I can't understand why Whirlpool moved nearly 100% of their manufacturing overseas and I can buy a washer and dryer made in Germany by union labor and shipped here but the US can't compete?
I see your point on the other and I have some time these days so I'll start promoting a bit - soft promotion to get some more eye balls here and posters.
This is one small, obscure statistical release from the BLS and my hair stood on end when I saw over half of people lose their job after just two years in their 40's. That's obscene. But there are so many other elements which show this is true and we cover as much as we can on this site.
The real question is how in God's name to we get the U.S. citizen labor force top priority in U.S. politics. Right now we're cannon fodder.
brilliant and completely correct. I myself have been ranting on this subject since the late 90's. Unfortunately I believe that we have passed the point of no return, that point at which our once vaunted political/economic system is capable of "self correcting". I'm in my mid sixties and we are one step away from living under a bridge . .and not by our own doing. My kids face an uncertain future at best and that could easily deteriorate into a nightmare. Good post.
This is the norm, where workers are seen simply as replaceable cogs by people in executive positions who see themselves as anything but replaceable because of their egos, being born into wealth, having plundered those below them, etc. The ethos at the top used to be very different, at least a gold watch was obtainable after steady employment for 20+ years. Now, prepare to apply for jobs endlessly in the hopes of lining up a temp job, and then pray that you somehow make enough off those temp jobs so that you can have enough to survive from 30-death, because companies don't like to hire the elderly folks over 30 (apparently we have nothing to offer).
Now sit back and watch the true horror show as society reaps the whirlwind. People won't personally invest in education because it isn't worth the money when people are unemployable after 30 or are seen as overqualified by insecure managers with less education (as well as colleges now in full profit taking mode and not helping at all to ensure American grads find living wage jobs in the US). Tax revenues will continue to fall as fewer people find jobs = fewer public services and a greater tax burden on those who cannot afford to buy tax loopholes (i.e., those without lobbyists). We're seeing the # of municipal bankruptcies increase now, and the pace will quicken. Increasing distrust of anyone in power by an ever-growing number of formerly patriotic citizens that see those in power ignoring their plight and those who do address workers as belittling them, calling them lazy, and then doing everything to further undermine their security (whether through increasing workers from overseas or increasing outsourcing). And a tremendous amount of talent purposely sidelined through churn-and-burn corporate policies and hiring practices (e.g., hiring temp workers that need to move anywhere and everywhere at a moment's notice with no benefits and no job security for minimal wages). You don't need to buy a Masters in Public Policy like many politicians to understand this all leads to breakdowns in families (who can get married and have kids in this scenerio), more mobile and hostile people who see the system rigged against them, and an utter distrust of everyone in power because they obviously couldn't care less about those struggling in jobs or trying to find jobs. Fewer taxes to support those people, while greater burdens on the social system as a result = a Third World USA that could have been saved long ago.
People disappear for various reasons, then, due to being a news source, for quality control, I had to change the site rules so author accounts are requested. We had people literally putting up a raw link as a "post", not exactly Journalism level quality writing there.
Possibly I should do that but it takes a lot of time just to write here so why stretch myself thin? I think it would be better if we could invite some great writers to come post here, who don't own their own sites.
But bottom line, The Economic Populist does get reasonable traffic. If you want to help promote certain articles, please do. Reddit it seems likes some of our stuff but reddit is it's own community, they for the most part discuss articles on the site itself, but hop over around the Internets to read the individual pieces.
I'd love to find more quality authors to contribute as well. If you see authors who have in depth, accurate articles, want more exposure, including cross posts, invite them and let me know. Reality is solid authors are few and far between with a hell of a lot of fluff and puff out there and that includes the major financial press.
Finally, I do periodically refute lobbyist bullshit snow. We've got it raining down on us in spades at the moment, on flooding the labor market with more foreign guest workers. Literally they are claiming there is a trucker shortage. Good freaking God, 28 million people needing a job and they are claiming there is a shortage. The training time to drive a semi is two weeks of classes and then some trucker in training initial runs. Out of 28 million people they cannot offer to train a few?
Stuff like this infuriates me, we are in such trouble as a labor force and this is the treatment we get, anybody but an American.
I don't cross post, mainly because this is EP site articles, for EP and we have ads running on EP. If I do that what's the point of EP? But sometimes stories get buried and this is one.
