Filed under: Debt, Fraud

When I heard the term zombie debt, I had to grab the post. My zombie story, “Five Places You Must Visit After You Die” is included in the new anthology, “Book of Dead Things.”

But those aren’t the zombies in question. Zombie debts are those old, unpaid debts owed companies that have given up trying to collect. Now, however, they are selling those debts to debt collectors, who miraculously bring them back to life and resume the pursuit. Of you.

Dayana Yochim, writing for The Motley Fool, has some savvy tips about dealing with phone calls from the dead (debt), the foremost being, admit nothing. State nothing that might indicate your recognition of the debt, because, like brains, your reaction feeds the zombie debt. Ask for details, check it against your own records.

That doesn’t mean you can ignore a valid debt, though. It can wreak havoc on your credit rating. So if you do in fact owe the debt, and substantiate that the debt collector is in fact the owner of that debt, you’d be well advised to make arrangements to clean up that particular dirty, lurching problem.

Because sunlight and baseball bats don’t work against this kind of zombie.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Debt, Saving, Shopping, Recession

Is it any wonder that the economies of the Asian manufacturing behemoths are beginning to wilt? Should we be surprised by the downwardly revised economic outlook for Japan? Does China’s burgeoning inflation rate give us pause to ponder the reasons why? Ha! They’re getting what they got coming to them. They asked for it and they’ve done it to themselves.

Since the 1940’s the Asian manufacturing block has built its economies upon the backs of hard working Americans, aided mostly by American corporations seeking out their sustenance hungry work forces which were willing to work for just pennies a day. Now, it’s coming back to bite them in the rumps. Cry me a river, won’t ya?

But there’s a silver lining to this cloud of contraction, and it plays into our American boiler plate strengths. We’ve been in a maintenance mode for almost a decade now. Yes, our standard of living has declined slightly overall, but we’re still in pretty good shape. We have the ability to weather a recession for a much longer time frame than those countries which are trying to maintain growth patterns based upon the paychecks of American consumers. The cash cow has been milked.

I saw this coming at least 20 years ago and It’s going to get far worse before it gets any better. My advice to you my friends is to keep playing it very tight with your paychecks. Remind the world just exactly who has been paying the bills. Show them the American workforce still holds most of the cards.

If the world wants our continued support for their economies, it’s about time they begin to give something back. In the meantime, my disposable income is going into American banks, except for those few expenditures which might raise my good old American income and an occasional gift of which my wife earnestly deserves.

Give my regards to Chairman Mao.

Share This

Share This