Elena LaVictoire's Library tagged finance →  View Popular

PS – don’t get sucked into believing that using your debit card (usually on Mastercard or Visa) will keep you out of hot water.  The consumer protections are DIFFERENT for purchases using debit cards versus credit cards (one is treated sorta like cash and the other is a de facto loan).  So, use debit cards for stuff under $250 and anything over that use the real deal to ensure you automatically gain the protections you deserve.

WASHINGTON – The federal government faces exploding deficits and mounting debt over the next decade, White House officials predicted Tuesday in a fiscal assessment far bleaker than what the Obama administration had estimated just a few months ago.

Figures released by the White House budget office foresee a cumulative $9 trillion deficit from 2010-2019, $2 trillion more than the administration estimated in May. Moreover, the figures show the public debt doubling by 2019 and reaching three-quarters the size of the entire national economy.

- The prospects for job creation are equally distressing. The likelihood is that when economic activity picks up, employers will first choose to increase hours for existing workers and bring part-time workers back to full time. Many unemployed workers looking for jobs once the recovery begins will discover that jobs as good as the ones they lost are almost impossible to find because many layoffs have been permanent. Instead of shrinking operations, companies have shut down whole business units or made sweeping structural changes in the way they conduct business. General Motors and Chrysler, closed hundreds of dealerships and reduced brands. Citigroup and Bank of America cut tens of thousands of positions and exited many parts of the world of finance.

Job losses may last well into 2010 to hit an unemployment peak close to 11%. That unemployment rate may be sustained for an extended period.

The bill, hailed by consumer advocates for tackling the powerful credit card industry, sets limits on sudden interest rate increases, capricious fees and abusive terms in fine print. But some unintended consequences could include higher annual fees and fewer bonus reward programs.

Some fear an end to the interest-free 30-day grace period for those who pay off their balances each month.

George Scherer is exactly the type of customer banks say could be hurt by the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. He has not missed a payment since opening his first credit account in 1969. Every month, he pays the balances on his two credit cards in full.

Credit card companies said the bill will force them to recoup lost profits from model customers like Scherer.

Welcome to the world, Jada -- you owe $22,000. 

And it's not gonna get better. 

That figure -- about
the price of a new Camaro -- represents the share of the public debt carried by anybody born in the United States today, according
to the fiscal watchdog group The Concord Coalition. 

But Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire also says President Barack Obama's massive budget proposal will bankrupt the country.

Gregg says he has no regrets in withdrawing his nomination to become commerce secretary. He pulled out after deciding he could not fully back the administration's economic policies.

The senator said Obama's spending plan in the midst of a prolonged recession would leave the next generation with a country too expensive to live in.