the Klunk in Cash for Clunkers.

There have been a few complaints against the cash for clunkers program as being just another government bailout boondoggle. One writer calculated that the actual increase in the number of cars that would be sold this quarter would be around 22,000. They then divided that figure by the one billion dollars and determined that the cost per additional car sold was around 40-44,000 dollars per car! Ouch!

I don't think the above calculation takes into account mitigating circumstances such as would sales have really been only 22,000 cars less without the discount? Also, were I a superficial ninny and my friend who was driving a real clunker suddenly shows up in a car nicer than mine, I'm heading to the car lot and I'm going to buy a newer, better car, and WITHOUT the clunker discount!

So it may be too early to predict how many more cars will be sold. Plus, there are a LOT LESS dealerships around these days, so actually gaining 22,000 more car sales could actually work out to a significant percentage increase among the remaining car dealerships.

However, I think there is a more tangible concern to roil over in regards to the cash for clunkers progrm. Some of the clunkers being turned in are simply being replaced by an 09 clunker. Check out this ad,

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE
What does purchasing a huge SUV have to do with the cash for clunkers program? You have to really study the ad to see that the bottom car in the ad, the Yukon, has no cash for clunkers discount attached, they just chose to add a similar discount to try and get the super hatchling out the door with the other slightly less clunkery vehicles.

Which brings me to my gripe.

ONLY A 2 MPG INCREASE and a customer can turn in an old super heavy clunker for a new super heavy clunker?

I understand that 2 miles per gallon improvement on a big heavy clunker is percentage wise better than it sounds. However, I would have tied the clunker discount directly to the MPG of the New Car Being purchased, that's what really matters, isn't it? Any new car that gets 27 miles per gallon combined, or over, gets a 2,500 dollar discount. For every additional mile per gallon over 27 that a new car can squeeze out in the miles per gallon category, I would have added an extra 250 dollars discount, up to 40 miles per gallon ceiling on the new car purchase. If you turn in a clunker and buy a car that gets 39 miles per gallon combined, you would get a 5,500 dollar rebate.

The higher the MPG of the car being purchased, the higher the likelihood that that new car won't tear up the streets and make potholes out of the newly minted pavement that has been resurfaced with infrastructure stimulus money, and, perhaps, we stall off making new potholes from bombs in other parts of the world as we seek out new sources of oil.

Lets have some perspective here. Is it really that big of a deal to drive a car that gets really good gas mileage if it means less wars around the globe, AND the government is willing to help you pay for the car? It's just too bad the government had to put the k in klunker and just not go far enough with this program in terms of really promoting higher miles per gallon cars.

I talked about the importance of combining stimulus programs so they end up complementing each other. The more fuel efficient cars on the road, the longer the roads last, ergo infrastructure money going towards roads is an investment that now lasts longer. In my opinion paying people to barely upgrade their miles per gallon on their new car purchase misses the whole point of the cars for clunkers program.

HOW YOU CAN HELP! MAKE A DAILY-PROTEST.com sign and put it where others will see it. Daily-Protest.com signs can be placed in a storefront window, a bulletin board at work, or a countertop. Raise curiosity and awareness about how Chase Bank is harming a LOT of of their BEST customers by making a Daily-Protest.com sign.

Huffington Post AGAIN takes a Swipe at Wall Street, Bankers, and Barack Obama's Bailout Stimulus Package.

Sorry Arianna, you can't undo last year's election, and you can't change Barack Obama's mind. Anybody who abdicates their power to Barack Obama becomes an ally of Barack Obama, even if they are about to crash and burn whatever it is they do for a living.

Link to Andy Kroll's column appears on Huffington Post and he lets Wall Street and the Barack Obama Administration have it when it comes to the bailout, stimulus package, and anything to do with artificially stimulating the economy while ignoring the backbone of america, the actual citizens.

Link to the time Huffington Post called Barack Obama the "Bankcentric Kid".

More Proof that Wall Street is Out of Touch with the Real Economy and Real Americans as Credit Card Companies Continue to Suck the Economy Dry.

Click here for the most recent DailyPUMA article.

(Edit note, a couple of weeks after the writing of this article comes a powerful article from Asia Times that basically concurs with a few of the major points made below. ASIA Times on the Global Economy.)

(2nd Edit Note, Monday May 18th, 2009, almost three weeks after what was written below comes an article questioning the stock markets recent rise.)

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Since I started my Daily-Protest against Chase Bank and the credit card industry, my television viewing time has dropped. Very very early this morning, while I was revamping Daily-Protest.com, I had the overnight news on.

The CBS overnight news kept replaying a story that the worst was behind us, that inventories had depleted, and that sometime this year the economy would pick-up. The only way the economy will pick up this year is if the CREDIT CARD INDUSTRY does EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of what they are presently doing!

Lets add up middle america economic indicators, the real indicators, the ones that matter. Joblessness, continues to rise. Home prices continue to drop. Rising home sales are from forclosures. Car Dealerships, going out of business too fast to count. Credit Card debt, rising.

Funding two wars halfway around the world, priceless.

