Daily PUMA Column - Commentary by Alessandro Machi

Friday, May 22, 2009

Even Arianna Huffington thinks the Credit Card Companies are out of control.

Click here to read Arianna Huffington's piece about how The Credit Card Industry is doing more harm than good right now.

However, when Arianna Huffington states, 
The Senate overwhelming approved legislation reining in some of the most egregious practices of credit card companies...Huffington couldn't more wrong. 
The Credit Card Bill is a watered down version of what it should have been. In the near future I'll post a link to a guest column I have written for another blog in which I highlight TEN THINGS THE CREDIT CARD REFORM BILL DID NOT address, but should have.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

CHASE BANK LOSES ROUND IN COURT OVER THEIR CREDIT CARD CONDUCT.

Chase bank lost a round in court yesterday when the judge ruled that they could not hide change in terms up their butt in the finely embroidered toliet paper embossings and then claim it didn't stink. 


I guess when wallowing in "up your buttness business protocol" on an ongoing basis, it gets hard to tell the difference between clean air and gaseous funk.
But this should be no surprise for Chase Bank president Keith Schuck, who recently stood in front of a group of impressionable fourth graders and explained how if they saved their money at 10 percent interest in a savings account, their money would grow real fast.


The fascinated school children allegedly couldn't wait to get home and tell their parents about 10 percent interest savings at Chase Bank.

The fact that at the time Chase President Keith Schuck used 10% interest savings rate as an example to these impressionable and vulnerable school children while the actual interest rate those schoolchildren's parents could get on their savings account was .01 percent, or TEN THOUSAND TIMES LESS INTEREST THAN what Keith Schuck used as an example has not seemed to cause much concern at Chase Bank, or the media.

Should we be surprised?The lesson Mr. Keith Schuch appears to be teaching is, it is ok to lie and deceive young kids if one is rich and "successful", and is president of a bank.

Meanwhile, Chase bank's name seems to be appearing all over the country in lawsuits being filed against them! I have no idea how many, but there was even one scheduled at the court where I had business to attend to.  I wanted to talk to the attorney for the person suing Chase but they were called into the judges chambers after the case was moved to a federal court!

lol, I never did find the attorney after he disappeared into the backroom, I even waited for an hour but then had to leave.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

BREAKING NEWS, JOHN ZIEGLER'S MEDIA MALPRACTICE PREMIERES IN NEW YORK CITY TONIGHT, MAY 19, 2009. SEE LINK TO A REVIEW OF THIS MUST SEE DOCUMENTARY.


Even though John Ziegler is known for being a conservative, his media malpractice documentary (which I am soon to view myself) focuses on how Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin were both done in by the media.

Please support this important documentary by attending the New York Premiere.

Monday, May 18, 2009

STOCK MARKET'S RECENT RISE MAY HAVE BEEN MANIPULATED BY WISHFUL THINKING OR INVESTORS WHO BOUGHT IN, NEITHER SCENARIO SEEMS CONCERNED ABOUT REALITY.

The link below goes to an article about how the stock market rise may have been wishful thinking by those who desire AND require the stock market to go up.  It appears to me that some people want the stock market to recover even while ignoring all the suffering that is going on specifically caused by unreasonable credit card company actions.

Why is it important for the stock market to somehow rise while credit card companies are charging 30% interest on their credit card lines?  More importantly, HOW can the stock market rise if people's productivity is robbed by these outrageous credit card interest rates that suck out all of the spending money people would otherwise have to buy goods and services in their own community?

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Stimulus Package and Higher Taxes are being fueled by The Credit Card Industry!

I have always been good with simple math. In one way this has been a bad thing because it enables me to see the mathematical manipulation of peoples lives while others don't seem to notice, yet I have no standing because I am not a physics major nor do I have a PHD in math.

Imagine being the character who yells out that "soylent green is dead people",  and nobody knows what you are talking about. Imagine being the person who coined the phrase, "if you build it, they will come", and nobody was interested.  

The Credit Card problem is becoming the soylent green of our entire economy. Even economists who state that the credit card industry is causing a huge economic problem will then state that the credit card problem is on equal footing with other economic problems, without seeing that credit cards may be the UNDERLYING problem that is affecting the other economic problems as well.

What is frustrating to me is that people who don't have credit card debt feel it is a problem that is beneath them, that it only affects the reckless and self indulgent, those who ASKED FOR IT.

That sentiment cannot be farther from the truth for most americans.