Robert do you submit your posts to Huffpo as stories?
Some of these would garner a lot of attention in the right light and would draw more readership here. You pop up in Google News feeds for some of my watched topics.
I will post this on a few places where it will draw some eyes.
with the new CFPB. Literally we are having not just identify theft run rampant, ruining people's credit, but false situations like you mention and it's happening everywhere.
It's no wonder people cannot get mortgages with these goings on. And the credit bureau's don't do anything either. Experian is like some sort of criminal enterprise as are the others. I mean literally, OWS has some exposure on them.
What I'm amazed is this post didn't get much traction and it really should. (consider sharing it around). Although there is so much outrageous stuff happening every day it's hard for people to keep track of it all.
I recently was denied a new bank account over an old bank debt paid off 3 years ago. I have an account with the bank who they say I still owe money to! I have moved to a better economic climate so I needed a local bank.
I called the branch where I knew the asst manager and he affirmed that yes the debt was paid some time ago and gave me a number to their internal division where I could find out why it was suddenly reporting as unpaid. They started harassing me and asking where I worked, who my employer was (my business folded)etc. I asked if they were learning impaired since the conversation started with me explaining this was concerning a debt paid 3 years ago. They continued to harass so I called the asst manager back and asked that they send me a letter on their bank stationary with the details and contact info etc.
Hence I was able to open a local account but it still reports as unpaid. I cannot speak to anyone at the credit agency which is reporting that false info so it stands till the incompetents decide they will change it.
Propagate Ponzis much, ECB? Ex-Goldman Sachs managing director/current ECB head Draghi said the ECB will do "everything necessary" to save the Euro. Goldman Sachs alum seem to be everywhere possible above the plight of the common man, but always in a position to prosper at the common man's expense, don't they?
Promise away, Draghi. Just like everything was done to save the Weimar Republic. Just like Chamberlain promised peace with a certain world leader in our time. Just like the Austro-Hungarian Empire was sure it would never fall. Or the Roman Empire. And on and on. Make promises that he knows he can't keep, but will destroy the world in the effort.
The problem is when investment and central banksters and the Eurocratic asshats and politicians around the world only care about printing money, propping up stock exchanges at all costs (including the actual integrity of said exchanges), and don't care that almost all major economies are stagnant or shrinking and there is no one available to borrow money from except other former Goldman Sachs alum that now head other national banks, real food prices are rising, and unemployment has been growing for the average struggling citizens for 5 years, bad things happen. Focusing on crap like saving an artificial concept in order to preserve bankster and political control and fiefdoms leads to real concepts like revolutions and war. I guess banksters and politicians figure they don't have to serve in such wars and can hide in the Caymans or Switzerland or Luxembourg while everyone else fights and dies for bankster arrogance and megalomania.
Good frickin' God and all to avoid a reset, nationalization and hair cut of the banks and those investors. Here we go. I feel like I am in a slow motion implosion, being strewn about, helpless.
What I'm pointing out is our government, Congress is even worse than the Federal Reserve in terms of favoring TBTF banks, the uber-rich, special interests. That's the problem here. Of course I want the Fed audit to pass, from what we learned about the bail outs, after Bloomberg (great job Bloomberg) went after their FOIA plus the GAO reports, are you kidding me? Of course the Fed needs to be audited, transparent.
Our problem here is Congressional oversight, involvement means even worse damage to the U.S., U.S. middle class, workers and the economy.
It's a frying pan to fire thing. Honestly, just one good idea, could be written up as a bill with two paragraphs, do you think Congress could pass it, even when 98% of all economists agree and 99% of America wants it? Of course not. Case in point tax credits to hire U.S. citizens, tax credits to train U.S. citizens on the job. I'm fairly certain this idea is endorsed widely, yet Congress refuses to pass something that obvious with unofficially almost 28 million people out there needing a good job.
What a tool bag... So what your saying is Yes we want an increase in price of goods and services ...yes we want the rich to get bailed out ...and yeas your a complete jack@$$
Had some problems with a creditor a year or so ago and let me tell you what I discovered after much frustration. As the economic populist has provided me some substantial insights, I spent some time on this.
First off, a reality check. The only REAL credit report you get is the free one recently mandated by law (see below link). Anything you buy from Experian, Transunion or Equifax has a clause in their 'contract' stating that the content of the purchased report may or may not reflect all the content in your ACTUAL credit report. If you compare the content of the free( ACTUAL) report with the on- demand purchased credit reports you might find they differ substantially.