If the world's net worth has dropped by 1/2 over the past year or two, but the world's unsecured debt has remained the same, then that means that the worlds unsecured debt has actually doubled when comparing the numbers! 

Factor in that the Credit card companies have actually raised interest rates, stolen frequent flyer miles from their best customers, are labeling anybody a with low interest rate on their unsecured debt as a toxic asset, and are assessing huge, 100% to 400% increases in the interest rates whenever a customer is late on a payment, and we can actually safely state that the credit card industry's percent of the world wide wealth has increased by at least another 100% on top of that doubling!

But wait, it is even worse than that. After a person is late on just one credit card payment, the other credit card companies can also raise that person's credit card interest rate to around 30%. Eventually people give up trying to pay down a debt at 30 percent interest rate. However, before the debt is given up on by the credit card company, it keeps growing by obscene amounts every month. 30% unpaid interest can increase one's debt by 50% or more every year!

The overly inflated credit debt keeps racking up higher and higher debt. Then it goes into default. The entire debt, that has been first outrageously inflated by 50 to 100%, is then sold to a bill collection agency for a portion of the total debt due. When the banks sell the defaulted debt, it might be 60 cents on the dollar, 40 cents on the dollar or even just 25 cents on the dollar. However, because of how the debt was so rapidly inflated at that 30% interest rate, the bank actually doesn't lose any money, even if they sell the debt at 25 to 30 cents on the dollar!

Here is where it gets really ugly. The bank is able to then write off the ENTIRE overly inflated debt that caused the debtor to eventually give up trying to pay it off. Imagine if you could being keep all of the money you earned in a years time while legally claiming that you lost an additional 50% and are owed a rebate, or bailout money from the government!

But wait, it's even worse than that! Not only do the banks get this huge credit card default write off on their 30% interest credit card debt, they then can receive new bailout monies from the government to help mitigate phantom credit card loan losses that don't actually exist!

But wait, it's even worse than that. The banks hold on to the new bailout money, refusing to circulate the very money the government has allocated them. By not releasing this new bailout money and not using it to lower credit card interest rates to the consumer, tens of millions of americans continue to create more and more debt on their credit cards, and the entire credit card debt cycle mentioned above repeats again!

But wait it's even worse than that. The banks then squeeze those who relying their credit card debt and home equity line debt to get through these bad economic times by REDUCING their credit lines, sometimes to BELOW what they owe! Now factor in those who have missed a payment for a medical emergency, job layoff, even an electronic billing mistake that can easily happen when a credit card company CHANGES THE DATE on a bill without informing the customer! All of these are reasons for the credit card company to raise the interest rate to 30%! 

Yet many of these law abiding citizens fight to salvage their credit score, resulting in additional huge profits for the banks from those who believe a debt is a debt that must be repaid, even at 30% interest. Unfortunately, a 30% interest rate is so high that unless one can make at least 3 times the monthly minimum due, or pay the debt off in full right away, the debt may never go down fast enough.

If one gives up trying to pay a 30% interest rate card, the banks make huge profits from several different sources. If a customer continues to pay 30% interest, the banks are happy because the customer is just stalling the inevitable, in essence creating additional wealth for the banks before the customer eventually defaults. The banks win no matter what the indentured credit card borrower does once the interest rate is raised to 30%.

The banks are winning every which way even as the FDIC "clamps down" on the banks for not having enough cash reserves.

So, going back to our percentage analysis of unsecured debt and how much it has increased when compared to the world's actual wealth, we can safely add another layer of gross profiting by the credit card industry at the worlds misery. Credit Card debt may have actually increased by over 400% when it is compared to the amount of perceived wealth that still remains in the world's economy.

Credit Card debt at 30% interest IS the additional hidden tax being perpetuated on the world's economy.

But wait, it may be even worse than everything stated above. What if the bankers, upon classifying a credit card loan at 30% that the consumer has given up trying to pay back, a "toxic asset", sells that "bad" credit card loan to another company that is run by a friend, a relative, a lover, a drug cartel? If the banker is in anyway connected with the new buyer of the debt they have resold, that means the banker has found an additional way to profit from the same piece of debt, also known as insider trading or collusion.

So, going back to our percentage analysis of unsecured debt, we can safely add another layer of gross profiting at the worlds misery. 

Over the past two years, Credit Card debt may have actually increased over 500% when compared to the amount of perceived wealth that remains in the world's economy. I don't have to know what the actual two numbers are to make an estimate at the percentage amount. A 500% percent increase in credit card debt as compared to the world's perceived economic value cannot be a good thing, can it?

And if I am correct, then there is NO WAY THE eCONomy can recover, unless some of these usurious interest rates are made to disappear.

So what do the credit card companies do in this time of worldwide crisis? They raise the interest rates on all of their credit cards while trying to destroy the credit rating of their best customers by raising the monthly minimum payment on these always on time paying customers by 250%.

Won't you join me in fighting back? Just put a Daily-Protest.com sign somewhere where others will see it. It is really that simple. Learn more at CHASE BANK PROTEST DAY-9, HOW YOU CAN HELP. IT IS FREE AND YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO PROTEST.

