Yet another stupid debtor and retirement account raider!

[harley]

I'm still curious about the "inappropriate e-mail messages" that got Smokey canned.

In such situations, one immediately thinks of the carnal, but she doesn't seem the type.

Anyone care to speculate? Food obviously looms large in her life. Maybe she broke some company rule about discussing chow on line.

Having w*rked in network security for a good portion of my career, I can testify that there are many types of inappropriate emails, and most are merely excuses to get rid of somebody you don't like. In other words, there may be thousands of other employees doing the same things, but management can use it as a reason for dismissal. Sort of like Capone and the tax avoidence.

Let's see, other than porn, there are (off the top of my head) spam, pyramid schemes (forwarding the chain letters), inappropriate jokes, anti-diversity comments, slanderous comments about the company or it's execs, and my personal favorite - exposing company secrets. As if everyone in the company wasn't doing that everytime they used AIM.

Harley

 

[Westernskies]

Stuffed with waffles. Riding a dog.

I challenge you to come up with that picture... but then again, I managed to come up with a cowboy riding a jackalope

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Eh, i'm not in a photoshop mood right now. But considering I produced bill gates and dr. phil with suze orman on his head, all equipped with pancakes, and riding in a kayak together...i'm thinking my skillz are without challenge at this juncture.

 

[Nords]

...i'm thinking my skillz are without challenge at this juncture.

As opposed to, for example, your skills in time management and prioritization...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Dont make me post the thing about adult onset attention deficit disorder again...

 

[Westernskies]

Dont make me post the thing about adult onset attention deficit disorder again...

What was this thread about, again?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Zombie singles ads...

ZombieHarmony - One of the Best Free Dating Sites for Zombies

 

[Westernskies]

Zombie singles

Do those come individually wrapped like Kraft Singles?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yes, but from what I understand they're not wrapped very tight.

 

[Abreutime]

The bill was basically written by credit card companies with the idea that they would be able to completely drop any pretense of judging credit worthiness. They could just loan money at 30% to anyone who asked, and they could have the government collect in bankruptcy court.

Do you have any reason for this view? Maybe a source (outside of a blog) that I can read into? This doesnt really make sense to me.

Obviously, this won't really work. The credit card companies and the government won't be able to get any more blood from the stone. It will help create a very dangerous class of people with nothing to lose.

Bankruptcy serves an important purpose. It's a safety valve for people who've made disasterous financial mistakes. Removing it creates an incentive to turn to crime, either to get the money or to do violence to their creditors or themselves.

Be careful what you wish for.

The bankruptcy makes it harder for people who have an income to "wipe the slate clean and start over." That's what my google search turned up. It is now harder to file Chapter 7, and you need to file Chap 13 (where some of your debts are not wiped clean).

 

[ladelfina]

bankruptcy bill:

Daily Kos: The Bankruptcy Bill, Examined

this is how bad it is:

To exempt debtors from means testing if their financial problems were caused by identity theft.
REJECTED

To limit the amount of interest that can be charged on any extension of credit to 30 percent.
REJECTED

To protect service members and veterans from means testing in bankruptcy, to disallow certain claims by lenders charging usurious interest rates to servicemembers, and to allow servicemembers to exempt property based on the law of the State of their premilitary residence.
REJECTED

in that last one.. I'm not sure about the means-testing, but disconnecting service members from their home states' bankruptcy/property protections is pretty cold. What happened to states' rights?

OJ has better homestead protection than our armed forces with property in FL, apparently.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.. I'm sure you can find more if you Google it.
Oh btw, this is the "Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005".
--
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_03/005781.php

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Well sure. Who'd wanna mess with OJ?

Heck...I threw out all my sports memorabilia a couple of months ago. Who wants to take the chance?

 

[brewer12345]

Do you have any reason for this view? Maybe a source (outside of a blog) that I can read into? This doesnt really make sense to me.

Anything you find will be opinionated. But the differences in how it was and how it is now are pretty clear. Previously, you could go BK, get your debts discharged without much hassle, and go out and start picking up the pieces of your life. Now the process is far more complicated and expensive, you have to justify everything, and unless you earn an absolute pittance you can't really get your debts discharged anyway. I am sure Martha could fill us in on a lawyer;s perspective in the differences from a tactical level.

The primary beneficiaries of the changes were very clearly the credit card companies. Why? Under the old rules, secured creditors (house, car, etc.) generally either got the asset back (house, car) or got the debtor to start paying again via the BK process. Unsecured creditors (credit cards, etc.) got squat because it was their claim that was the most readily extinguished by the BK process. Under the new rules, any debt is a challenge to discharge, so the main difference is for the unsecured creditors, who now preserve much or all of their claim through the BK process rather than getting told to shove it by the BK judge.

 

[clifp]

Would someone please sticky this thread, and use it as warning on why retiring early (or even thinking about it) is dangerous to your mental health!

12 pages (and counting) of Marmots, Nutris (?), Yaks, bacon, crockpots from crackpots, and bankruptcy. You'll are nuts, entertaining yes, but certifiable.

