"Average Joe/Jane" Questions...

I am not an expert or even very researched on the Global Meltdown , I get my information from ATS and I just have a few questions and looking for some answers.

1. With millions of credit scores ruined because of foreclosure, bankruptcy, late payments, no payments, unpaid medical bills, repossessions etc. how will our economy ever recover even after hitting rock bottom without 1/2 the country being able to get credit?
Our economy (based on my very limited knowledge) is based on consuming by credit, right now the banks are not lending to the highest of credit scores but when and if they do start lending again and millions have ruined credit then we still have a problem.
Will a restart button be pushed? Will guidelines be changed? Just wondering if we do ever start a recovery, how will this be handled because it seems like a big issue down the road.

2. Speaking of credit... Will the credit card industry get reformed?
Right now it seems like the CC industry is kicking themselves in the ass by raising APR's skyhigh based on absolutely ridiculous reasons. I was reading an article yesterday about this man who put 2 airplane tickets for his fathers funeral on his CC and because it raised his total debt all of his CC'c raised his APR to the 20's and now he has minimum payments on his cards that he cant afford. Lose your house or stop paying on CC, hhhhmmmm?

3. If the reason for this economic nightmare is to bring in the Amero or some other global currency, what would be the problem with a new currency and why are so many against it?
I have also heard that the economy is getting tanked so the rich would get richer and the poor poorer but if we switched to a new currency how would the dollar convert and would the rich still be rich?

4. Gas prices???? $4 a gallon dropped to $1.50 in December now we are at $1.78, I think gas prices were lowered for 2 reasons... 1. Americans were starting to wake up and growing restless 2. Holiday Retail
So where will they go now? Will TPTB let them start to creep back up knowing that most Americans will not be able to ride another wave of $3-$4 a gallon out.
My family is still playing catch up from the high gas prices another round would wipe us out.

5. The car industry. This question goes back to #1 in some aspects but...
My mother has a blemish free, extremely high credit score and went to trade in her Chevy for a new Chevy and she COULD get financed if she took a rate that a year ago even the worst of credits would have laughed at.
If you cannot get financing under 6% with perfect credit and NO financing at all with less than perfect credit then how the hell is the car industry going to ever recover?
Car prices seem to being going up, not many have 25,000 bucks laying around for a new Chevy Cavelier.
The stimulus package has some kind of tax break for the end of this year if you buy a NEW car but if financing is not available what does a tax break do? NADA!

6. The housing nightmare.
It ain't over by a long shot...
One thing that may help would be for FHA, Fannie and Freddie to at the very least start renting out the vacant homes they are sitting on. Once again this goes back to question 1, if we have an overstock of property with no financing then the housing will get worse.
If we cant get these vacant homes financed when we already had a million+ excess of homes pre bubble burst then we will never see the end of this nightmare and property values will continue to drop and foreclosures will continue to happen. These houses have to get occupants, why not rent them out?

7. INFLATION?
This word scares me the most. My family lives by need not want, we do not have or want credit to live off of but if gas prices crawl back up and this hyper inflation does happen then we will have no choice if a loaf of bread is $10. (But where will the credit come from?)
No jobs, no COL increase, no bonus's, no raises because of economy and yet the word inflation is becoming a future reality, we would not be able to supplement our income to cover inflation. I think most Americans, even the upper middle, would have the same issue with inflation and wouldnt that just put us back in the same boat over and over?

8. Retail, Restaurant, Hospitality industries are going to take a big hit. Unemployment will rise exponentially since our country is service based.
Once again a merry go round and I dont see a fix, when will this hit and how hard?

I have more questions but this is a good start.
Thank you for your time and knowledge.

4. Gas prices???? $4 a gallon dropped to $1.50 in December now we are at $1.78, I think gas prices were lowered for 2 reasons... 1. Americans were starting to wake up and growing restless 2. Holiday Retail So where will they go now? Will TPTB let them start to creep back up knowing that most Americans will not be able to ride another wave of $3-$4 a gallon out.

This is something that has irritated me for a long time. Every time oil went up on the commodity market, the gas station was out raising the price. That oil was not going to hit the market for months. They had to be making hugh profits.

