Gerald Celente: In 1933 Americans Turned in Their Gold – Today, History May Repeat Itself

Gerald Celente on KSFO 560 Radio:

Back in 1933 when Roosevelt became President, they passed the  National Emergency Banking Act. What they did was they called the bank holiday. They couldn’t get the money out of the bank. When they finally got the money out of the bank, it was worth less than what it was before. When the government talks about having a “hearing” about gold valuation, this is what actually happened back then:

By law, they forced the American people to turn in their gold and they had to sell it back to the government because in those days the US dollar was pegged to gold. The price to sell it back to the government was then $26.22 an ounce. If they did not turn in their gold, they had to go to jail. Once they had all the gold back from the Americans, they changed the price of gold and re-pegged it to $35 an ounce. This caused everything to become 70 percent more expensive than what it used to cost before they devalued the dollar.

According to Gerald Celente, this is what they are going to do again. One day, they will once again call the bank holiday!

Watch his complete forecast:

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Government Approves College Loans for Parents Who Can’t Afford Them

The U.S. Department of Education may be approving federal parent loans for parents of college students even if the parents can’t afford them, according to several college financial aid officers who spoke with U.S. News & World Report.

Federal parent loans — known as PLUS loans — are credit-based, government-issued education loans available to parents of undergraduates that can be used to cover up to 100 percent of a student’s cost of attendance.

The financial aid officers expressed concern that “unsophisticated parents may be taking PLUS loans to help their children out now, not realizing how much trouble awaits them if they start missing payments” (“Government OKs College Loans to Struggling Parents,” U.S. News & World Report, Sept. 27, 2010).

Parents who miss enough payments to default on a PLUS loan are subject to having their wages garnished by the government. And the debt of a PLUS loan won’t be easy to shake, even for families facing financial hardship. PLUS loans, like other federally issued college loans, aren’t easily dischargeable in bankruptcy and are only forgiven in extreme cases, such as death, permanent disability, or permanent financial collapse.

Even in cases where parents clearly can’t repay the loans because of unemployment or underemployment due to disability, the Education Department is approving PLUS loans because Congress “provides no authority for the Department to deny an applicant a PLUS loan based on their perceived ability to repay the loan,” a department spokesman said.

The spokesman added that the Education Department can only deny parent loans in cases where parents have “adverse credit,” which means serious credit problems such as bankruptcy, a recent lien or foreclosure, or bills that are currently delinquent by more than 90 days.

Struggling Families Apply for Parent Loans as a Way to Boost Student Loan Awards

Many cash-strapped parents apply for PLUS loans not with any intention of receiving the parent loan but as a means of helping their child receive more financial aid in the form of federal student loans.

Dependent students whose parents are denied a PLUS loan are eligible for up to an additional $5,000 in federal Stafford student loans. These supplementary Stafford loans carry a lower interest rate than PLUS loans — 6.8 percent compared to 7.9 percent.

But financially strained parents are being met with the unpleasant surprise of being approved for a college loan they can’t afford to repay.

One parent telephoned Melet Leafgreen, assistant director of loan programs for Texas Christian University, to tell her that he’d been approved for a PLUS loan even though he’s in a wheelchair and might never work again. “This is crazy,” he told Leafgreen.

Another parent, Tammy Turner of Ruskin, Fla., said that she was “dumbfounded” when the Department of Education approved her application for a PLUS loan this fall. Both she and her husband can only work part-time. Her husband is disabled, and they both tend to a son who has a number of medical problems.

Despite having a poor credit history and no extra income to cover more than their current monthly expenses, the Turners were still approved for a PLUS loan for their daughter to attend college. And unless the school decides to override the Education Department’s decision and reject the Turners’ parent loan, the Turners’ daughter won’t be eligible for any additional federal student loan aid.

“We can’t afford to pay it back,” Turner said. “It’s kind of ridiculous. They are setting families up for hardship.”

Although college financial aid offices are able to override PLUS loan approvals from the Education Department so that a student can qualify for additional student loan money, financial aid officials worry that parents may not know to contact the school to explain their financial situation and may just end up taking a parent loan they don’t have the resources to repay.

“They are giving loans to people who have no business getting federally funded loans,” Leafgreen said.