 

[MGYog]

My 2 pesetas worth

One must stand in awe at the creators of financial instruments like credit cards. They were masters at understanding the darkest recesses of human nature. They knew how to accumulate vast wealth by playing on human foibles like master violinists are able to draw out the limits of sound from their instruments.

These guys sure know how to play suckers. They are the true artists of our modern society, yet they are destined to remain anonymous and unfeted(except by me).

I would like to see one dragged out into the noonday sun though, so I could have a good look. Their prey like "Dumpy" here in the article are all too apparent, surrounding us in everyday life, but they themselves remain hidden away in might buildings in great cities, unseen.

Hhmmmm... I like this statement. Although I can do you one better. Mayne we should all become Muslim so that it would be a sin to charge interest.

 

[Hamlet]

The criticisms section in Wikipedia talks about some of this.

Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A less balanced look at the bill

Senate Passes MBNA's Bankruptcy Bill

Likewise, the link provided by ladelfina to the Daily Kos has some good information, albeit very ideologically slanted.

Honestly, from their lending practices, it appears to me that credit card companies have completely lost their minds. These loans are unsecured. They are extending tens of thousands of dollars in credit to people of very limited means. Any type of bump in the road (illness, job loss, divorce) for these people means that the credit card company will very likely not get paid. Anyone with basic math skills should be able to understand this.

So it seems hypocritical for the credit card companies to pretend to outrage that some people might not pay. Their whole justification for charging 29% interest to these people revolves around the high level of expected defaults.

The rules were fine as written. If credit card companies were having too many losses to bankruptcy, they should have reviewed their lending practices, not run to Congress to get a special deal.

Do you have any reason for this view? Maybe a source (outside of a blog) that I can read into? This doesnt really make sense to me.


The bankruptcy makes it harder for people who have an income to "wipe the slate clean and start over." That's what my google search turned up. It is now harder to file Chapter 7, and you need to file Chap 13 (where some of your debts are not wiped clean).

 

[Delawaredave5]

One must stand in awe at the creators of financial instruments like credit cards. They were masters at understanding the darkest recesses of human nature. They knew how to accumulate vast wealth by playing on human foibles like master violinists are able to draw out the limits of sound from their instruments.

These guys sure know how to play suckers. They are the true artists of our modern society, yet they are destined to remain anonymous and unfeted(except by me).

It is amazing to me how much wealth is siphoned off of people and merchants from credit cards. Live in Delaware- there are huge credit card processing centers and piles of nice neighborhoods all the result of sucking 20% interest from people and 3% from merchants.

About 20% of S&P capitalization is (well, was...) banking - wonder what percent of that is credit card and retail banking - where again banks are just parasites offf of society.

In every city, all the big building are banks. Within a 5 mile circle of my rural home there must be 30 retail banks.

Someday, maybe:
1. Consumers will get smart and stop swallowing 20% credit,
2. Merchants will gain power and reduce 3% card fees, and
3. People will all use internet banking and electronic cash and retail banks will die like roadside motels and service stations.

We need someone like a WalMart to get into banking and wring out all the fat and excesses.

Or maybe I'm on another planet.

 

[brewer12345]

where again banks are just parasites offf of society.
Or maybe I'm on another planet.

You are indeed on another planet. I don't know about you, but I get something of value in return when I pay interest on my mortgage or pay fees for banking services.

 

[Delawaredave5]

You are indeed on another planet. I don't know about you, but I get something of value in return when I pay interest on my mortgage or pay fees for banking services.

Certainly there's capitalistic value to the banking system - just not 20% of S&P 500 cap worth.....I also cringe to imagine what percent of our working population is in banking "industry".

I suspect, don't know for sure, that the percentage of US workers in banking and law is disporportionally higher than other industrialized / productive nations (I'll probably tick of some bankers, lumping them with lawyers).

But then I don't have a mortgage, never had a car loan and never had a credit card balance - so I probably have a different view about value to society for banking industry.

 

[ziggy29]

Likewise, the link provided by ladelfina to the Daily Kos has some good information, albeit very ideologically slanted.

What? The Daily Kos? Slanted?

Next thing you know you'll be saying Fox News is fair and balanced...

 

[ladelfina]

look, it just came up on "the Google" and had some detail. At least over at Kos they know the difference between Obama and Osama, and that Mark Foley is a Republican. They don't show pictures of John Conyers and label him as the cash/freezer guy Wm. Jefferson.

 

[rmark]

About that foreclosure suicide - it looks to be a longer running story than has been reported.

Calculated Risk: The "Foreclosure Crisis" and Exploitation of a Suicide

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

As usual, you cant believe most of what you read and at least half of what you see...

 

[barbarus]

I don't know about you, but I get something of value in return when I pay interest on my mortgage or pay fees for banking services.

A warm feeling in your heart?

 

[ladelfina]

barbarus, you can't discount that benevolent feeling you have when you know you are contributing to someone's Rolls, prostitute, golf club fees or offshore account.