Since at the time I was literally checking my credit every few days I found that the content of the purchased reports were changing over time. In particular you may find a whole host of unwanted organizations checking your credit. These will show up on the ACTUAL (once a year) report but not on your purchased report. In fact credit inquiries would appear on my purchased reports then vanish several days later on new reports.
RULES FOR DEALING WITH CREDIT BUREAUS (CB) / THE RULES
1. All correspondence must be done by certified mail (overnight express or return stub signature type). There is a statutory three day response period for the CB to reply to 'valid' issues.
Many of you may not be aware that basic certified mail (dark green label-cheap, they scan it in) no longer provides 'proof of delivery' for many large organizations. The online tracking will only show that the letter was mailed. I believe they are just dumping the basic certified mail at large banks and credit organizations without even scanning the signatures in. Your only actual proof of delivery will be if the letter is rejected and you receive it back. Most such large organizations have a post office at their facility. My attempts to obtain signatures using basic certified (the green sticker they place on the letter) were unsuccessful. If anyone thinks otherwise, please post your thoughts. I believe this is a major news story since it's been going on for years now.
2.Use the telephone only sparingly and NEVER EVER use the internet to contact a CB. Whatever few rights you have under US law are waived if you use the internet. Your screen-shots or printed online reports will be next to worthless in court or in any correspondence.
3.) If you have a complaint regarding a creditor, the credit bureau considers the listed account to be the 'property of the creditor'. The creditor can change its content at will at anytime (for instance you may close an account then several years later find it in default). Remember, the creditor pays the CB, and hence you are an unwelcome, pesky intruder to the proceedings. The CB does not certify the accuracy of the data, anymore than YouTube certifies its video content.
4)Don't waste your time contacting the Federal Trade Commission. They'll take a complaint but will do nothing about it since they do not act on the behalf of individual consumers. Their staff are nice but ignorant and you may receive false addresses and telephone numbers just to get you off the line. They seem completely unaware how the CBs operate. The FTC is a complete joke.
EXPERIAN – the worst of the worst. Consider it a criminal entity.
Experian purchased TRW and is a large multinational organization. It thus could care less about US laws. While Equifax and Transunion provide both telephone numbers and addresses, Experian will shut you down and lock you out if your problem is too complicated.
Prepare to have your phone routed to an operator-free phone tree if Experian decides you are too much trouble.
Experian only provides an address to contact them on the front of your once a year govt mandated free report. In order to accept your complaint in writing Experian requires a copy of your license or passport and several bills from your current address. The address is only valid for something like 30 or 60 days, then it changes.
When I used my one shot to contact Experian in writing I provided extensive documentation of criminal wrong-doing by a large bank. Guess what happened? They asserted the bills and passport I sent them were fraudulent and that if I contacted them again they would refer me to the FBI!
Hence with Experian you may end up being able to see your credit report via outside parties but be unable to do anything about the errors.
I suggest you first focus on Equifax then Transunion if you have any creditor issues. Both of these companies were responsive, though you'll find unreasonable anomalies with all of them.
There's More!
It gets even worse! I discovered from an attorney that it is not necessary for most financial organizations to even submit your account info to a CB in a timely manner. Hence you will not be able to dispute the content of the report until after it goes seriously into arrears.
A common tactic of credit card companies is to delete your account, threaten you by mail for money, then much later re-post all the negative data later after the account it sold.
See how clever that is? You can't complain to a CB about an account that isn't even listed! The end game is the defaulted account is sold off to a third party, who then sues you in state court. The original creditor is now absolved of any responsibility of dealing with you since they no longer own the account. Considered this a laundering of disputed accounts.
If you do go to court over the mis-information the Supreme Court mandated the most you can get from the falsely reported info is $1000+ attorney fees. That's a Scalia invention.
Hope the above helps someone.
Your real report is only available to you once a year at the below address. I suggest you have it mailed.
This is straight from the US DOJ's website - McGruff would kid you not! The DOJ is going after some really bad dudes, seeking a few years in prison for some guys who apparently stole IDs and tens of thousands of dollars, not trillions, or billions, or even hundreds of millions like Wall Street and big ol' CEOs, but tens of thousands of dollars! And look how many agencies and people it took to handle this. Now mind you, McGruff hates ID theft (often a result of corporations outsourcing services overseas, but those CEOs are untouchable) and theft of any person's money, but this is what the DOJ is working on as opposed to AGs, DAs, and not international banksterism? Really? Merely confirming the obvious to the 99%.
