If you’re not one of our regular readers, I urge you to “friend” our Life On The Road Facebook page. I attempt to “feed” as much trucking and related news on the industry over on my page, and I would appreciate your “friending” me as well.
As I’ve said, I do have problems with the “dictatorial” nature of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg’s weird idea of “socializing” the planet. Based on what I read online – I ‘m not used to the “cloud” term quite yet - I’m certainly not alone. Not having received my “invitation” to Google+, I remain a “reluctant” Facebook user. I check into Twitter from time to time, but I have enough input without it right now.
In the news this morning is an item in The New York Times, “Anger Over Credit Rating Resurfaces in Washington”. The gist of the piece is that “lawmakers have questioned whether the rating agencies have the competence to evaluate the countries finances and whether it was appropriate for them to be so deeply involved in discussions of fiscal politics. The criticism reached a fevered pitch after S&P (Standard & Poor’s) announced Friday night that it was downgrading America’s credit rating, a decision that thrust the ratings agencies to the center of the debate over the government’s budget, and prompted renewed scrutiny of an industry that has been harshly criticized since the financial crisis”.
I find this hilarious. “Our” government is upset because they can’t handle money and the credit agencies have downgraded their rating. Does this sound at all familiar? Poor rich people who are members of Congress with a less than perfect credit rating. OMG – welcome to the club, you so forth and so on’s. How long have the people you “represent” have had to deal with Equifax, Trans-Union and Experian? Do you think we feel these “services” – which make billions charging us for our own personal and confidential information – are fair? Of course not! You question to “competence” of the rating agencies to evaluate the country’s finances – don’t you think we do the same - all the time.
I wish Congress luck trying to change things for themselves. They don’t seem to care that much for us. You know what it’s like to try and get something changed on a credit report? How about a DAC report? Even worse. The prevailing laws don’t favor the people, they favor big business. Try to purchase a truck, a house – just about anything that involves credit – especially in this extremely tight economy where despite the bank’s being bailed out by “we the people” having billions in the coffers, most consumers can’t get approval for a loan.
Do you have anything less than a 725 credit rating? Well good luck buying that Harley. Don’t forget, when your trucking company CEO wants to expand, it’s been real tough, with the banks, whose job it is to make loans, don’t open up their pockets. And I’m not talking frivolous junk loans, these are financially solid companies, with good balance sheets, that cannot secure credit.
The New York Times article goes on to say, “All three ratings agencies failed to see the credit crisis coming,and for years they bestowed AAA ratings on bundles of mortgage bonds, even though many of the loans inside those securities were highly questionable. Scores of investors purchased the securities based on the positive ratings; when mortgages inside those deals, investors lost billions of dollars, kicking off the panic that drive the financial crisis.”
You’ve heard that expression, what goes ’round comes around? Well, just look at “our” government right now. Are they not getting their comeuppance? Talk about a disconnect that’s now a connect. They’ve not adequately listened to the people’s problems with credit reporting agencies and now they’re getting screwed by their own credit agencies. I love it! Do you think things will change for us now that Congress sees what its like? Of course not.
But it sure would be nice if it would. On a personal level, I despise credit – other than my mortgage, I have no loans, gas credit cards or similar. I try to pay cash for almost everything. I’ve done this for years. Guess what? I went online to get my free credit report, which is a “come-on” – it’s not really free – somehow Congress allows them to say it’s free, when it’s not. Which is just like Congress. Anyway, paying cash and just having a mortgage, which is paid on time, has resulted in my having the lowest credit rating in my life. I’m back just where I was when I was 18, because I have no credit, I can’t get credit. No Harley for me.
PS/where does “our” President fit into all this? I think Maureen Dowd, my favorite columnist said it best, “Barack Obama blazed like Luke Skywalker in 2008, but he never learned to channel the Force. And now the Tea Party has run off with his light saber. The dissonance of his promise and his reality is jarring.”
PS2/Yesterday would have been Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday. “The Long Long Trailer” is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.
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