Then the price of oil drops and within a few weeks, here in Texas, we were paying under $1.40. Oil is still dropping but apparently the oil from last summer is hitting the market and the price of gas is going up again though no where near what it was. Still, they are making a profit.

Please let me know if I have this figured wrong. I would love not to be so angry about it.

reply to post by liveandlearn


You have it right. The are dropping gas production to raise the price of gas.
Another thing they have tried and will be hitting in the next month, is that speculators have purchased oil tankers full of crude and parked them to create a shortage of available crude.

OP, these are all excellent questions to which you will get a lot of different views on. Do you self a favor. To get a better understanding of how things are manipulated, learn where money comes from, whom controls it, and some of the things that can be done about it.

I have know some things for a long time, but in the last six months, I've done extensive research to find the real answers. There are alot of partial answers out there. They start out good, and they bring in some really stupid things like lizard people, UFO's etc.
That does not help when trying to understand who and how things are done.
There is only on video that I have found, that really explains all these things. I have done the home work on the history items and what they say it truth.

The name of it is "The Money Masters". You can find it on google video.
It is 3.5 hrs long. Make the time investment. You will not regret it.













[edit on 22-2-2009 by j2000]

reply to post by SEEWHATUDO


Here is the link to that

The Money Masters

reply to post by j2000

You have it right. The are dropping gas production to raise the price of gas. Another thing they have tried and will be hitting in the next month, is that speculators have purchased oil tankers full of crude and parked them to create a shortage of available crude.

There seems to be no end to the ways people can manipulate for personal gain.

So, can you tell me, when the price goes up at the pump, is it the station owner or is there some directive from the company. I certainly understand that the individual station needs to stay competitive on the down side and if he sold it at a set profit he would be selling below everyone, running out then having to pay the higher price.

I would say we need regulation but we have had way too much of the wrong kind already. A large infusion of personal integrity in this world would be nice though.

reply to post by liveandlearn


It's not the gas stations. When it is, it's easy to tell.
If you have at least one or more in a town that are cheaper, then the rest are adding to the price.
It like everything else is a complicated system.
The PTB do not want anything simple. That way they can make lame excuses as to why we are getting screwed this time, this year, this month, this day.............It is all complete BS.

When they created the Federal Reserve Bank and leveraged banking. We gave them the power to control the world. literaly.
That can be taken from them, but the long we wait, the harder it gets.
It could be done rigth now, without bloodshed. It is really a very easy fix.
Remember they do not like easy.............

Well OP, your excellent observations which allow for only more questions and no answers is why we are totally *snipped*. No one has any answers. It's depressing to watch talking head after talking head try to explain how we got into or how we might get out of this situation. No one knows.

I say let it crash and burn. That way those who are most at fault will suffer the most repercussions, rather than bailing out the guilty (Beggars always come back and ask for more anyways, right?) by lining their pockets in the short-term and charging it to our children.

To your question about retail, it will look very different. It's already beginning to as stores will shortly start limiting hours and on-hand inventories are shrinking. As for prices, overall, inflation is better than deflation because the latter will cause spiraling wages and more lost jobs in all sectors.

reply to post by j2000


Thank you for the link.
I somewhat understand how it is manipulated and think I have watched this before but I will take a look again.
The questions above are obviously controlled by tptb but in plain "Average Joe/Jane" implications for the future which I can never find the answers for.
I will keep searching and watch the link, thank you again!

reply to post by Sergeant Stiletto


yes it just seems like it could be way easier and less $$$.
For instance, if both (or even one)bailout/stimulus had been handed out to the people instead of the banks and corporations seems like a better plan to "stimulate" the economy...but what do I know.

Answer for question number 1.


They most likely will not care. It's only 8% of the country at this point, and a percentage of that already have bad credit.
Don't you like how just a few years back they changed the bankrupcy laws?
Do you think they did not expect anything major that they had control over?

Answer to question 2

This one is a good question and I was thinking about it when they said to nationalize the banks. What the govt is now going to give out CC's.
Maybe if they do, they will give everyone 0% interest for a couple of years! NOT!

Answer to question 3

Are you kidding me!!!!!

No, serious, go look at the charts for the euro. Set it on max against the dollar. They have lost alot.
This gives the international banks even more power. They can control everything with ease this way. They don't have to manipulate so many govt.s.