Het enige dat Obama straks kan als president is bezuinigen op alles. De VS is namelijk failliet, zowel de staat als zijn ingezetenen. Ik begrijp dan ook het enthousiasme van veel van mijn collega's niet zo goed. Wat verwachten ze dat Obama gaat doen? Ze suggereren veel, maar beseffen kennlijk niet dat de marges van de palementaire democratie altijd zeer smal zijn, zeker voor de nieuwe president van een failliet imperium. Meer dan 600 miljard dollar gaat volgend jaar naar wat officieel heet de nationale veiligheid. En dat is zeker niet alles. Hoe dan ook, alleen daar zou Obama op kunnen bezuinigen, op de strijdkrachten en de buitenlandse militaire bases van het rijk. Maar zal Obama dit doen? Ik denk het niet, want de strijdkrachten zijn de grootste werkverschaffers. Wordt op oorlogsvoering gekort dan betekent dit in de praktijk verlies aan banen, die toch al schaars zijn in de VS. Veel werk is verplaatst naar de lage lonen landen. Gaat Obama de grote concerns aanpakken en de macht van de vrije markt inperken? Nee, zeker niet, want een Amerikaanse president kan niet de werkelijke macht aan banden leggen. Die werkelijke macht is in handen van niemand anders dan de werkelijke macht, dus het kapitaal. Wat kan Obama dan wel gaan doen? In de marge kan hij wat rommelen en verder weet ik het niet. Dat zult u aan mijn collega's moeten vragen. Ik vrees alleen dat die daar nog niet over nagedacht hebben. Enfin, over naar de orde van de dag.
First came the mortgage crisis. Now comes the credit card crisisAfter years of flooding Americans with credit card offers and sky-high credit lines, lenders are sharply curtailing both, just as an eroding economy squeezes consumers.
The pullback is affecting even creditworthy consumers and threatens an already beleaguered banking industry with another wave of heavy losses after an era in which it reaped near record gains from the business of easy credit that it helped create.
Lenders wrote off an estimated $21 billion in bad credit card loans in the first half of 2008 as more borrowers defaulted on their payments. With companies laying off tens of thousands of workers, the industry stands to lose at least another $55 billion over the next year and a half, analysts say. Currently, the total losses amount to 5.5 percent of credit card debt outstanding, and could surpass the 7.9 percent level reached after the technology bubble burst in 2001.
“If unemployment continues to increase, credit card net charge-offs could exceed historical norms,” Gary L. Crittenden, Citigroup’s chief financial officer, said.
Faced with sobering conditions, companies that issue MasterCard, Visa and other cards are rushing to stanch the bleeding, even as options once easily tapped by borrowers to pay off credit card obligations, like home equity lines or the ability to transfer balances to a new card, dry up.
Big lenders — like American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup and even the retailer Target — have begun tightening standards for applicants and are culling their portfolios of the riskiest customers. Capital One, another big issuer, for example, has aggressively shut down inactive accounts and reduced customer credit lines by 4.5 percent in the second quarter from the previous period, according to regulatory filings.
Lenders are shunning consumers already in debt and cutting credit limits for existing cardholders, especially those who live in areas ravaged by the housing crisis or who work in troubled industries. In some cases, lenders are even reining in credit lines after monitoring cardholders who shop at the same stores as other risky borrowers or who have mortgages from certain companies.
While such changes protect lenders, some can come back to haunt consumers. The result can be a lower credit score, which forces a borrower to pay higher interest rates and makes it harder to obtain loans. A reduced line of credit can also make it harder for consumers to manage their budgets, because lenders have 30 days to notify their customers, and they often wait to do so after taking action.'
The pullback is affecting even creditworthy consumers and threatens an already beleaguered banking industry with another wave of heavy losses after an era in which it reaped near record gains from the business of easy credit that it helped create.
Lenders wrote off an estimated $21 billion in bad credit card loans in the first half of 2008 as more borrowers defaulted on their payments. With companies laying off tens of thousands of workers, the industry stands to lose at least another $55 billion over the next year and a half, analysts say. Currently, the total losses amount to 5.5 percent of credit card debt outstanding, and could surpass the 7.9 percent level reached after the technology bubble burst in 2001.
“If unemployment continues to increase, credit card net charge-offs could exceed historical norms,” Gary L. Crittenden, Citigroup’s chief financial officer, said.
Faced with sobering conditions, companies that issue MasterCard, Visa and other cards are rushing to stanch the bleeding, even as options once easily tapped by borrowers to pay off credit card obligations, like home equity lines or the ability to transfer balances to a new card, dry up.
Big lenders — like American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup and even the retailer Target — have begun tightening standards for applicants and are culling their portfolios of the riskiest customers. Capital One, another big issuer, for example, has aggressively shut down inactive accounts and reduced customer credit lines by 4.5 percent in the second quarter from the previous period, according to regulatory filings.
Lenders are shunning consumers already in debt and cutting credit limits for existing cardholders, especially those who live in areas ravaged by the housing crisis or who work in troubled industries. In some cases, lenders are even reining in credit lines after monitoring cardholders who shop at the same stores as other risky borrowers or who have mortgages from certain companies.
While such changes protect lenders, some can come back to haunt consumers. The result can be a lower credit score, which forces a borrower to pay higher interest rates and makes it harder to obtain loans. A reduced line of credit can also make it harder for consumers to manage their budgets, because lenders have 30 days to notify their customers, and they often wait to do so after taking action.'
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