And here's the quote, directly from the DOJ, staffed by past and future corrupt politician/CEO/bankster defending attorneys:
"By employing an identity theft and bank fraud scheme, the defendants in this case attempted to make a fast buck at the expense of hard-working, law abiding citizens. Instead, they discovered a cold hard truth – crime does not pay,” said U.S. Attorney Haag. Seriously?! HA HA HA!!! If this is a fast buck at the expense of hard-working, law abiding citizens, what do JPMorgan, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Deutsche, and every other bankster do? Certainly not RICO and FCPA violations, right? Massive theft over many years approved by the government at the expense of law-abiding people across the globe? What do corporations do when they commit perjury regarding "skills shortages" and American workers' "lack of abilities" to secure cheap labor overseas and here a la Bill Gates and others.
DOJ - your tax dollars at, uhm, work?
There is an incredible raging opinion storm out there on new home sales. That's why we like graphs! What does it mean to see the "largest percentage increase since 2010 for May or, the largest decrease in one year" at all? It does not matter and the reason it does not matter is the margin of error and the revisions for this report.
This is also why we use so many graphs. You can see the levels of sales, by annualized volume here and that's where it's at! What we see are levels along 2009 and very early 2010 and that's it! New Home sales have not returned, nor will they, to 2006 levels and going off of anything else but levels and also realizing this report is strongly revised, for at least 3 months after the initial data is key to following along.
From the press and financial frenzy, the other thing we know is those inane bubble bugs from 2006 are lurking around in the shadows, just waiting to multiply again. We're sorry residential real estate idiots, that bubble is long gone, just like the tech bubble of 2000. You're gonna have to find a brand new thing to hype the hell out of before people catch on much to late in the game.
Come on people, do you really believe new home sales dropped 60% in a month in the Northeast region of the country? Jesus, get real, this report will be revised!
Barclays' COO just left after the LIBOR rigging/international crime/something Scotland Yard and the US Govt. will give a pass on was exposed. And what was his "punishment" for taking part in international criminal conspiracies that defrauded the innocent of trillions of dollars? Why, Barclays' former chief operating officer Jerry del Missier left with the equivalent of over $13 million! See, kids, crime does pay. Now, if you study too hard, work too hard, and follow laws and regulations too closely while caring about your fellow citizens, you can come join the West's long-term unemployed, never get an interview for years, and be despised and reviled until you simply die and disappear. Oh, but if you're a criminal and can buy influence and play a rigged game that requires no morals, skills, or intelligence, the world will be yours. So, learn your lesson well. McGruff the Crime Dog says - oh, f*** it, McGruff is sharpening the guillotine.
Back when things made some sense, if a so-called expert was wrong more than say once, or twice, or three times in any field, he/she would lose credibility and be ignored. There are only so many times a civil engineer can miscalculate maximum loads before he is deemed incompetent and/or causes deaths. A helicopter pilot can make a major mistake regarding his fuel requirements once before he, and those with him, pay a personal price. These people earn much less than the business and political "experts," but I'd trust them much, much more to do the right thing. Now we see the Eurozone mockery the epitome of the exact opposite. How many times have we seen Eurozone elected and unelected officials attend weekly meetings and crisis summits in their motorcades and eat at fancy restaurants, announce resolution, and be proven time and time again to achieve nothing that anyone that understands a little bit of three-card Monte, economics, politics, international relations couldn't forecast? Same with endless tripe coming from global media and people in companies and politics around the globe. The tragedy is nowadays the honest people with insight are ignored, but the people who continue to spout the lies keep on raking in the dough with no employment problems because they toe the line. And when the Euro collapses very soon, and it will, these same buffoons will have no shame, claim they saw it coming, maintain they were, and are, completely honest + intelligent, and then make millions more both analyzing what happened and then moving on to some other shell game. Just another symptom of how manipulation and lies make many rich, while those on the outside are looking at Louis XVI and Versailles not for leadership, but to show all that is wrong with the current power and moral structure.
That's incredible about not training Americans.
I can't understand why Whirlpool moved nearly 100% of their manufacturing overseas and I can buy a washer and dryer made in Germany by union labor and shipped here but the US can't compete?
