Inflation caused by easy access to too much credit.

This petition addresses the effects of excessive borrowing and extensions of credit to consumers in the U.S. and worldwide.

Although many economists will list a variety of reasons for price inflation in the U.S. and other economies very rarely will you hear excessive access to large amounts of credit as one of the reasons.....but common sense tells us that producers and businesses will adjust their prices to what people are willing to pay.

Many of us have been extended and granted access to obscene amounts of credit through credit cards, equity loans, student loans, etc. which has given us  the ability to spend way beyond the bounds of reason based on our yearly income levels and our ability to repay in a reasonable time frame. 

This reckless lending, borrowing and spending has driven up the cost of nearly everything since the market tends to bare or reflect what people are willing to pay and we all know that with credit cards in our hands and equity loan "money" in our bank accounts we are definitely willing to pay a lot more in order to have something now!

The price of medicine, healthcare, autos, homes, education, groceries, clothing and anything else you can think of has increasingly reflected this lack of fiscal discipline by not only our banks but also our government which has displayed a serious lack of willingness to regulate banking, finance and other industries in the U.S. for the last ten years or so. 

These negative effects become compounded by high interest rates which make the odds of repaying such loans even more fantastic.

This obviously has the effect of inflating the cost of almost everything and borrowing against the economies of the future.

Although credit may be a useful economic tool within the bounds of reason.....for example your extended only the amount of credit you can reasonably pay off within 1-5 years etc.....(readers fill in repayment time frame you deem to be appropriate).

Unfortunately credit is now extended out for 30-40 years and can involve enormous sums of money which may or may not ever be payed back because as the time frame for repayment is extended so also is the risk that the borrower may die, become disabled or lose employment and not be able to repay the money which ultimately increases national, corporate and private debt and default rates.

This type of modern borrowing can almost be seen to border on theft since the level of uncertainty involved gambles against the future of our children, government and economy.

This petition calls on banks, U.S. federal state and local governments to study, reassess and reformulate loan repayment time frames and also interest rates to limit and control the secondary effect of price inflation caused by access to easy credit and excessively long repayment time frames which allows sellers to radically inflate the price of goods and services beyond the bounds of reason or "real" money.

If a loan cannot be payed back within a reasonable frame of time based on the borrowers income it could most likely be defined as a a form of theft or gambling against the future and the only reasonable solution or control for this is better regulation and oversight to be gradually phased in year by year.

We the undersigned agree with the sentiments of this author and wish for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to establish new regulatory guidelines in the U.S. limiting extensions of excessive credit and long repayment time frames to U.S. consumers and for these new regulatory measures to be gradually phased in over a number of years to reduce and control price inflation and debt in the United States.