New Moon Edition August 2023

Credit

Well, some of us have to accept credit for lighting up the family, if not necessarily in a manner that was welcomed by them. Certainly not appreciated. Maybe not even understood. Not even by those closest to us.

My brother John came to visit a couple of years ago. Drove all the way from Oklahoma after picking up my sister JoAnne in Colorado and heading west. Something like the old Oregon Trail they traveled to this remote stretch of the state, which is truly the end of the line. Folks in their respective wagon train journeys across this developing nation had nowhere left to go when they reached Oregon. Guess this must be it.

What it was for John I couldn’t guess until midway through his visit, after the usual hugs and kisses and laughter and reminiscing, when he finally with great seriousness told me how disappointed he was that I had pissed away so many opportunities that had come to me in life. After hearing him out and sensing how important it was for him to have his say, I could only answer that I did what I wanted to do and not what he thought I should do. We can only be who we are I long ago concluded. Still, I was struck that he cared enough to come all this way to tell me. A brother, tried and true.

Credit Cards

The Federal Reserve Bank reports that total household debt in the U.S. is $17.06 trillion dollars. Of that, credit card debt in the United States for the first time just surpassed $1 trillion dollars (HERE). For the estimated 260 million people over the age of 18, each owes nearly $4,000 to those vile and merciless purveyors of exorbitant interest they’re pleased to change you for fronting you a few bucks on your plastic.

The “vig” or vigorish was the term we used for interest charged by loan sharks, those gangster types who got you on the hook and never let go because the debt piled up faster than you could pay it off. That despite the willingness they showed to break your bones as incentive to pay up. These days their progeny live in South Dakota.

The state in 1980 was virtually bankrupt. Citibank came calling, offering a lot of jobs. We need a place to call home where we can charge as much interest as we want for our credit cards, they told the governor, Bill Janklow. Changing the usury law was a solution. He got it done for them in a day (HERE).

Shortly thereafter, 16% of all the jobs were in the financial services industry, the highest salaries in the state. Guess who was paying those fat salaries. The consumer of credit, that being us. That’s why your credit card bills come from South Dakota. That’s why these rapacious bankers can stick you 29.8% interest on your debt, licking their chops all the while. It used to be illegal. Now it’s business as usual. It’s the new indentured servitude. That’s the vig, baby. And they are coming to get you.

Credit Collection

Big debt sounds so impressive. Trillions of dollars. Citibank. Governors getting legislatures to change state law. Scale to make one wonder. Sometimes though it’s the story of little debts that are scary.

I used to know a guy named Icepick Joe. Kind of Runyonesque. Denizen of the social fringes, he was, a big guy, German ancestry, a fleshy face, meaty hands, very gruff manner, but in my experience a nice enough guy.

Curiosity being what I had in common with cats, I finally had to ask. “Why do they call you Icepick Joe?” “Joseph is my given name,” he said. “I used to collect debts. These guys always tell you they haven’t got it this week. Haven’t got it next week. I learned if you cornered them, say in an elevator and hit the stop button, press an icepick tight against their Adam’s apple, it is amazing how much money they produce.”