I see your point on the other and I have some time these days so I'll start promoting a bit - soft promotion to get some more eye balls here and posters.
This is one small, obscure statistical release from the BLS and my hair stood on end when I saw over half of people lose their job after just two years in their 40's. That's obscene. But there are so many other elements which show this is true and we cover as much as we can on this site.
The real question is how in God's name to we get the U.S. citizen labor force top priority in U.S. politics. Right now we're cannon fodder.
brilliant and completely correct. I myself have been ranting on this subject since the late 90's. Unfortunately I believe that we have passed the point of no return, that point at which our once vaunted political/economic system is capable of "self correcting". I'm in my mid sixties and we are one step away from living under a bridge . .and not by our own doing. My kids face an uncertain future at best and that could easily deteriorate into a nightmare. Good post.
This is the norm, where workers are seen simply as replaceable cogs by people in executive positions who see themselves as anything but replaceable because of their egos, being born into wealth, having plundered those below them, etc. The ethos at the top used to be very different, at least a gold watch was obtainable after steady employment for 20+ years. Now, prepare to apply for jobs endlessly in the hopes of lining up a temp job, and then pray that you somehow make enough off those temp jobs so that you can have enough to survive from 30-death, because companies don't like to hire the elderly folks over 30 (apparently we have nothing to offer).
Now sit back and watch the true horror show as society reaps the whirlwind. People won't personally invest in education because it isn't worth the money when people are unemployable after 30 or are seen as overqualified by insecure managers with less education (as well as colleges now in full profit taking mode and not helping at all to ensure American grads find living wage jobs in the US). Tax revenues will continue to fall as fewer people find jobs = fewer public services and a greater tax burden on those who cannot afford to buy tax loopholes (i.e., those without lobbyists). We're seeing the # of municipal bankruptcies increase now, and the pace will quicken. Increasing distrust of anyone in power by an ever-growing number of formerly patriotic citizens that see those in power ignoring their plight and those who do address workers as belittling them, calling them lazy, and then doing everything to further undermine their security (whether through increasing workers from overseas or increasing outsourcing). And a tremendous amount of talent purposely sidelined through churn-and-burn corporate policies and hiring practices (e.g., hiring temp workers that need to move anywhere and everywhere at a moment's notice with no benefits and no job security for minimal wages). You don't need to buy a Masters in Public Policy like many politicians to understand this all leads to breakdowns in families (who can get married and have kids in this scenerio), more mobile and hostile people who see the system rigged against them, and an utter distrust of everyone in power because they obviously couldn't care less about those struggling in jobs or trying to find jobs. Fewer taxes to support those people, while greater burdens on the social system as a result = a Third World USA that could have been saved long ago.
People disappear for various reasons, then, due to being a news source, for quality control, I had to change the site rules so author accounts are requested. We had people literally putting up a raw link as a "post", not exactly Journalism level quality writing there.
Possibly I should do that but it takes a lot of time just to write here so why stretch myself thin? I think it would be better if we could invite some great writers to come post here, who don't own their own sites.
But bottom line, The Economic Populist does get reasonable traffic. If you want to help promote certain articles, please do. Reddit it seems likes some of our stuff but reddit is it's own community, they for the most part discuss articles on the site itself, but hop over around the Internets to read the individual pieces.
I'd love to find more quality authors to contribute as well. If you see authors who have in depth, accurate articles, want more exposure, including cross posts, invite them and let me know. Reality is solid authors are few and far between with a hell of a lot of fluff and puff out there and that includes the major financial press.
Finally, I do periodically refute lobbyist bullshit snow. We've got it raining down on us in spades at the moment, on flooding the labor market with more foreign guest workers. Literally they are claiming there is a trucker shortage. Good freaking God, 28 million people needing a job and they are claiming there is a shortage. The training time to drive a semi is two weeks of classes and then some trucker in training initial runs. Out of 28 million people they cannot offer to train a few?
Stuff like this infuriates me, we are in such trouble as a labor force and this is the treatment we get, anybody but an American.
I was thinking more about you personally getting your views to a bigger audience. Most of the bloggers I read there post a link to their own blogs.
I don't cross post, mainly because this is EP site articles, for EP and we have ads running on EP. If I do that what's the point of EP? But sometimes stories get buried and this is one.