This LINK just in, Congress Fiddles while Home burns. If everybody had less to interest to pay on old credit card debt, they'd automatically have more money to apply towards their mortgage payment.

BREAKING NEWS, CHASE BANK LIES ON NATIONAL TELEVISION ABOUT THEIR OPT OUT POLICY.

Sigh, I just can't believe Chase would actually say they allow OPT OUT OPTIONS on national television when it is a bold face lie. CHASE LIES ON NATIONAL TELEVISION. The lie is near the end of the short youtube video located at this link.

A Challenge to Fox Television and Rush Limbaugh, STOP Encouraging Anti Obama April 15 Tea Party Protests and Encourage Protests against Chase Bank.

Daily-Protest.com
Daily-Protest.com

Can you see Fox News ever taking on the credit card industry with promos encouraging people to protest against the banks? If the idea of Fox News taking on the Credit Card Industry makes you laugh, then perhaps you should be offended that Fox News Television is instead egging people on to protest on April 15th about their government, their president, the bailout and taxes, even as Fox News says and does nothing about the banks.


Well Newt, will we ever hear you utter a negative word about what Chase Bank and soon to follow Citibank and are doing to the same americans that you want to convince should put all of their energy on blaming government and none on corporations?

Banks are actually doing more damage to blue collar america with their 250% monthly minimum payment increase on pre-existing low interest credit card agreements. The banks are "rushing" to get back to financial stability by financial suffocating trustworthy americans who have never been late on their low interest credit card payments just so they can put up slightly better numbers on Wall Street.

Daily-Protest.com

Speaking of Rush Limbaugh, would Rush Limbaugh ever go on the air and castigate the credit card companies for their recent actions in raising the rates on low interest accounts that were supposed to be fixed for the life of the loan? Maybe Rush should spend a bit more time fighting for the blue collar worker rather than getting his followers in a lather over political issues. This is about people Rush. When have you ever fought for People that are being directly attacked by Credit Card Companies.

Learn more about Chase and their evil, evil ways at Daily-Protest.com

Arianna Huffington's new nickname for Barack Obama, The BankCentric Kid, and She's Right, for a Change, ahem.

For the past several weeks, I have had an uneasy feeling about all of those "meetings" Barack Obama has had with Wall Street Bankers and the financial "stall warts" that really don't relate to US.

JOHN ZIEGLER ACROSS AMERICA TOUR
CLICK HERE TO SEE MEDIA MALPRACTICE SCHEDULE

I've never quite felt comfortable with Barack Obama's ability to connect with the everyday person during last year's election because Obama also relied on the corporate elite banker to win the white house. These two groups couldn't be more polar opposite and don't relate to each other.

I do believe Barack Obama deserves a year before he is judged. However, I keep seeing the same type of pattern emerging that makes me wonder if it is going to be pointless to wait a year before judging.

Passing a heavy handed bailout package that has no support at all from the other major political party is what I call a forfeit victory. The other side didn't have enough players to compete effectively, so the game is called without being played and is called a forfeit victory.

WHO CELEBRATES A FORFEIT VICTORY?

In sports, the winning side must be very careful if they choose to celebrate a forfeit victory. In some baseball competitions, a team can get a forfeit victory by being ahead by either 10 or 15 runs. The winner is wise to not openly gloat about their "mercy rule" victory in front of the losing team and instead may wait until later, just as Barack Obama did after the bailout bill passed and celebrated at the white house. However...

If the other side did not have enough players to compete at the start of the game, this too can be called a forfeit victory. I can pretty much guarantee that NOBODY celebrates a forfeit win when the other side can't even field enough players at the start of the game.

When it came to the passage of the bailout bills, one could call that a forfeit victory as well as the Republicans could not even field enough congress people to prevent a "mercy rule" victory.

Barack Obama celebrated his bailout bill mercy rule victories at a white house party replete with 100 dollar a pound wagyu steaks imported from Japan. Welcome to Barack Obama's world, where celebrating a slam dunk victory when the other side could not even field enough players, is a way of life. Not much different than when Barack Obama had his opponents disqualified for technical reasons in past political races. The patterns seem to remain the same and point to someone who thinks he is growing even as he performs the same old tricks he always has.

While Media Matters disputed the 150-170 million dollar estimated expenditures for Barack Obama's Inauguration, was it really necessary to spend that much money while people were actually freezing to death in their homes across the country? What if Barack Obama had budgeted 150 million for the Inauguration, then practiced his budget cutting skills and cut his own inauguration budget to 75 million, and then used some of the saved money to pay the heating bills of people who instead froze to death?

Wouldn't that have sent a clear and loud message that Barack Obama was really going to "change" things? Wouldn't he have instantly mobilized and even won over some of his critics if he could have kept his inauguration budget to one dollar lower than the last inauguration?

Now Arianna Huffington, who IS HILLARY CLINTON'S BIGGEST NEMESIS on the planet, is calling Barack Obama and his administration a bankcentric driven team, and she doesn't like it one bit. Neither does George Soros. Barack Obama's team of rivals seems to be in the habit of looking for the next forfeit in which they can unanimously declare a victory and then celebrate with 100 dollar wagyu steaks. It appears they don't even buy their victory steaks from a US company. Wow.

