Knowing you're not in debt: Priceless

Decided to switch back to money talk for a little bit. As you all know [if you kept up with my blog], our housing market is in a slump, and has caused us some major trouble in the financial world where banks have lost so much money, that they're selling off whatever they have to raise capital. While they're at that, they are not able to make loans for people who need some extra cash to do whatever they need to do, and ultimately, causing the bottom line of the economy to slow down.

Most people are slowly starting to come around that we're experiencing recession. Furthermore, unemployment is still on the rise [though not as fast] and prices for basic necessities are still increasing. Money is tight everywhere, but people are still somewhat getting by.

I think a part of this has to do with another potential pitfall in the grand scheme of American consumer culture. There are probably hundreds of thousands of people out there that would've lived off fumes if not for a small plastic card that behaves just like money. Indeed, credit cards have been the alternative financial fuel that people have resorted to in hard times, and during these hard times, it's not surprising to see this trend.

The question is, however, what happens when you reach your credit limit? What happens when people can't pay their credit cards either? Are we going to go through another one of these financial blowups again? My guess is that it won't be as bad, considering we have a fresh wound still in need of healing in the form of the housing bust. However, it makes me wonder about what more financial gloom and doom we might have to face in the near future.

For those of you who've bought stock in the CC industry, I hope you guys know what you're doing. I'm sure you can ride those stocks up a little while longer, but who knows when they'll drop down. The trend lately seems to be stocks being driven up by good speculation only to be deflated back down lower by the bottom line, which can be found in those financial statements that show them yummy earnings reports. De~Lish!!