Robert do you submit your posts to Huffpo as stories?
Some of these would garner a lot of attention in the right light and would draw more readership here. You pop up in Google News feeds for some of my watched topics.
I will post this on a few places where it will draw some eyes.
with the new CFPB. Literally we are having not just identify theft run rampant, ruining people's credit, but false situations like you mention and it's happening everywhere.
It's no wonder people cannot get mortgages with these goings on. And the credit bureau's don't do anything either. Experian is like some sort of criminal enterprise as are the others. I mean literally, OWS has some exposure on them.
What I'm amazed is this post didn't get much traction and it really should. (consider sharing it around). Although there is so much outrageous stuff happening every day it's hard for people to keep track of it all.
I recently was denied a new bank account over an old bank debt paid off 3 years ago. I have an account with the bank who they say I still owe money to! I have moved to a better economic climate so I needed a local bank.
I called the branch where I knew the asst manager and he affirmed that yes the debt was paid some time ago and gave me a number to their internal division where I could find out why it was suddenly reporting as unpaid. They started harassing me and asking where I worked, who my employer was (my business folded)etc. I asked if they were learning impaired since the conversation started with me explaining this was concerning a debt paid 3 years ago. They continued to harass so I called the asst manager back and asked that they send me a letter on their bank stationary with the details and contact info etc.
Hence I was able to open a local account but it still reports as unpaid. I cannot speak to anyone at the credit agency which is reporting that false info so it stands till the incompetents decide they will change it.
Propagate Ponzis much, ECB? Ex-Goldman Sachs managing director/current ECB head Draghi said the ECB will do "everything necessary" to save the Euro. Goldman Sachs alum seem to be everywhere possible above the plight of the common man, but always in a position to prosper at the common man's expense, don't they?
Promise away, Draghi. Just like everything was done to save the Weimar Republic. Just like Chamberlain promised peace with a certain world leader in our time. Just like the Austro-Hungarian Empire was sure it would never fall. Or the Roman Empire. And on and on. Make promises that he knows he can't keep, but will destroy the world in the effort.
The problem is when investment and central banksters and the Eurocratic asshats and politicians around the world only care about printing money, propping up stock exchanges at all costs (including the actual integrity of said exchanges), and don't care that almost all major economies are stagnant or shrinking and there is no one available to borrow money from except other former Goldman Sachs alum that now head other national banks, real food prices are rising, and unemployment has been growing for the average struggling citizens for 5 years, bad things happen. Focusing on crap like saving an artificial concept in order to preserve bankster and political control and fiefdoms leads to real concepts like revolutions and war. I guess banksters and politicians figure they don't have to serve in such wars and can hide in the Caymans or Switzerland or Luxembourg while everyone else fights and dies for bankster arrogance and megalomania.
Good frickin' God and all to avoid a reset, nationalization and hair cut of the banks and those investors. Here we go. I feel like I am in a slow motion implosion, being strewn about, helpless.
What I'm pointing out is our government, Congress is even worse than the Federal Reserve in terms of favoring TBTF banks, the uber-rich, special interests. That's the problem here. Of course I want the Fed audit to pass, from what we learned about the bail outs, after Bloomberg (great job Bloomberg) went after their FOIA plus the GAO reports, are you kidding me? Of course the Fed needs to be audited, transparent.
Our problem here is Congressional oversight, involvement means even worse damage to the U.S., U.S. middle class, workers and the economy.
It's a frying pan to fire thing. Honestly, just one good idea, could be written up as a bill with two paragraphs, do you think Congress could pass it, even when 98% of all economists agree and 99% of America wants it? Of course not. Case in point tax credits to hire U.S. citizens, tax credits to train U.S. citizens on the job. I'm fairly certain this idea is endorsed widely, yet Congress refuses to pass something that obvious with unofficially almost 28 million people out there needing a good job.
What a tool bag... So what your saying is Yes we want an increase in price of goods and services ...yes we want the rich to get bailed out ...and yeas your a complete jack@$$
Thanks for the post, Driveby. Read and registered.
The business of fraud in this country know no limits.
Had some problems with a creditor a year or so ago and let me tell you what I discovered after much frustration. As the economic populist has provided me some substantial insights, I spent some time on this.
