For much of the last several months the attention of U.S. investors has been directed across the Atlantic, where various austerity plans, debt auctions, and credit downgrades have dominated the financial headlines and given direction to global equity markets. While the fiscal health of Europe has gradually deteriorated, several positive data releases over the last month have given investors hope that the U.S. recovery will remain on track; factory activity appears to be on the rise, signs of job creation (albeit temporary job creation) are emerging, and tame inflation reports have given increased flexibility to the Federal Reserve.

But perhaps a more telling forward indicator has popped up from a most unlikely source: demand for two-ply and “luxurious” toilet paper is on the rise, after plummeting in recent years as consumers slashed discretionary items from their budget. According to research provider RISI, industrywide tissue production is up 13% this year. In a recent earnings call, Proctor & Gamble noted that the high-end Charmin brand has seen strong sales growth, boosting the company’s earnings this year. And Georgia-Pacific’s new Quilted Northern Ultra Plush bath tissue recently earned the honor of “pacesetter” status from marketing research firm Symphony IRI Group after generating $125 million in sales in its first year.

Read more at: RFTdb

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{Photography by *musica* (est Bleu2007)}

Post from: Credit Cards Mojo

Are Toilet Paper Sales Signaling A Strong Recovery?

The harassing and threatening voicemail messages left on Allen Jones’ mobile phone are nothing short of vulgar.

“This shouldn’t be tolerated,” he said. “Nobody should have to experience what I had to experience.”

Debt collectors from Advanced Call Center Technologies, LLC left eight messages for Jones in August 2007 trying to collect what it said he owed on a credit card.

Most messages were laced with profanity and spewed racial slurs:

“This is your mother******* wake-up call you little lazy a** b****,” a collector said on one. “Get your mother******* n****r ass up and go pick some mother******* cotton fields.”

Jones is African-American.

“If we did not have tapes, no one would ever believe that this happened,” Mark Frenkel, one of Jones’ attorneys said.

Read more at: khou.com

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Post from: Credit Cards Mojo

Vulgar voicemails force debt collector to pay $1.5 million

In the fourth-floor courtroom of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of California, which serves San Diego and Imperial counties (pop. 3.4 million), Chief Judge Peter W. Bowie’s docket is overflowing. Bowie has 77 Chapter 13 bankruptcies on his Tuesday calendar, one of which is the case of Juan Flores.

Flores, 55, is the owner and sole proprietor of a local business, Carpet Care 4 Less. Throughout 2007, he saw his income plummet along with the national economy. “My business dropped off by 50%,” he says. As his client roster evaporated, Flores started drawing on credit cards and took out a second mortgage to the tune of $57,000 in order to stay afloat. In 2009, out of options and under threat of losing his home of 10 years, Flores filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy — a reorganization filing under which consumers agree to a plan to make payments of past-due debts to creditors for a three- to five-year period. But now he is behind on his payments again, and Wells Fargo Bank wants to restart foreclosure proceedings.

Read more at: TIME

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{Photography by Ed Yourdon}

Post from: Credit Cards Mojo

Personal Bankruptcies Hit a High and May Keep Rising

Continuing on the trail of exposing what is rapidly becoming one of the largest frauds in commodity markets history is the most recent interview by Eric King with GATA’s Adrian Douglas, Harvey Orgen (who recently testified before the CFTC hearing) and his son, Lenny, in which the two discuss their visit to the only bullion bank vault in Canada, that of ScotiaMocatta, located at 40 King Street West in Toronto, and find the vault is practically empty. This is a relevant segue to a class action lawsuit filed against Morgan Stanley, which was settled out of court, in which it was alleged that Morgan Stanley told clients it was selling them precious metals that they would own in full and that the company would store, yet even despite charging storage fees was not in actual possession of the bullion. It appears that this kind of lack of physical holdings by all who claim to have gold in storage, is pervasive as the actual gold globally is held primarily in paper or electronic form. Lenny Organ who was the person to enter the vault of ScotiaMocatta, says “What shocked me was how little gold and silver they actually had.” Lenny describes exactly how much (or little as the case may be) silver was available – roughly 60,000 ounces. As for gold – 210 400 oz bars, 4,000 maples, 500 eagles, 10 kilo bars, 10 one kilogram pieces of gold nugget form, which Adrian Douglas calculates as being $100 million worth, which is just one tenth of what the Royal Mint of Canada sold in 2008, or over $1 billion worth of gold. As Orgen concludes: “The game ends when the people who own all these paper obligations say enough and take physical delivery, and that’s when the mess will occur.”

Read more at: Zero Hedge

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{Photography by Covilha}

Post from: Credit Cards Mojo

The Latest Gold Fraud Bombshell: Canada’s Only Bullion Bank Gold Vault Is Practically Empty

Tired of getting pushed around by faceless big business? Here are 10 ways to push back!

The New Year is nearly here, and so much has happened. Wait, what’s that? Nothing major at all has happened, you say? Oh right, we’ve been stuck in neutral since dumping the toxic trash of the Republican Bush administration and embracing Democratic promises of hope and change, neither of which have blossomed.

A year of our collective life has flown by and our global culture is still rife with schemers, screw jobs and sorry excuses for solutions. And we just sit back and take it, year after year. But no more. When you make that hefty list of New Year’s resolutions, drop some of these bombs. Then duck. You’ll get your change faster than you can say, “Teabag this!”

