Credit issues & consumer debt have become such a problem in our country the government is now involved. If you have turned on the TV lately you might see a commercial about credit education from the US Treasury Department. You may have also seen various government sites promoting credit education. Here are some government education sites below.
Example sites:
http://www.controlyourcredit.gov/
http://www.treas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/financial-institution/fin-education/
http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnwin0203/
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menus/consumer/credit.shtm
http://www.ncua.gov/Resources/CreditUnionDevelopment/ResourceConnection/FinancialEducation.aspx
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre19.shtm
This obviously is a sign we have big credit issues out there. So the government is getting involved with public awareness. The media is somewhat misleading, because you will hear that debt is down. Then you will hear it’s up… and so on… So who is really correct and what is the current situation with consumer credit debt?
Chuck Jaffe with Marketwatch.com recently reported that the data on consumer debt is really skewed. The reports between the Federal Reserve Boards G-19 and actual charge-off numbers with banks were off by 12 billion in the second quarter of 2010. According to CardHub.com the banks actually charged off $21.8 billion in bad credit card debt. So this basically means that consumers accumulated $10 billion more in consumer debt than the year before.
In most media publications you will read that consumers are reducing debt and saving for a rainy day. Well it’s not hard to see that consumers are just letting their debt go and hoping for a better future.
After all, when the big companies got a bail out, where was the bailout for consumer debt?
Anyways, back on topic here.
Nether less, the truth is out. Matters are not better with consumer debt and regardless of the government awareness programs; we need job creation to get rid of debt.
Until job creation and confidence in the market place is created, matters will not improve regardless of what the government is doing.
So the next time you read stats from the Federal Reserve Board or the media, make sure you do some research.
How does that saying go…..? by Benjamin Franklin.. “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see…..”
Author: Mike Clover
CreditScoreQuick.com
