If most Americans were not buried under revolving credit, I believe they would be able to afford their house payments. Credit card companies charge rates that, in any other time in recorded history, would have been considered usury rates. And in any other time in history, that would have been a crime!
From Dictionary.com:
u·su·ry
[yoo-zhuh-ree] -noun, plural -ries.
1. the lending or practice of lending money at an exorbitant interest.
2. an exorbitant amount or rate of interest, especially in excess of the legal rate.
3. Obsolete . interest paid for the use of money.
What do you think? Have we all been lured into blaming the wrong credit mongers for our current crisis?
Maybe we no longer have debtors' prisons, but we have certainly allowed the credit industry to place shackles on the citizenry.
Again from Dictionary.com:
shack·le
[shak-uhl] noun, verb, -led, -ling. -noun
1. a ring or other fastening, as of iron, for securing the wrist, ankle, etc.; fetter.
2. a hobble or fetter for a horse or other animal.
3. the U -shaped bar of a padlock, one end of which is pivoted or sliding, the other end of which can be released, as for passing through a staple, and then fastened, as for securing a hasp.
4. any of various fastening or coupling devices.
5. Often, shackles. anything that serves to prevent freedom of procedure, thought, etc. -verb (used with object)
6. to put a shackle or shackles on; confine or restrain by a shackle or shackles.
7. to fasten or couple with a shackle.
8. to restrain in action, thought, etc., as by restrictions; restrict the freedom of.
Debt in our society is sort of like an inflated balloon--push in one place and the air just moves somewhere else. Consumer revolving debt is out of control, and I firmly believe that it has impacted the housing industry.
Much of the "hot air" that has caused our mortgage crisis is diverted pressure from revolving debt and the ever-increasing interest rates in that segment.
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