1. Mortgage underwater? Just walk away from it. Even academia says it’s OK. Move to the city and rent.

“Homeowners should be walking away in droves,” University of Arizona law school professor Brent T. White told the Los Angeles Times. “But they aren’t. And it’s not because the financial costs of foreclosure outweigh the benefits. One can have a good credit rating again — meaning above 660 — within two years after a foreclosure.”

In a scholarly paper called “Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis,” White tells cash-jacked homeowners that they can return the screw.

We’ve been championing that course for years, with reports on walkaways and trashouts, as well as violent homeowner blowback. Hell, we called the Great Recession before most did, and we’re still calling it another Great Depression in the making. So trust us. And if not us, then take it from the professor, who will soon be joined by a chorus of similarly credentialed whistleblowers as the financial crap truly hits the fan in the years to come. Go ahead, move back to the city and rent. You’ll end up there anyway when your suburb runs out of water and malls.

Read more at: AlterNet

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{Photography by Shoothead}

Post from: Credit Cards Mojo

10 Ways to Screw Over the Corporate Jackals Who’ve Been Screwing You

There’s a push to extend some expiring provisions from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But it will be done in bits and pieces.

You won’t see it all in one neat package. And you won’t hear the White House call it stimulus.

But there’s a good chance lawmakers will decide to extend some of the stimulus measures included in the $787 billion economic recovery package passed in February and possibly create some new ones as well.

On Wednesday, House Democrats are convening a forum of economists to debate the state of the economy, with a specific focus on job creation. And lawmakers are convening hearings on Capitol Hill this week to discuss the economic outlook and the state of the housing market.

A number of ideas on the table are lifeline measures, while some are flat-out incentives to spur economic activity.

Here’s a rundown of what’s under consideration, estimates of what the provisions might cost and where they stand currently in the legislative process.

By year-end, an estimated 1.3 million jobless workers will have run out of unemployment benefits, according to the National Employment Law Project.

It’s expected that lawmakers won’t let that happen.

The House has already approved an extension and the Senate has amended it but not yet voted on it. Both parties say they want to extend benefits but they disagree over how to pay for it and how to handle amendments to the bill.

In the Senate proposal, unemployment benefits would be extended by up to 14 weeks in every state and then another six weeks on top of that in states where the unemployment rate tops 8.5%.

Read more at: CNN Money.com

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{Photography by Nick Starr}

Post from: Credit Cards Mojo

Like it or not, here comes more stimulus

A year after Washington rescued the banks considered too big to fail, the ones deemed too small to save are approaching a grim milestone: the 100th bank failure of 2009.

In what has become a ritual, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has swooped down on a handful of troubled lenders almost every Friday, seizing 98 since January alone and putting their assets into the hands of another bank.

While the parade of failures still represents a mere fraction of America’s small banks, it underscores a growing divide between them and large institutions like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and U.S. Bancorp, which are slowly growing stronger as the economy improves.

Burdened by worsening commercial real estate loans, many small banks’ troubles are just beginning. Many analysts say that the now-toxic loans could sink hundreds of small lenders over the next few years and place a significant drag on the economy.

Already, the bank failures are placing enormous strain on the F.D.I.C. and its fund, which keeps depositors whole. Flush with more than $50 billion only two years ago, the fund recently fell into the red.

Read more at: The New York Times

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{Photography by Dave Mcmt}

Post from: Credit Cards Mojo

Failures of Small Banks Grow, Straining F.D.I.C.

What’s going on inside the minds of credit card companies now that the CARD credit card reform act is coming down the pike? A customer service supervisor for a major credit card company emailed us to give us the low-down: reduced grace periods, cutting credit lines, increased fees on balance transfers, and, of course, jacked up APRs. Here’s the details:

REDUCED GRACE PERIODS

If you have a 25 or 28 day grace period, banks are going to reduce their grace period to the new minimum, 21 days.

CUTTING CREDIT LINES

Credit card companies are reviewing accounts for debt-to-income ratio, and lowering credit lines. “Lets say you owe 40k in debt, and your last reported household income is 50k . . .   (Read more at: The Consumerist)

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{Photography by Free Range Life}

Post from: Credit Cards Mojo

How Credit Cards Are Getting Meaner

Read the list at Failure Magazine

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{Photography by locusolus}

Post from: Credit Cards Mojo

Failed Bank List 2009

Looking to start over? Find a new job? A new house? Here are 20 U.S. markets where jobs are available and real estate is affordable

Thousands of Americans across the U.S. are wondering if they would be better off somewhere else. The question is where?

As unemployment and foreclosures continue to rise, stocks keep fluctuating, and cash-strapped state and city governments move to increase taxes and trim services, many people are finding that careers and communities they once believed secure are no longer dependable. Either they have lost jobs, are in fear of losing a job, are stuck paying more mortgage than their homes are currently worth, or have seen their family’s quality of life evaporate. For those troubled Americans who are willing to relocate, the U.S. can still be a land of opportunity.

No state is totally buffered from the downturn, but several have gotten a boost from energy, military, and agricultural sectors. The healthiest states include Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. In the Washington area, federal government and defense jobs have given the economy a boost. And Iowa, which has seen its economy somewhat deteriorate, has also benefited from agricultural and alternative-energy jobs. (Read more at: BusinessWeek)

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{Photography by Yamiq}

Post from: Credit Cards Mojo

Where Struggling Americans Can Find a Fresh Start