First off, a reality check. The only REAL credit report you get is the free one recently mandated by law (see below link). Anything you buy from Experian, Transunion or Equifax has a clause in their 'contract' stating that the content of the purchased report may or may not reflect all the content in your ACTUAL credit report. If you compare the content of the free( ACTUAL) report with the on- demand purchased credit reports you might find they differ substantially.
Since at the time I was literally checking my credit every few days I found that the content of the purchased reports were changing over time. In particular you may find a whole host of unwanted organizations checking your credit. These will show up on the ACTUAL (once a year) report but not on your purchased report. In fact credit inquiries would appear on my purchased reports then vanish several days later on new reports.
RULES FOR DEALING WITH CREDIT BUREAUS (CB) / THE RULES
1. All correspondence must be done by certified mail (overnight express or return stub signature type). There is a statutory three day response period for the CB to reply to 'valid' issues.
Many of you may not be aware that basic certified mail (dark green label-cheap, they scan it in) no longer provides 'proof of delivery' for many large organizations. The online tracking will only show that the letter was mailed. I believe they are just dumping the basic certified mail at large banks and credit organizations without even scanning the signatures in. Your only actual proof of delivery will be if the letter is rejected and you receive it back. Most such large organizations have a post office at their facility. My attempts to obtain signatures using basic certified (the green sticker they place on the letter) were unsuccessful. If anyone thinks otherwise, please post your thoughts. I believe this is a major news story since it's been going on for years now.
2.Use the telephone only sparingly and NEVER EVER use the internet to contact a CB. Whatever few rights you have under US law are waived if you use the internet. Your screen-shots or printed online reports will be next to worthless in court or in any correspondence.
3.) If you have a complaint regarding a creditor, the credit bureau considers the listed account to be the 'property of the creditor'. The creditor can change its content at will at anytime (for instance you may close an account then several years later find it in default). Remember, the creditor pays the CB, and hence you are an unwelcome, pesky intruder to the proceedings. The CB does not certify the accuracy of the data, anymore than YouTube certifies its video content.
4)Don't waste your time contacting the Federal Trade Commission. They'll take a complaint but will do nothing about it since they do not act on the behalf of individual consumers. Their staff are nice but ignorant and you may receive false addresses and telephone numbers just to get you off the line. They seem completely unaware how the CBs operate. The FTC is a complete joke.
EXPERIAN – the worst of the worst. Consider it a criminal entity.
Experian purchased TRW and is a large multinational organization. It thus could care less about US laws. While Equifax and Transunion provide both telephone numbers and addresses, Experian will shut you down and lock you out if your problem is too complicated.
Prepare to have your phone routed to an operator-free phone tree if Experian decides you are too much trouble.
Experian only provides an address to contact them on the front of your once a year govt mandated free report. In order to accept your complaint in writing Experian requires a copy of your license or passport and several bills from your current address. The address is only valid for something like 30 or 60 days, then it changes.
When I used my one shot to contact Experian in writing I provided extensive documentation of criminal wrong-doing by a large bank. Guess what happened? They asserted the bills and passport I sent them were fraudulent and that if I contacted them again they would refer me to the FBI!
Hence with Experian you may end up being able to see your credit report via outside parties but be unable to do anything about the errors.
I suggest you first focus on Equifax then Transunion if you have any creditor issues. Both of these companies were responsive, though you'll find unreasonable anomalies with all of them.
There's More!
It gets even worse! I discovered from an attorney that it is not necessary for most financial organizations to even submit your account info to a CB in a timely manner. Hence you will not be able to dispute the content of the report until after it goes seriously into arrears.
A common tactic of credit card companies is to delete your account, threaten you by mail for money, then much later re-post all the negative data later after the account it sold.
See how clever that is? You can't complain to a CB about an account that isn't even listed! The end game is the defaulted account is sold off to a third party, who then sues you in state court. The original creditor is now absolved of any responsibility of dealing with you since they no longer own the account. Considered this a laundering of disputed accounts.
If you do go to court over the mis-information the Supreme Court mandated the most you can get from the falsely reported info is $1000+ attorney fees. That's a Scalia invention.
Hope the above helps someone.
