December 25, 2006

Crack dealers and major banks - both out to ruin lives

Good special from the BBC on debt and the banks acting like crack dealers. You owe it to yourself to watch the full video.

Tech note - this is google video, which sucks vs. youtube, so hit play, then hit pause, go walk around the block admiring all the Fore Sale signs, then come back and hit play again, after the video has had time to load

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

As Whitney Houston said...crack is wack

Anonymous said...

I think predatory lending, here and abroad, is the REAL story behind the housing bubble. Unless predatory lending is brought under control BY LAWS, we're just going to have one huge credit bubble after another that will further impoverish Joe Six-Pack and his family....

Anonymous said...

Yup blame big bad business as usual. All those poor souls that the banks made to borrow beyond their means...BOOO HOOO

Do you people really want the government to control every single aspect of your life? How much you can borrow? How much house you can own? When you can take a shit?

Anonymous said...

the free market will take care of this as bagholders default and the banks go bankrupt themselves

Anonymous said...

The next major Revolution is coming.

Anonymous said...

sure it is

Anonymous said...

At least the crack dealers have to Pay for their crack. The federal private reserve "creates monopoly money" out of thin air and hands out their crack legally on bank street corners where consumers hooked, line up for more.The banks have advantages of low cost 2% for paper&ink costs, police protection, and unlimited production to put out with quarterly meetings which they decide on the quantity of crack to release to the majority of the public who got hook on this crack
especially the last few years when the crack dealers made it "just to easy" to resist.

Anonymous said...

Excuse me, when you use the term "Monopoly Money", you have to give proper credit to us. We own the copyrights to that term. thank you very much.

Anonymous said...

abolish usury, is the solution.

Anonymous said...

:abolish usury

Call it loan sharking, usury sounds so academic.

Anonymous said...

monopoly money, play money, its all the same recognized around the world.

Anonymous said...

Monopoly money. Maybe they want to register old maid as well. It is still fake, worthless paper until it is loaned out to a borrow. O, that's right. The government guarantees "store of value" as one requirement for money I forgot. Guess no one heard of inflation.

Anonymous said...

Without free money they were nothing. They built a house of straw. The thundering machines sputtered and stopped. Their leaders talked and talked and talked. But nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled. The cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting, a firestorm of fear. Men began to feed on men.

On the roads it was a white line nightmare. Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice. And in this maelstrom of decay, ordinary men were battered and smashed.

Except for one man armed with an AK-47, and a Honda full of silver.

Anonymous said...

i don't get why people are always trying to blame other people for their problems. if the wife had known - and i'm not sure why she didn't - i could only make it thru 13 minutes of the video - i'm sure she would have gone out and gotten a job. he took the easy way out - people have to take personal responsibility and cut those cards up when they see the debt building.

Anonymous said...

Google Video tip for broadband: Press play and pause immediately and let the status bar get ahead by about "an inch", then press play again. It should be fine from there on (if your internet connection is reasonably constant.

Anonymous said...

>> Yup blame big bad business as usual.

Uh, no. The banks are not your typical "business". The banks are a cartel with special privileges granted by the state. That's not a free market.

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to see the "American" version of this video !

Its been going on here on a much larger scale .. I'm sure.

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...
Yup blame big bad business as usual. All those poor souls that the banks made to borrow beyond their means...BOOO HOOO"

Their practices are despicable, but nobody put a gun to that guy's head and said buy, buy, BUY! I have two cards I use almost exclusively: a fleet card which gives me 5% rebate on my gas purchases, and a MC business card which give me 1-3% rebate on everything else! Pay them both off in full every month.

Credit card companies don't technically like me, but they still send about a dozen new card offers a week by email/snail mail.
I hardly ever use or carry cash and use credit cards to purchase everything I need (key word NEED, not WANT!)

I feel for that poor woman and her family, but I have to agree with anonymous. Its time to take responsibility for your own actions! Every card I have, some of which I didn't ask for, have been upgraded over the years to either platinum or titanium with outrageous credit limits, considering my semi-retired income.

So I'm going to run them up to the max simply because the nice bank treated me with such 'respect' by giving deserving little ole me such unbelievable amounts of money to borrow? Gimme a break!

Sorry, we all make our own bed in this life, and MOST of us don't decide to lie down on the railroad tracks!

Anonymous said...

Anyone know a good site to scour house rentals?

Anonymous said...

I just got my chase credit card upgraded to Absurdium(TM), that's two notches up from platinum, and one notch up from titanium. I can now buy a house on this little piece of plastic. Horray.

Anonymous said...

Now seriously, I just got a note on change of terms and conditions on my chase card: at their discretion, they will be charging interest on all transaction, starting on the day the transaction is placed!!!!! I'm serious. Alas, that particular card, even though its limit is sky high, i have not used it a single time in almost 2 years because it took them almost 6 months, in the past, to remove 2 fraudulent transactions.

blogger said...

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all my favs

Anonymous said...

guarantee property rights, and the banks go worldwide, throw in rights to life, and the brits are in iraq, trying to disolve police forces, and could be sticklers, and mention the states using death penaltys, seems they have the saner policys, and moral high road, remembering that like hitlers killers, kill, whoever they want dead, by calling them criminals

Anonymous said...

Buyer beware.

St Joe Six Pack, pray for us!

Craigslist for rentals? Perhaps drive by -- saw some For Sale/For Lease/For Rent in San Diego!

Anonymous said...

HSBC for instance has long been the leading bank for the international Dope, Incorporated. There is virtually no difference between crack dealers and the British banks. They are one in the same.

The City of London makes Wall Street look like childs play. WS is but a junior partner in this.

REGULATE THE BANKING SYSTEM. Franklin Roosevelt did it so why not do it again?

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute, Mates!

You're saying that when I pull a bloke off the cold street, offer him a pint, all what he can eat, and a buxom lass all naked and wooing for him in a nice warm bed, then it's MY fault if he takes me up on it?

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...
Now seriously, I just got a note on change of terms and conditions on my chase card: at their discretion, they will be charging interest on all transaction, starting on the day the transaction is placed!!!!!"

In other words there will be NO interest free payments for you, even if you pay it off every month?

I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't catch on, real quick.
Once one starts it, they will all want in.

The only thing that will do is make the responsible card users go the scissors route on one end, and make more beds on the railroad tracks on the other!

Anonymous said...

"panicearly said...
stuck in pa

is that for real? re the cc"

That's what Anon 6:32:58 said happened to him, or at least the threat of!

Anonymous said...

Crack dealer is an Honorable profession dating allthe way back to Leroy of Mesopotamia!

Anonymous said...

The banks want to give college students credit cards so they can get them hooked on living off of the cards! I guess collecting interest on student loans is not enough for them.

I know a guy that had to drop out of college because he wracked up so much debt on his credit cards from gambling.

They want you to serve them!