The latest evidence of Barack Obama's next forfeit victory was his recent statement that little cracks of light are shining through the economic gloom as Wall Street indicators begin to brighten...even as the credit card companies are wreaking havoc on millions of customers who have stellar credit and payment histories!

When the credit card companies begin to steal frequent flyer miles from their most loyal and trustworthy customers, and when the credit card companies begin to increase monthly minimum payments by 150% on their customers who practice smart borrowing habits, can one really state that the economic gloomy clouds are lifting?

Perhaps the better question is, for whom are the gloomy economic clouds lifitng? Certainly not for the almost 2 million Chase bank customers who suddenly have to come up with as much as 500 dollars a month for a credit card bill they have never been late paying in the past or they will lose their super-low interest rate loan.

It seems to me if you believe in the everyday person Mr. President, and feel their pain, (ahem), you would want to harness those people's expectations and enthusiasm and guide them into creating their own success. Instead, I get the sense that the everyday person is really there to feed Barack Obama's world, and not the other way around.

Did you know that you You may be a Toxic Asset and not even know it! The reality that any american who accepted a low interest "until the loan was paid off" credit card offer from Chase Bank and other banks may now been labeled a toxic asset! These customers with low interest loan rates are being isolated for eradication by the credit card companies and is ANOTHER example of a Barack Obama team of rivals forfeit victory. The destruction of these smart consumers now know as toxic assets will generate more profit for the credit card companies as their credit rating gets slashed, thereby ensuring they pay higher interest rates on their debts, which creates more value on Wall Street. Is this the way banks are to operate so Barack Obama can then state that the economic clouds are lifting?

The amount of trustworthy credit card customers who were offered life of the loan, low interest credit card rates is relatively small, perhaps just a couple of million of customers who still have these great rates intact. Yet the bankers can't wait to destroy these customer's credit rating by raising their monthly minimum payment from 2% to 5%, a 150% increase above and beyond what they are already paying, with no opt out clause for the consumer!

If Barack Obama believes that labeling credit card customers with stellar payment histories "toxic assets" as one key to fixing the economy, then that is not the type of economy that needs fixing.

To Arianna Huffington, just what was in it for you to elect the "BankCentric Kid" in the first place since you now condemn his BankCentric approach?

Are you a Toxic Asset? Chase and Citibank may have you Pegged as a Toxic Asset, Especially if you Pay your Bills on Time!

Click here to see the most current DailyPUMA article.

Do you make all of your credit card payments on time? Do you scour the credit card companies for their best offers? Do you reject the credit card companies 6 month low interest rate offers that then skyrocket to much higher interest rates and instead hold out for the longer, LIFE OF THE LOAN, LOW INTEREST RATE credit card offers?

When you were offered LIFE OF THE LOAN, LOW INTEREST RATE CREDIT CARD OFFERS specifically because you have been a good customer who always paid your bills on time, did you ever think the banking industry would one day call your loan, and you, a toxic asset? 

Well let me be the first to tell you, YOU ARE A TOXIC ASSET IF YOU HAVE ALWAYS PAID YOUR BILLS ON TIME, AND YOU MUST BE CONVERTED TO SOILED GREEN.Soiled Green is the act of banks trying to SOIL your credit rating by increasing your monthly minimum payment 250%. When you can't afford this 250% increase (600 dollars a month for some customers) the banks then report your Toxicness to the credit bureaus and then charge you obscenely higher interest rates on the very same debt you previously had been paying down for years, on time.

In the movie Soylent Green, we discover the food source at the end of the movie is other humans. In this instance, we discover that the banks appear bent on destroying good credit scores of their most reliable customers so they can add fees and dramatically increase interest rates on them. Then these new found profits will be fed to those with poorer credit, resulting in even more loans at ridiculously high interest rates.

Once the formerly good credit rating is soiled, the customers OTHER CREDIT CARD LOANS will most likely get hit with much higher interest rates as well. Only then will Wall Street Be Happy because it means these robber baron banks have created more profit. At which point, the person with the formerly excellent credit history becomes a frightened worker bee whose only mission is to try and pay bills, nothing else matters nor do they care to get involved or protest basically illegal credit card actions out of fear they will fall further behind with their bills.

If americans do want to peacefully fight back against the credit card companies, please check out www.Daily-Protest.com. Not only will you be saving your fellow american, the one hour a day protest is turning out to be wonderful exercise!

When Chase and Citibank get through with you and you default on your long term low interest rate balance transfer loan because Chase and Citibank have increased the monthly minimum payment by 250%, Chase and Citibank can then file liens on your home, all the while charging you 1,000 percent more in interest on that same low interest, life of the loan credit card offer that you used to pay on time, and pay down, every month before the change in terms happened.

