http://www.iipub.com/blogs/theopinionator/default.aspxStories you won&#39;t see covered on the 11 o&#39;clock news, from U.S. and geopolitics to the War on Terror, the economy, health, nutrition, science, and much more. This blog owes its existence to the despicable indifference of the mainstream media. If you are looking for a fresh perspective global events, you have come to the right place...enCommunityServer 2008 (Build: 30417.1769)http://www.iipub.com/blogs/theopinionator/archive/2008/03/13/where-will-america-s-new-brain-elite-come-from.aspx#1670Tue, 06 May 2008 21:30:52 GMT94e1e1ff-3922-415d-9584-19119299714b:1670NotEvenD<p>Finally, I see someone else agreeing with me on this issue, and it&#39;s happening not only in math and science, but in politics and sociology. &nbsp;Looks like the beginning of the end.</p> <div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://www.iipub.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=1670" width="1" height="1">http://www.iipub.com/blogs/theopinionator/archive/2008/04/25/the-credit-card-crunch.aspx#1634Thu, 01 May 2008 15:18:05 GMT94e1e1ff-3922-415d-9584-19119299714b:1634CaptGreenbean<p>The economy was driven to artificially high levels due to loose credit standards across the board and now the companies that were responsible are turning around and punishing their customers. This is just one more example of why we need to tighten regulation of the credit industry; otherwise they will continue to take advantage of consumers... The sad thing is that once everything settles down, these same credit card companies will come back with offers of new cards to help &quot;rebuild&quot; the credit rating that they help mess up... Something you failed to mention is that, by lowering the credit limit, the card company also affects an individuals credit score because a lowering of limits is always viewed as a negative in the eyes of the credit reporting agencies; not to mention that this would also potentially increase the debt to credit ratio thereby creating a double hit to the FICO score [ignoring for the moment that this could also affect someone's job, ability to get insurance, buy a home, etc...]</p> <p>Speaking of FICO score, that must be the worst injustice ever visited on the American consumer... A system where the credit card companies use the data that they report to determine how much interest they will charge you... Seems like a conflict of interest to me [no pun intended]... The halving of the credit limit for 90,000 customers that was mentioned above will almost certainly drive FICO scores down, interest rates up, and therefore put extra money back into the pockets of the card companies just when they need it the most... It is bad enough that they already have a habit of adding bogus charges to people's bills to boost quarterly profits... The worst part of all this, is that we have created a society where you can't do anything without a credit rating...</p> <div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://www.iipub.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=1634" width="1" height="1">