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US Battle Against Payday Loans

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How to Consolidate Payday Loans and Get Out of Debt

(DebtConsolidationCare.com) Debt consolidation is applicable mostly to internet payday loans. Here’s a step-by-step approach on how to consolidate payday loans held by your creditors.

1. Calculate debt amount: Find out the outstanding balance on your payday loans and other unsecured debts (if any) using the Unsecured Loan Calculator.

2. Contact consolidation company: Approach a debt consolidation company which can help you consolidate payday loans. The company will offer you a free debt counseling session where you can talk to a debt counselor about your financial problems.

The debt counselor will analyze your current financial situation and suggest whether you should go for debt consolidation program or debt settlement.

3. Negotiate to reduce rates: The debt consolidation company will negotiate with your creditors in order to obtain lower interest rates on your payday loans. This is to make sure that you can pay off the principal loan along with reduced interest costs. Moreover, there are chances that your late payment fees can be cut down or eliminated.

4. New payment plan: The debt consolidation company will negotiate an alternative repayment plan with your payday lenders. Prior to negotiating on your behalf, the company will help you determine the maximum monthly payment you can afford on your payday loans. The purpose is to work out a suitable plan so that you can continue making payments and get out of debt in a short time.

Should you consolidate payday loans sent to collections?

If your internet payday loans are sent for collections and the collection agency (CA) calls you for repayment, here’s what you should do:

1. Verify the SOL: Check out the Statute of Limitations on the debt.

2. Request for debt validation: If the SOL hasn’t expired, chances are that the CA may win a judgment against you and garnish your wages. So, ask the collection agency to validate your debt. Send them a debt validation letter.

3. Consolidate and pay off debt: Once the debt is validated, try to consolidate the payday loans in order to get out of debt faster. Repeat steps 1 to 4 as given above. Here the negotiation should be done with the collection agency and not the original creditor as because he doesn’t hold the debt any longer.

Once the SOL expires, the collection agency cannot win a judgment against you even if you do not pay off the outstanding debt. But this doesn’t mean you don’t owe the debt. The collection agency may try out means to collect it from you. You may send them a cease and desist letter asking them to stop any communication with you. Or else, you may pay off (consolidate payday loans or settle the debt) the unpaid debt and release your obligation. However, the SOL is restarted once you start making payments.

How do you benefit if you consolidate payday loans?

When you consolidate payday loans, you get benefits as in a debt consolidation program. Lower interest payments, reduced late fees and fewer payments instead of multiple bills are some of the advantages. For more details, check out the 8 benefits of debt consolidation.

Are loans available for consolidation?

There are lenders who offer debt consolidation loan to help you consolidate payday loans. But whether or not you can use it depends upon the payday loan balance you owe. Say if your debt amount is around $2500, you won’t get a consolidation loan. Such loans are applicable to higher amount of outstanding debt.

When should you go for Extended Payment Plan?

If you’ve been dealing with storefront payday loans, there’s the option to get an installment repayment plan or Extended Payment Plan (EPP) from the lender as per payday loan laws.

However, the repayment plan applies only to 8 states such as Alaska, Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, Oklahoma and Washington. The plan is offered by lenders when an account reaches the maximum number of rollovers allowed by the law and the debtor declares that he’s unable to continue with the payments.

In states, where the EPP does not apply to storefront payday advances, you can either consolidate payday loans or follow the steps to do it yourself debt management depending upon which is easier for you.

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‘Debt-Free U’ Offers Degree in Saving on College Costs

By Kerry Hannon Special for USA TODAY

Imagine you’re a 21-year-old college senior with no student loans, a stock portfolio — and a job. Meet Zac Bissonnette, author of Debt-Free U: How I Paid For an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching Off My Parents.

There aren’t a lot of students like him out there. After graduation, today’s college students owe, on average, more than $23,000.

There also aren’t many parents who haven’t signed up for a load of debt at the risk of draining their retirement savings and depleting home-equity accounts to make sure their kids get a college education.

His parents didn’t even try. They weren’t in a financial position to consider taking out loans for their son’s education.

Bissonnette, a personal finance writer and editor with AOL Money & Finance, has money smarts. That allowed him to have enough money saved to pay his own freight, but his aim here is to show others how they can do it, too.

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Jim Rogers: Gold Could Exceed $2,000, Another Wave of Recession in 2-3 Years at Most

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