Chase and Citibank will now call you a toxic asset. In truth, you are actually a "Converted Toxic Asset". You were converted from being a solid, always paying on time customer, to a toxic asset, courtesy of Chase and Citibank and other banks that will soon follow their lead.A portion of the population was called "bitter" last year, now this year, additional americans are being converted to toxic assets by the banks who lent then money then changed the terms without giving these customers an opt out option.

For those of you who don't have these credit card loans and think this doesn't affect you, chances are a small business owner near has seen their business revenue decline because customers are now overpaying Chase and Citibank. Chances are a family friend or neighbor has been affected, and has internalized their problem rather than gone public.

Divide and conquer is a tried and true method and that is exactly what JP Morgan Chase Bank and Citibank are doing. Maybe you are not Bitter, nor a Toxic Asset, nor had your frequent flyer miles stolen and resold for better loan terms between American Airlines and Citibank, nor had a change in terms that you were not allowed to opt out, but most certainly some people who use your products or services have been affected, and that WILL affect your bottom line.

(edit note, Citibank seems to be waiting to pounce with their own change in terms plan, they may be waiting to see how much public outrage there is over what Chase Bank has already done before doing it themselves. I had been told by a Citibank worker that they were doing what Chase Bank was doing when I first wrote this article, but so far Citibank has shown far more integrity than Chase Bank by not following Chase Bank's path.)

Credit Card Companies Increase Global Warming Risk Every Time they Increase Interest Rates on Old Credit Card Debt.

While the media trains us to believe that Wall Street is the God of all Gods, the wall street banks that received huge amounts of bailout money from the government continue to RAISE their credit card interest rates on their customers.

It is one thing to charge higher interest rates on new credit card debt, but it is evil to retroactively raise the credit card interest rate on old debt. The longer it takes a consumer to pay off an old credit card debt because banks are now increasing credit card interest rates, the more that consumer has to work to pay off their old, ever rising debt, and the less money there is available to maintain the present economy.

Old credit card debt requires the consumption of even more of the earth's resources by that consumer/worker as they attempt to earn more money so they can pay down their old debt that the banks have already profited from handsomely.  If this old debt could be paid down to zero, than the person has a choice, either buy new products, but at a slower rate, or just consume less and not run up new debt.

Plus, if the monthly minimum payment were increased to 8 or 10% of the total due, most people would not run up as much debt as they did when the monthly minimum payment was 2% of the total due, and more of their payment would go towards principle as well.  The higher monthly minimum payment would help conserve the world's resources by reducing life long indenturedness.  Life long indenturedness helps cause global warming, assuming you believe global warming is occurring.

Show me jobs that don't require the earth's resources and everyone could be a millionaire. Show me a person working to pay down an old debt that continues to inflate because of 15, 20 and 30% interest rates, and I'll show you why we are doomed as a planet.

Yes, older credit card debt causes increased global warming risks. If you don't believe in global warming risks, the accelerated overuse of limited earth resources occurs when people work to earn money to pay off old credit card debt that the banks have already profited from.

Old credit card debt continues to increase and multiply because of the obscene interest rates associated with them, sort of like the way cancer increases and multiplies. If you think cancer is good, then so is old, high interest, credit card debt.

As we move forward, the argument can be made that raising interest rates on NEW DEBT will result in less overall money being borrowed, and therefore the more profitable the bank's credit card divisions will become. In other words, people will borrow less money overall, but banks will profit more quickly from the higher interest rates. Additionally, a borrower will see more quickly how much they can actually afford to borrow before they can no longer afford the monthly payments.

However, those sneaky low monthly minimum credit card payments still entrap many consumers who use credit cards, and that is the way the banks have always wanted it, and is a significant part of the debt problem nowadays. If banks had just charged higher monthly minimums all along, there would be a lot less debt right now.

Do you see what is happening? LESS IS MORE! Banks give out less money, but charge higher interest rates, thereby making the God of Cable Media, Wall Street, happy. The problem is the EXISTING CONSUMER CREDIT CARD DEBT that was borrowed when everybody had more wealth and opportunities to pay it off, has gotten railroaded into the new, less money borrowed, higher interest rate charged paradigm. The result is increasing consumer indenturedness from their old time credit card debt, which in turn suffocates the worldwide economy from maintaining as we move forward.

Banks were forgiven on their old time debt, can consumers at least have the luxury of paying down their OLD CREDIT CARD DEBTS INTEREST FREE? The ratio of unsecured debt versus home equity has never been worse, and to allow the banks to continue to charge outrageous interest rates on old time credit card debt that they have already made huge profits from is an abomination that will offset any consumer benefit that lower mortgage rates may bring.

What makes Wall Street happy, does not necessarily translate into better times for the consumer, and that is something the media refuses to acknowledge, let alone report.

Six Simple Ideas to help people, the economy, and reduce foreclosures.

1. All Renters should be allowed to fully deduct their yearly rent charges on their income tax. The renter's "deduction / savings" would automatically be deposited into a 4% interest bearing account that could be spent on education, medical emergencies / insurance, or used towards a down payment on a home.

2. Instantly reduce ALL primary home mortgages to a Fixed 4% interest rate.

3. Send Full Tax Disclosure statements to all tax payers that calculate and reveal the SUM TOTAL of all the taxes they paid throughout the prior year.