We are all interconnected mathematically. You could probably count on one hand the number of businesses that DO NOT take credit cards but do take debit cards. Even if you don't have credit card debt, or pay off your debt every month (bravo by the way), the place that employees you, and the vendors that either supply or purchase products or services from your business, in all likelihood RELY ON CREDIT. Without those credit lines, you may not still have your job, and guess what you might end up relying on to get by.

Now is the time to link the credit card industries recent actions to higher taxes. The credit card companies, the FDIC, and the federal reserve continue to suck out the fragile, economic life lubricant known as credit lines and lower interest credit card rates from every small city in the United States and their local economies. The credit card companies are also shafting their most reliable, honorable, never late paying, never miss a payment type of customer.

Credit card companies are ALSO sucking out the very economic life force that helps local, state, and federal governments meet their tax goals. So now there are two equal anti-economic forces working against the working class. 

As local credit dries up, and interest rates rise (even as the federal reserve drops interest rates to the banks) governments receive less in consumption taxes and property taxes as people make less purchases, home values drop and people are foreclosed on.

It is NOT ENOUGH to just be against higher taxes. If you are against higher taxes but not against higher credit card interest rates, you have not figured it out yet.

Now is not the time to be either a democrat or a republican. Now is the time to find alternative ideas to the same old stuff that got us in this economic mess. Incentive based Credit Card Programs are the only way to stop the downward spiral of the world's economy.

Instead, we are being force fed a "This is going to hurt me, more than it is you" chant by the banks as they continue to raise interest rates and lower credit card limits. Creative, incentive based credit card programs have not been tried, and that is the real crime that is going on and on and on.

Monday, May 11, 2009

One of the best articles I have seen about the state of the world's economy, from Asia Times.

Asia Times asks for permission before copying their articles, so I will just put a link to the specific article that I think is very well written and explains the economic pitfalls the world is facing. One of the most important things they say is something that I have been preaching about as well. If money is not flowing back to the banks from private enterprise and blue collar jobs, the economy cannot improve.

In my opinion, the credit card industry is the key force in destroying the current economy by doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing. The credit card companies should be reducing old debt interest rate obligations and offering creative incentives to get people who can afford it to pay down their debts.


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Wells Fargo increased their trading assets by 600% over the past year, the exact opposite of what should be going on in these tough economic times.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mothers Day Greetings Card, Courtesy of the Credit Card Companies, because we took all of your families spare change.

If your kids are busy sweating the details on how to meet their monthly payment deadlines which may include hefty increases on the interest rates for all of their credit card debt, I'm sure they still send their love, even if they couldn't afford flowers this year.  Happy Mothers Day.

-The Credit Card Companies.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Did Oprah Winfrey's People ask Barack Obama to hold a Town Hall Meeting about the Credit Card Industry to get DailyPUMA off of Oprah's Back?

My prior article on DailyPUMA challenged Oprah Winfrey to devote an entire television show to how awful the Credit Card Companies are behaving in these tough economic times.


Let me just add that DailyPUMA got hits from the Chicago, Illinois area soon after my prior article was written.

I write an article that exposes Oprah Winfrey for the greedy business person she really is, someone who would promote free chicken dinners to her audience to make herself look good to millions of people even as she IGNORES the economic raping of millions of americans by the credit card companies.  

Not to mention that Oprah recently had a television show devoted to how livestock animals are mistreated in which Oprah stated that she had not previously thought much about how such livestock are treated, but she would from now on.  I guess KFC passed the "grill test" when it came to how they treat their livestock, not.

The credit card companies are using PUNITIVE measures in these tough economic times to collect their debts when INCENTIVE BASED credit card programs should have been used to both reduce consumer debt and also create more consumer cash flow throughout local economies throughout every city in the entire country. 

The best stimulus plan of all would have been incentive based credit card debt payback programs, NOT the punitive based credit card debt payback programs that have been hurled on millions of americans instead.  

I'm probably the first person to have identified punitive vs incentive based credit card debt paydown programs.  That should tell you how screwed we are right now. If the credit card industry wants to hire me to help them create incentive based credit card programs, I would do so, happily.

Barack Obama has performed the "perfect" political move by announcing his hastily called town hall meeting. 

Barack Obama takes the pressure off of Oprah Winfrey so Oprah doesn't have to do a televisions show about the credit card industries punitive methods for destroying the lives of americans just barely hanging on month to month.

