Word: crediteers
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...exactly, is this bailout supposed to 'save' credit markets? Not entirely clear. Paulson and Bernanke described it as a way to jumpstart trading in mortgage securities for which there's no market at the moment, thus allowing banks to clean up their balance sheets and get back to lending. But a lot of economists outside government believe that the real problem is that lots and lots of financial institutions are insolvent--their losses, if they actually recognized them, are enough to wipe out their capital reserves. If that's true it would make more sense for taxpayers to give them...
While Congress bickers over how to fix the financial meltdown, there's a decent chance you haven't even felt it. Why, you may be asking yourself, does everyone think there's such a big a problem when you're still being offered credit cards in the mail and 0% financing at the car dealership? Maybe you used to bank with Washington Mutual or Wachovia and overnight you've become a Chase or Wells Fargo customer, but if your money's still there, why does the rest matter...
...mortgage - they're not all evil, but these days they are exceedingly rare - or with a jumbo loan, which now carries an average rate 1.2 percentage points above a regular mortgage. (In normal times, the spread is closer to a quarter of a percentage point.) "Some people are saying, 'Credit crunch, what credit crunch?' and others are ready to cry uncle," says Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. "It shows it really matters where you fall on the risk spectrum...
...about those credit card offers. You may not feel it, but there are fewer of them going out - 1.1 million during the second quarter, down 17% from the same time last year, according to Synovate, a research firm that tracks direct mail. Who's being ignored? Well, subprime borrowers (no surprise there), but also anyone who doesn't make a lot of money: 52% of households with an annual income of less than $50,000 received at least one offer in the second quarter, compared with 66% of such households during the same period last year...
Already got all the credit cards you need? You're still not immune from higher delinquency fees or lower limits. American Express typically cuts the credit limit on about 4% of its members in any given year. That figure now stands closer to 10%, as the card company takes a hard look at customers' credit profiles - including data on who lives in the areas with the most house-price deterioration...