4. Reduce interest rate charges on ALL credit card debt that is older than 1.5 years to zero percent for those that can keep on making their monthly payments.

5. An Additional credit card incentive, pay twice the monthly minimum due and ALL INTEREST RATE CHARGES FOR THAT MONTH ARE WAIVED.

5. Make Tax Refund Checks instantly depositable into special savings accounts that pay 4%, allow citizens the ability to deposit a matching amount as well, don't tax the interest from this account.

6. Make balloon mortgages illegal, instead, have the monthly mortgage slowly inflate, even if it is a month by month increase, have it be such a small amount that the mortgage payer can afford the increases for a few years after the increases have started.

The Bailout Noise and Stimulus Package Succeeds in Obfuscating the Real Heart of the Matter.

Click here for most recent DailyPUMA article.

Barack Obama wants to reprise the role of the Grinch as he throws 1/2 trillion dollars from his sleigh (not counting tax cuts), back to the very people who were robbed in the first place.

Oh wait a minute, the Grinch did a much better job of returning the stolen goods to those who actually were robbed. I suppose one could say that the robbery happened under George Bush, and that Barack Obama is just picking up the pieces and "redistributing" the lost wealth as best he can.

Whatever your view of the sub-prime mortgages that first fueled, then fooled, then unspooled the economy, the one thing that stands out, and that is conveniently ignored by the elite of our society is...overnight increases in home mortgage payments that rise more than 10% are unethical, will, and did crash & burn the economy.

Instead of sub prime mortgage programs that wildly spike at the five year mark, what if the homeowners monthly payment started going up at the five year mark by just one percent (not the interest rate, but the monthly payment plus one percent, then the next month the monthly payment plus 2 percent) each month when the subprime loans vested after five years? What would have happened? Customers would have had their own built in "bailout plan" in the form of TIME.

If subprime loans SLOWLY ESCALATED the customer would have had PLENTY of TIME to sell their home if they found they could not keep up with the increasing payments.

Rather than force homeowners out of their home practically overnight, the homeowner could easily have had another six months to five years to sell their home WHILE STILL MAKING THEIR MONTHLY PAYMENTS TO THE BANKS!

Sub-prime borrowers would have made educated guesses as to how long they could afford their slowly escalating mortgages, and would have been much more likely to sell their homes in a timely fashion without being desperate when they did it. Just as importantly, the homeowner would have continued making their payments. Instead, as structured, the sub prime mortgage five year spike resulted in many homeowners simply giving up and even walking away from the home.

A SLOW ESCALATION in the monthly mortgage payment would have been a more responsible method for both stimulating the economy without it collapsing almost overnight. I believe somebody should go on trial over the design of the sub-prime mortgage program. Millions of consumers in the US and elsewhere had their sub-prime loans converted to foreclosure simply because the overnight price escalation was an abomination they could not afford.

Homeowners who bought into sub prime loans, in many instances were lured there by bankers and other money people who told them they would be foolish to not invest in a home purchase if the cost to own was not that much higher than renting. Add in the lure of rising home property values, and in most instances this was no different than entrapment.

Yes, it is possible that the sub prime mortgage industry was a plot to first falsely escalate both the economy and real estate values, and then cause the almost immediate foreclosure and LOSS of EQUITY to practically everybody in the country. Meanwhile, Credit Card Debt now remains at a record all time high as a ratio of credit card debt to total home equity in the United States. The banks appear to have won every which way even as they clamored for more bailout money.

The banks have really made out a lot better than the media tends to report. There seems to be a latent desire to scarlet letter law abiding citizens so they can be taxed and charged excessively in the future,because of past sub-prime mortgage failures. "Oh, you had a subprime loan that turned into a foreclosure? Well, you'll have to pay a penalty in the future for our fraudulent and unfair subprime loan scam that heavily contributed to your practically overnight foreclosure in the past".

Will anybody enact a law that limits how quickly a home mortgage payment can escalate from one month to the next? The sub prime loan swindlers not only got away with the past sub prime mortgage scam, they also have been given bailout money for the next great swindle as well, and the consumers that were victimized by the sub-prime loan received a scarlet letter stamped on their forehead that will cost them dearly the next time they attempt to purchase a home or buy a car.

Keith Olbermann and Richard Wolfe Absolve Hillary Clinton For her Iraq War Vote without even realizing it, Amazing.

Keith Olbermann of MSNBC and Richard Wolfe of Newsweek engaged in an incredible exchange during Keitho's Friday night show. (Feb. 06, 2009) The hidden message behind their discourse was so profoundly counter to the harrassment that they lathered on Hillary Clinton during the democratic primary race least year, right around the first of February of 2008.

Here is the excerpt that DailyPUMA has transcribed from last nights show. After you read it the first time, I'll explain how to decode the hidden message lurking within.

Keith Olbermann

Time to call in our own political analyst, Richard Wolfe. Good Evening Richard.

Richard Wolfe

Good Evening Keith.