Barack Obama waters down and obfuscates the most important credit card issues plaguing americans by conducting a "town hall meeting" while making it look as if he is reaching out to blue collar america at the same time.

Plus, the Barack Obama fan club can then chortle that Barack Obama took on the credit card companies while involving the american people in the that process via a town hall meeting that was so hastily announced that no official date or venue was announced.

And of course, who knows what Oprah Winfrey does to reciprocate for Barack Obama getting her off the hook.  At the end of the day, nothing changes, and that is what matters most to fat cats like Oprah Winfrey.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Oprah Winfrey's and KFC's "Let them Eat Grilled Chicken" coupon offer is just a diversionary tactic to cover up what really matters.


With apologies to Marie-Antoinette (1755-93), apparently Marie-Antoinette is another woman from history whose reputation was misrepresented and ruined because she allegedly coined the phrase "Let them eat cake". It appears that the phrase "let them eat cake" might have had an entirely different meaning than what we have been led to believe.


However, when it comes to Oprah Winfrey and the KFC grilled chicken free coupon caper, I am offended that Ms. Winfrey has chosen to participate in the KFC free grilled chicken coupon program while much much bigger problems are afflicting millions of americans.

Until Oprah Winfrey actually devotes an entire television show to the credit card industry and their punishing behavior to those in need of help, she will be the biggest hypocrite and fake on the planet in my eyes.  

Until Oprah Winfrey calls out the credit card industry and their use of punishment tactics to gather debts, when incentive based tactics would be far more successful, she will be the biggest fake on the planet in my eyes.

Until Oprah Winfrey exposes how Chase Bank fired their own employee because that employee waived a couple hundred dollars in penalities so a customer could pay their rent, out of over a thousand dollars in fees that were generated by that same customer, Oprah Winfrey will be a fake in my eyes.

Until Oprah Winfrey actually brings together Chase Bank, the credit card industry, and several victims of the credit card industries punishment tactics and devotes an entire television show to this issue, Oprah Winfrey will be a fake in my eyes. 

What about in your eyes?

However, if Oprah Winfrey did devote an episode to how the Credit Card Industry has unfairly victimized good, honest, hard working americans, would Oprah really be able to portray the situation as it truly is?  Or would such a show become a watered down explanation about how the poor poor credit card industry is suffering losses and is just doing what it needs to do to get by.

On second thought, perhaps Oprah is so over that there is no way she could play an effective role in protecting the very people who love her the most, her own viewers.

So instead, Oprah has come up with a different idea, Let them eat chicken, its just so finger lickin good.  

You can help do what Oprah, and ALL OTHER CELEBRITIES REFUSE TO DO, and that is fight for your fellow american, by bookmarking Daily-Protest.com and making your own sign that says daily-protest.com on it and putting it in a storefront window, on a bulletin board, or on a counter top, it is that easy to make a difference.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Free Food for the Homeless courtesy of KFC and Oprah Winfrey, only a 24 hour window to print coupons however.

Additional update, please check out the two links below to really understand what ChickenGate is really about.


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Update, my original coupons ended in a 1234, which mens they were no good. I just reprinted them at 8:10 PM pacific standard time on May-06. I was supposed to get 4 coupons, but I only got three. I reclicked on the link, tried again, and it spit out the forth coupon. I guess I"m good to go now. I think KFC needs to add a day to the promotion since the promotion was not ready when the promotion started.

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I stumbled across this kentucky fried chicken, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" Kentucky Grilled Chicken 2 Piece Meal Coupon offer for a free meal from KFC. I assume it is legit, it sounds legit. You can print four coupons in the next 24 hours and then you have about 2 weeks to use them. KFC AND OPRAH WINFREY FREE MEAL OFFER.

I eat very little meat and buy vegan products most of the time so I am not thrilled about promoting this. However, if you want to do something nice for a homeless person that perhaps you see everyday on your way to work, just print out four of these coupons and hand one to them, (please do it only if you know it to be safe to do and you want to do it).

If your goal is the most bang for the homeless buck, probably don't know if you want to give out all four at once. One could keep the other three in the car just in case other opportunities arrive over the next two weeks.

If these four coupons can help you save some food money this month, more power to you as well.KFC AND OPRAH WINFREY FREE MEAL OFFER. If you think these coupons are fake, please let me know and I'll delete this topic, otherwise I am going on the premise that it is a legit offer.