Your real report is only available to you once a year at the below address. I suggest you have it mailed.
www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/freereports/index.shtml
This is straight from the US DOJ's website - McGruff would kid you not! The DOJ is going after some really bad dudes, seeking a few years in prison for some guys who apparently stole IDs and tens of thousands of dollars, not trillions, or billions, or even hundreds of millions like Wall Street and big ol' CEOs, but tens of thousands of dollars! And look how many agencies and people it took to handle this. Now mind you, McGruff hates ID theft (often a result of corporations outsourcing services overseas, but those CEOs are untouchable) and theft of any person's money, but this is what the DOJ is working on as opposed to AGs, DAs, and not international banksterism? Really? Merely confirming the obvious to the 99%.
And here's the quote, directly from the DOJ, staffed by past and future corrupt politician/CEO/bankster defending attorneys:
"By employing an identity theft and bank fraud scheme, the defendants in this case attempted to make a fast buck at the expense of hard-working, law abiding citizens. Instead, they discovered a cold hard truth – crime does not pay,” said U.S. Attorney Haag. Seriously?! HA HA HA!!! If this is a fast buck at the expense of hard-working, law abiding citizens, what do JPMorgan, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Deutsche, and every other bankster do? Certainly not RICO and FCPA violations, right? Massive theft over many years approved by the government at the expense of law-abiding people across the globe? What do corporations do when they commit perjury regarding "skills shortages" and American workers' "lack of abilities" to secure cheap labor overseas and here a la Bill Gates and others.
DOJ - your tax dollars at, uhm, work?
There is an incredible raging opinion storm out there on new home sales. That's why we like graphs! What does it mean to see the "largest percentage increase since 2010 for May or, the largest decrease in one year" at all? It does not matter and the reason it does not matter is the margin of error and the revisions for this report.
This is also why we use so many graphs. You can see the levels of sales, by annualized volume here and that's where it's at! What we see are levels along 2009 and very early 2010 and that's it! New Home sales have not returned, nor will they, to 2006 levels and going off of anything else but levels and also realizing this report is strongly revised, for at least 3 months after the initial data is key to following along.
From the press and financial frenzy, the other thing we know is those inane bubble bugs from 2006 are lurking around in the shadows, just waiting to multiply again. We're sorry residential real estate idiots, that bubble is long gone, just like the tech bubble of 2000. You're gonna have to find a brand new thing to hype the hell out of before people catch on much to late in the game.
Come on people, do you really believe new home sales dropped 60% in a month in the Northeast region of the country? Jesus, get real, this report will be revised!
Barclays' COO just left after the LIBOR rigging/international crime/something Scotland Yard and the US Govt. will give a pass on was exposed. And what was his "punishment" for taking part in international criminal conspiracies that defrauded the innocent of trillions of dollars? Why, Barclays' former chief operating officer Jerry del Missier left with the equivalent of over $13 million! See, kids, crime does pay. Now, if you study too hard, work too hard, and follow laws and regulations too closely while caring about your fellow citizens, you can come join the West's long-term unemployed, never get an interview for years, and be despised and reviled until you simply die and disappear. Oh, but if you're a criminal and can buy influence and play a rigged game that requires no morals, skills, or intelligence, the world will be yours. So, learn your lesson well. McGruff the Crime Dog says - oh, f*** it, McGruff is sharpening the guillotine.
Back when things made some sense, if a so-called expert was wrong more than say once, or twice, or three times in any field, he/she would lose credibility and be ignored. There are only so many times a civil engineer can miscalculate maximum loads before he is deemed incompetent and/or causes deaths. A helicopter pilot can make a major mistake regarding his fuel requirements once before he, and those with him, pay a personal price. These people earn much less than the business and political "experts," but I'd trust them much, much more to do the right thing. Now we see the Eurozone mockery the epitome of the exact opposite. How many times have we seen Eurozone elected and unelected officials attend weekly meetings and crisis summits in their motorcades and eat at fancy restaurants, announce resolution, and be proven time and time again to achieve nothing that anyone that understands a little bit of three-card Monte, economics, politics, international relations couldn't forecast? Same with endless tripe coming from global media and people in companies and politics around the globe. The tragedy is nowadays the honest people with insight are ignored, but the people who continue to spout the lies keep on raking in the dough with no employment problems because they toe the line. And when the Euro collapses very soon, and it will, these same buffoons will have no shame, claim they saw it coming, maintain they were, and are, completely honest + intelligent, and then make millions more both analyzing what happened and then moving on to some other shell game. Just another symptom of how manipulation and lies make many rich, while those on the outside are looking at Louis XVI and Versailles not for leadership, but to show all that is wrong with the current power and moral structure.
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