Keith Olbermann

All right. Obviously the the moderates, the democratic moderates made this deal, Sherrie Brown was quoted about uh, about this before and several others, wha what about the other democrats, are they going to go along with this.

Richard Wolfe

Yeah, I think they are. Uh, look. Everyone's feeling the same pressure here and the pressure comes not uh, not slightly here from the economic numbers, which we just saw today those terrible unemployment numbers. Nobody wants to go out and face their own members in their districts or in their states and said-say that they didn't do something when the president was saying, saying it had to be done, so....

Yeah people are gonna get on board. Their gonna be unhappy, yes its rushed, no, not every piece of spending is gonna be inthere, but, in the end, the economic pressure, the political pressure from this president is just gonna be too great, and that was always the case with this bill. This was all symbolic from the beginning, but now is coming to a head.  - END OF QUOTE

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Mr. Wolfe is basically saying that the democratic senators really have no choice regarding the stimulus package vote, "whether they like it or not, it's gonna happen". Now, think back to the possibly paid off protestors during last years democratic presidential campaign that would follow Hillary Clinton around and scream at her for voting yes for the war in Iraq.

I'm going to take Richard Wolfe's own words, and by REPLACING JUST A HANDFUL OF THEM, the comment sounds exactly like justification for supporting George Bush going to war in Iraq.

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Keith Olbermann

All right. Obviously the the moderates, the democratic moderates made this deal, Sherrie Brown was quoted about uh, about this before and several others, wha what about the other democrats, are they going to go along with this.

Richard Wolfe's comments, when applied to the vote on the Iraq War.

Yeah, I think they are. Uh, look. Everyone's feeling the same pressure here and the pressure comes not uh, not slightly here from the ongoing terrorism threat, which we just saw those terrible numbers, 3000 dead. Nobody wants to go out and face their own members in their districts or in their states and said-say that they didn't do something when the president was saying, saying it had to be done, so....

Yeah people are gonna get on board. Their gonna be nervous, yes its rushed, no, not every piece of the war plan is in there, but, in the end, the pressure to stop terrorism before it comes to the U.S. again, the political pressure from president Bush is just gonna be too great, and that was always the case with the Iraq war vote. This was all symbolic from the beginning, but now is coming to a head.

-------------------------------------------end of slightly altered quote.

I barely changed the passage, yet word for word it could have been used by Wolfe to describe why the Iraq war vote was going to pass.

One could try and argue that, well, Wolfe is talking about the party that is in power, that they are the ones in lock step with their own president. However, that argument falls apart because George Bush was saying, back me, we are in danger of another act like the World Trade center collapse if we don't fight the war outside of the United States. Factor in the argument that the troops in Afghanistan could be outflanked if Iraq was ignored, and the democrats were basically there to support the president. 

Blaming Hillary Clinton for George Bush's war was lame. Has a senator ever stopped a war? But suddenly the first woman candidate can only run and be accepted if she had stopped George Bush's war? What kind of a load is that?

Olbermann and Wolfe chastized Hillary Clinton for voting yes on the war in Iraq during the early stages of the 2008 democratic campaign race and used it as a reason why she could not be president of the United States. 

This was just another in a series of planned out anti Hillary smokescreens to discredit her campaign. As more and more of these plots come to light, it sure looks like a planned conspiracy from within the democratic party and the media to elevate Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton.

Will we ever find out if any of those anti Hillary protestors who claimed she could not be president because of her yes vote on the war on Iraq, were paid off? Olbermann and Wolfe sure appear to have been.

Fixing Infrastructure DOES NOT stimulate the economy, it actually does the opposite.

When it comes to "infrastructure" spending, unless a road, bridge, electrical line, or sewage system's collapse is imminent, not spending on infrastructure can actually stimulate the economy faster.

Instead of government prematurely fixing infrastructure, let the private sector know which potholes are not going to be filled so private investors can invest in alignment shops, tire stores, car repair bays, and build the repair shops on both sides of the potholes. Even rims and hubcap places will experience terrific economic stimulation if infrastructure is just left as is and assuming general safety is not being compromised. This will save the government billions on unnecessary infrastructure repairs, and many many new car repair businesses will crop up as a result of LESS infrastructure spending.

One key to a useful stimulus program is to stimulate the consumer to get the consumer to want to pay to fix things that they own that break, including their cars. Another aspect to not going crazy on infrastructure repair is to motivate the consumer to go out and buy a new, "stronger car" that comes with a pothole protection plan. (I bet some car manufacturer will now come up with such a program)

Flying road debris may also stimulate cars into being repainted more often. The less roads that are fixed the more overall stimulation is created, it's how the west was won.

The key to capitalism has never been about efficiency, it's always been about filling the needs of people in need. If we prematurely fix roads and bridges while they still work, we are just increasing the country's long term debt via this bailout bill while simultaneously hurting all aspects of auto maintenance and auto manufacturing.

Better roads mean people's cars will last much much longer than they currently do. Plus, those extra automobile fix it shops that were going to be built near the potholes, the people those new businesses were going to employ, and the taxes that these businesses were all going to pay, never happened because all the roads were fixed instead.