Here is the fine print,
COUPON AVAILABLE FOR PRINTING ROM 9AM CDT (Central Daylight Time, one hour  behind the East Coast, two hours ahead of the West Coast) 5/5/09 TO 9:59PM CDT 5/6/09. COUPON IS REDEEMABLE AT PARTICIPATING KFC LOCATIONS IN THE U.S. FROM 5/5/09 TO 5/19/09, EXCLUDING 5/10/09.

----------------------------------

(quick update).  It appears that one could print as many of these coupons as one wanted until a couple of hours ago.  Now it appears that KFC has added a downloading software requirement
that allows one to print the coupon with the barcode.

I assumed that my prior four coupons were no good so I went to reprint them after I downloaded their coupon software, but I got a message saying I had already downloaded my coupons prior.  The software downloading was easy.  Just make sure you don't stumble upon a fake version of this offer and agree to download malware or spyware instead.  I presume the link I have put on this article is the correct one.  I am concerned that my barcode looks the same for all four coupons.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Remembering a year ago, and the flip flopping the Barack Obama camp did on the delegate counts.

I stumbled upon a site that has a few different AP stories about the delegate counts listed.Barack Obama Flip Flopping on delegate tallies for Florida and Michigan.

Here is one AP clip from the link above...

AP - Barack Obama's campaign said Thursday that evenly splitting Michigan's delegates with rival Hillary Rodham Clinton would be a fair way to distribute them, now that the chances of a do-over primary are essentially dead.

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Here is the second AP clip from the link above...AP - With the nomination in sight, Barack Obama is willing to give rival Hillary Rodham Clinton the lion's share of the delegates from Florida and Michigan but is stopping short of her demand to fully recognize the two renegade states.


That must have been some toothless lion that got the "lion's share" of delegates from Florida and Michigan.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Barack Obama Rumor about his residency and Occidental College, is it a hoax?

I was sent the following email that included an alleged press release news item from the "AP". There were three more paragraphs but the first one has everything in it that caused numerous conservative blogs to jump on the story.  However, this "AP" story actually does not appear to exist.

 AP- WASHINGTON D.C. - In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama's qualifications for the presidency, the group "Americans for Freedom of Information" has released copies of President Obama'scollege transcripts from Occidental College. Released today, the transcript indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia asan undergraduate at the school. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a suit broughtby the group in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright FoundationScholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student mustclaim foreign citizenship. This document would seem to provide thesmoking gun that many of Obama's detractors have been seeking.

When I tried to do a google of the phrase "certain to fuel the debate over Obama's qualifications" in the google news section, NOTHING comes up.  

If I do a general google of the web, several dozen or more pages show up with this "AP story". I think it is a hoax since it does not show up as an AP story when I do a google news search.


Thursday, April 30, 2009

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.


(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.)


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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.



Saturday, April 25, 2009

Joe the Plumber & Ron the Roofer, meet Peggy from Pennsylvania. Learn how Chase Bank hurts the Elderly, Cancer Survivors, and Responsible Bill Payers.


First it was Joe the Plumber, then Ron the Roofer, now it is time to meet Peggy from Pennsylvania. Peggy doesn't miss her payments and pays on time, thus making her and her cancer stricken family a toxic asset in the jaundiced eyes of the new age banking community.

If you aren't being charged an obscene credit card interest rate, you too can be labeled a toxic asset. To learn more about Peggy and how Chase seems to live for the thrill of destroying the american dream of those who weave that dream into jobs and services for middle america, Please Click here and learn more at Daily-Protest.com

It is as if it has become the job of the Credit Card Companies to make as many stand up americans "bitter" as is inhumanely possible.

Unacceptable, irresponsible lines have been crossed by the credit card banking industry and unless people like me, (Alessandro Machi) outsiders who haven't taken this lying down, are truly empowered, we all will continue to be at the mercy of draconian changes at the drop of a board meeting, any time, any place.

Yes, I want to be the equivalent of an Italian Jesse Jackson. A gadfly paid by the Credit Card industry to help stop the credit card companies from doing the wrong thing, something they just seem naturally capable of doing, over and over and over.

Until passionate outsiders who never enter the boardrooms of these companies can actually have sway over credit card industry proposals via their own independent websites, we will continue to be at the mercy of sociopath mentalities that can't help themselves as they hurt middle america.

Please read Peggy from Pennsylvania's story and then realize that this is going on all over america. Everything the banks have done when it comes to the credit card industry have BEEN THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT they should be doing. I'll be exposing those Credit Card Company wrongs one by one in a future article.

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