FICO the FED and Financial Institutions

[Anonymous]

Someone please tell me why we tolerate this ridiculous system.

1. We rely on credit reporting agencies that by their own admission are wrong on 4 out of 5 credit reports. Name one other business that can not only survive but thrive with a twenty % sucess rate.

2. FYI for those that don't know; The Federal Reserve is a privately owned institution that prints notes with no tangible backing whatsoever  and LOANS them to our government with interest. The interest has become so high that almost all the money we pay in the form of personal federal income tax goes directly to the Fed as payment on this interest.

3. Through fractional reserve banking and our debt based monetary system, America has dug a deep hole for itself and it's people.  I have seen alot of young people on this site asking for advice, and the advice I see given most is encouraging these people to get more credit.  You want some sound advice, save your money! Better yet, buy gold with your money a soon as you cash your check. Don't fall into the debt scam these people encourage.

Last but certainly not least the national deficit, what is it now 9 trillion.  You need not worry about this as everyone in our Gov't would want you to. This is a budget deficit.  Budgets are nothing more than a figure put out at the beginning of the year that state the amount of money they intend to spend.  This does not include the gross receipts or any income by our local state and federal gov't. The budgets are all expense, to get the whole story, one must wait until the years end and look at the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports, put out by our Local , State and Federal Gov't.  See, about 65 years ago the government had a great idea, invest the money they bring in during the year through tax payments, tolls, fines, whatever. The dividends could then be given back to the American people at the end of the year in the form of a tax refund. Sounds great, only they forgot about that last little part where they would return the money to the people, instead leaving it in the market to grow larger year by year. The governments of this country now own a large portion of every publicly traded company in the world.  All CAFR's added together in 2006 put the net worth of our local state and federal governments around 70 trillion dollars with dividends in 2006 around 8.5 trillion. To put this in perspective: If you take every man woman and child in the US and total the net income for 2006, it's around 4.8 trillion, they made double that off of our money. There is no deficit, there is a surplus and a pretty big one, big enough to pay off all the debt of every American, and still have about twelve trillion left over. Don't take my word for it, do some research, do some reading!!!

The best description I have heard of these things I discussed; "The greatest crime ever perpetrated against humanity".

Education is the key, learn all you can.

[llecs]

I'd like to draw from my limited knowledge of microecon to respond to this.

1) CRAs are wrong because the OC or CA posted wrong info with them. It's impossible for the CRAs to know any different. It's up to folks on this forum and others like it to provide info so we can properly correct them.

2) The Fed is both public and private and is backed up by a series of checks and balances. It is funded not by our taxes (our tax payments go to fund $500 toilet seats and bridges to nowhere, remember?) but the Fed is funded by fees it charges to member banks (e.g. Fedwire & ACH), govt. securities, foreign currency loans, etc. Before 1913, anyone could print and distribute currency at will (banks, private institutions, even businesses). There was no standard currency. If the Bank of New York wanted to print more notes, for example, nothing was stopping them from doing so.

3) I confess, I have only been on these boards for a couple months now, but I have never been told or offered advice to go into debt. The opposite seems true here.

Your last point: The natl. debt is $9trillion. Our deficit is $162.8 billion (the lowest its been in 5 yrs). The sum of all deficits and surpluses since 1776 equals our national debt. It is too big (see comment on toilet seats). Our dollar is lower. However, this is just part of the cycle. Exports will go up because the dollar is cheaper. This increases our GDP. Unemployment, although low, will go even lower and tax revenues will go up. The dollar will rise only to drop again in 25 more years. Its all predictable. An no, there is no $4.8 trillion surplus, though I haven't checked in my sofa yet.

Just a friendly rebuttal. 

Message Edited by llecs on 11-19-2007 07:32 PM

[Anonymous]

No where on this forum has anyone been told to go deeper in debt. They might have been advised to apply for more CC. This is only done to get better UTIL!!! when this advice is given they are also told to use the new CC for lower int. and to transfer from high int.CC.

I myself, received 5 new CC. I transferred higher int. to some & others I charged my grocery, phone & cable....I usually pay cash for these. When the bill showed online I PIF.......this gets all CC reporting. Then they are put aside & not used.!!!!

This gets you out of debt faster and raises your scores.   Just because you have higher available credit does not mean for you to max everything out! That would be stupid!!!

[Anonymous]

I believe that encouraging people to get credit cards and spend up to 30% monthly, is encouraging debt. Although people who post here also say to pay the card off every month, it still encourages spending. Since most people here are trying to improve their credit, that would typically indicate they have had problems in the past paying their bills. Adding temptation by means of a credit card and the "oh I'll pay for it later" is why they are here in the first place. I would guess that credit card debt is the number one reason for poor credit in America and more credit cards will typically produce more debt.

[Anonymous]

My apologies, I meant national debt, from budget deficits. I am assuming that you just posted this without doing any research on Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports or for that matter economics of any kind or the Federal Reserve. 1. Our constitution states that CONGRESS shall have the authority to coin money and only gold and silver shall be used legal tender. Prior to the Fed's illegal takeover on December 23, 1913, our country was on the gold standard (banking act of 1836). Banks could not print as much as they wanted, they were limited by gold reserves. Even though fractional reserve banking allowed the banks to print 10 times the notes as reserve (which I totally disagree with) it was still the most prosperous time in American history, in part because money was relatively sound and there was no central bank in control. The only time prior to 1972 that we had a fiat currency was during the civil war. Lincoln printed greenbacks to fund the union because the banking interest wanted 30% interest. What part of the Fed do you consider to not be private? The appointees by the president? The Federal Reserve acts in the interest of the twelve charter member banks which are wholly owned by private banks which are wholly owned by private members. In 1972, the US came off the gold/silver standard, since then the Fed has had free reign to print as much as it sees fit, giving incentive to Congress to spend as much as they like. They make up the shortfalls by printing more money to pay the bills, and that is an indirect tax on the people of the US. As for your business cycle theories and how the dollar will rise again and fall again and the predictability of booms and busts, you must be a very wealthy man. What is predictable is in the near future we won't recover from a recession and will slide into a depression. The reason is something you stated in your post about our exports rising due to a slide in the dollar. This was true in the past, when we made things in this country. We don't make anything anymore! Do you live in cabin in the woods? We lost our manufacturing jobs a couple of decades ago, and people won't buy US BS forever. The part about the budget deficit is irrelevant, just as budgets are irrelevant. Look at the balance sheet, net worth, gross receipts and expenditures to see the real story. Oh and CRA's are wrong by design. The mere fact that income is not a factor should be a big red flag that CRA's do not produce information about credit worthiness. The fact that one error can drop your score 90 points and when the error is corrected your score only rises 22 points is also another example of what's wrong with CRA's. Banking has become too impersonal today. We need to go back to the days when your banker knew who you were and knew your true credit worthiness. This may not even be possible in todays banking world, but I believe it to be the only way to avoid the catastrophe we are witnessing in todays real estate bust. Bankers loaned money to people that could not afford to pay back the loan. They did this because they kept no stake in these risky loans by selling them through hedge funds that were comprised primarily of mortgage bonds. Bear Stearns ring a bell. The implications of this bad paper sold to foreign investors will be felt for years on Wall Street because of the mistrust that foreign investors now have in America. This could also be a cause of the continual slide in the dollar.