One pothole making machine can do a whole lot more economic stimulating than one hundred construction people fixing an unbroken road ever could.

"But, but, you can't be serious". Well, consider this a "Modern Proposal".

Assuming that infrastructure repair means the timely maintenance of roadways, bridges, electrical and sewage lines and has been done on an annual basis following a logical maintenance schedule, than it really should be business as usual and no stimulus program is needed for infrastructure at all....

....unless, the overall rate of yearly infrastructure deterioration has been occurring at a much greater rate than it was being repaired all along???

If the government is behind on its infrastructure repair maintenance schedule AND the economy is tanking as well, then clearly the government didn't spend wisely over the past few decades on infrastructure, and instead diverted infrastructure funds to pad their own pet projects in ways we'll never know. "If you don't have the money to do infrastructure right the first time, how are you going to have the money to do infrastructure correctly, later?" I would suggest that using taxpayer money to give roadways a new coat of asphalt before it is necessary, is not a way to stimulate the economy.

Fixing only the neediest bridges and roads is all that is needed for infrastructure, and that infrastructure money should already have been allocated within the yearly budget anyways. "What, you mean money that was supposed to go to annual infrastructure maintenance was being diverted to other projects? Really???" So the government now wants to borrow even more money to do the work that should have been being done all along anyways???

Just who wants to stimulate a bunch of politicians now, when it appears they have used prior years budgets to stimulate their own needs rather than fix infrastructure at the proper yearly maintenance level? I don't.

I hope you can understand that as silly as this blog article seems, everything in it is the truth, and that is why we have a MUCH BIGGER problem related to how to run a worldwide economy without it being stimulated by wasteful spending and inefficiency.

Rachel Maddow and Bernie Sanders (Independent) Vermont, let the DailyPUMA cat out of the bag.

Update - April 11, 2016. The reason I do not support Bernie Sanders in 2016 is in the seven years since this article was first written I don't think he ever really came up with anything that would actually help consumers reduce their own debt. Instead Mr. Sanders railed against Wall Street when the more viable solution was to help consumers struggling to get out of debt.   End of Update.

I have predicted for the last two years that the economy was going to tank, I even wrote two websites over two years ago warning of the theft of money from the american consumer by the Banks and Wall Street. Credit-Card-Cap.com and Credit-Protector.com

Both Websites expose financial methods that loaning institutions have used to rob americans of billions upon billions of dollars.

Tonight (February 3rd, 2009), Rachel Maddow had Bernie Sanders on, a Vermont INDEPENDENT congressman who said something of real substance.

Here is the transcript of a crucial part of the Rachel Maddow, Bernie Sanders interview. I personally transcribed it, please link to it if you like (versus just cutting and pasting it) as it took quite a while to transcribe.

Rachel Maddow

If this executive pay cut can be done well, can be done without loopholes and it works, what's next on the agenda? Do you think in terms of making sure that the bailout money that is already committed, because the bailout money is already outflowing, that it should, can be used in a less exploitive, less immoral way?

Senator Bernie Sanders
Well Rachel, this is the problem with this issue, is, it is so big, that nobody can get their hands on it. It is not just 700 billion dollars, as you know the fed has lent out 2.5 trillion dollars. The president is probably going to ask for more top money.

The fed, we think, is going to lend out trillions more. So what we need to do, among many other things, is we need to figure out a way that we do more than get back to where we were a couple of years ago, by making the institutions stable.

If the taxpayers of this country are putting such a huge amount of money into financial institutions, we need financial institutions that are gonna be beholden to the needs of ordinary americans and not go back to where we were... (as in a couple years ago.)

For example, Just one example. Right now, we're bailing out banks which are charging american taxpayers 25 or 30 percent interest rates on their credit cards. Does that make sense to anybody?

We're giving banks money and they're not telling us how their spending it. We're trying to loosen up credit in america, they're not doing it.

Sanders went on to talk about actually prosecuting the richest people on the planet who may have performed misdeeds that have led to the current situation, and wondered if the justice department was up to the task prosecuting those who are culpable.

Now, I have been advocating an interest free paydown of all credit card debt on my WallStreetChange blog. Bernie Sanders has just said the exact same thing I have been saying about credit card debt. Credit Card Interest charges are suffocating the life support out of the economy and it makes no sense to give the banks more money if they cannot pass the savings on to the consumer in any way.

Barack Obama needs to be funding research and completion of photovoltaic plastics which would do two things at the same time. Photovoltaic plastics lighten the weight of all cargo carriers that travel by ground or water, which instantly improves the efficiency of any battery powered systems because of the lighter weight. Plus, the photovoltaic technology imbedded into the plastic means that the cargo carriers are actually rergenerating part of their own energy even as they travel! Because the carrier's weight has been reduced, whatever is regenerated will power the carrier that much farther.

Let the consumer sweat the smaller stuff. The one trillion dollars in credit card debt is producing 250 billion dollars a year in new interest charges. The republicans want a huge tax cut, the democrats want to give money out, those two ideas merge together if the consumer is given a reasonable way to pay down their own debts via zero percent credit card interest rates to those who desire to pay down their debt.