A Long Road Ahead
No matter where we look these bad news seems to be upon us. Citigroup recently announced that it would raise interest rates on credit cards. Interest rates were raised for cardholders who had not had rates raised on them in two years. Interest rates have been raised as much as 3 percentage points for Citigroup customers. This announcement came even after Citigroup promised to congress in 2007 that they would not raise rates if they were forced to face more regulations.
These rate hikes do not come as surprise during these tough economic times. It is only logical that as people get laid off from their jobs, they will not be able to pay their bills. Credit card bills often go unpaid because people need to use whatever available funds they have to barely make utility bill payments.
2009 will definitely be a difficult year for many people the country has already been in a recession all of 2008 and things will probably get worse before they will get any better. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 7552 points. The massive sell off comes after the government continues to put more stipulations on the auto industry. However, automakers don’t make a good argument that they are broke when executives arrive to Washington in private jets wearing expensive suits and expecting a handout. This does not sit well with our lawmakers or the general public who will have too pay the bill.
More job losses will definitely not mean good news for the credit card industry or anybody else for that matter. The future of the American automotive industry in is definitely a catch 22 situation. If we bail out the Detroit automakers then we are going to have to finance another 25 billion dollar bailout. However, if we do not bailout the auto industry then we face more job losses.
Despite this deep economic recession that we are in, we will prove history once again that we will recover. It will be up to our leaders to make the right decisions to get us out of this mess as quickly as possible. Our new president and his staff will definitely have a challenging job ahead of them. Repairing our economy will not be an easy task. Much damage has been made due to the years of deregulation. Our banking industry should definitely be regulated but not overregulated.
The country is now entering a new era of capitalism. It has always been the common school of thought to keep government out of business, but now our government will become shareholders of some of the largest financial institutions in the world. In reality, this will be a good thing for our economy. If as a country we are going to rescue those companies that are about to sink we might as well take control.
No matter where we look these bad news seems to be upon us. Citigroup recently announced that it would raise interest rates on credit cards. Interest rates were raised for cardholders who had not had rates raised on them in two years. Interest rates have been raised as much as 3 percentage points for Citigroup customers. This announcement came even after Citigroup promised to congress in 2007 that they would not raise rates if they were forced to face more regulations.
These rate hikes do not come as surprise during these tough economic times. It is only logical that as people get laid off from their jobs, they will not be able to pay their bills. Credit card bills often go unpaid because people need to use whatever available funds they have to barely make utility bill payments.
2009 will definitely be a difficult year for many people the country has already been in a recession all of 2008 and things will probably get worse before they will get any better. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 7552 points. The massive sell off comes after the government continues to put more stipulations on the auto industry. However, automakers don’t make a good argument that they are broke when executives arrive to Washington in private jets wearing expensive suits and expecting a handout. This does not sit well with our lawmakers or the general public who will have too pay the bill.
More job losses will definitely not mean good news for the credit card industry or anybody else for that matter. The future of the American automotive industry in is definitely a catch 22 situation. If we bail out the Detroit automakers then we are going to have to finance another 25 billion dollar bailout. However, if we do not bailout the auto industry then we face more job losses.
Despite this deep economic recession that we are in, we will prove history once again that we will recover. It will be up to our leaders to make the right decisions to get us out of this mess as quickly as possible. Our new president and his staff will definitely have a challenging job ahead of them. Repairing our economy will not be an easy task. Much damage has been made due to the years of deregulation. Our banking industry should definitely be regulated but not overregulated.
The country is now entering a new era of capitalism. It has always been the common school of thought to keep government out of business, but now our government will become shareholders of some of the largest financial institutions in the world. In reality, this will be a good thing for our economy. If as a country we are going to rescue those companies that are about to sink we might as well take control.
Labels: apply for a credit card, business credit cards, Citigroup, economic recesion, interest rates
Credit Card / Financial news blog post by Todd Holliday at 9:09 PM 