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The following 3 minute video explains what’s wrong with government debt. It specifically concerns the federal debt of $15.2 trillion (the number has gone up since the video). But it also applies to California’s $500 billion debt for government-worker pensions. Where’s all that money going to come from?

The federal government’s debt increased by $203,368,715,583.63 in the month of October, according to the U.S. Treasury. That equals about $650 per person for each of the 312,542,760 people the Census Bureau now estimates live in the United States. At the end of September, the total national debt stood at $14,790,340,328,557.15, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt. By the end of October, it had risen to $14,993,709,044,140.78. The debt increased far more this October than it did last October. Between the last day of September 2010 and the last day of October, the debt rose from $13,561,623,030,891.79 to...

If you haven't yet had your credit limit slashed on one of your credit cards, it's highly likely you will -- if Meredith Whitney is right, that is. Whitney, an analyst and managing director at Oppenheimer & Co. who predicted the current financial-services industry meltdown, now says credit-card issuers will eliminate more than $2 trillion in available credit over the next 18 months. Already, lenders have cut back on available credit due to their heightened aversion to risk and difficulty in funding loans. Before the financial crisis, consumer loans could be sold on a secondary market and the proceeds could...

Stung by the loss of more than $2.8 trillion in their net wealth, the nation's households paid down debts in the third quarter for the first time since at least 1952, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday. As of Sept. 30, the total outstanding debt for households shrank at an annualized rate of 0.8% from $13.94 trillion to $13.91 trillion, the Fed said in its quarterly flow of funds report. It's the first decline in household debt ever recorded in the report. Households paid off more mortgage debt than they took on for just the second quarter on record. Mortgage debt...

A massive tidal wave of bad credit card debt is surging toward Wall Street, prompting more investor panic and pushing more consumers to the brink of financial devastation. That’s according to Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, an international investment research and advisory firm. Its latest report, “Credit Cards at a Tipping Point,” forecasts that credit card charge-offs by financial institutions will reach near $100 billion by the end of 2009. Charge-offs are when credit card accounts have been deemed irrecoverable or there has been no payment for 120 days, according to Innovest. The economy already is shaky under the crushing weight...

The impact of ultra-tight credit markets is hitting your credit cards, and you might not even realize it. On The Early Show Tuesday, financial contributor Vera Gibbons explained that lenders are tightening terms in numerous ways, and you need to be aware of all of them to avoid possible trouble down the road. Behind the changes is the simple fact that lenders want to protect themselves from bad debt, so they're tightening standards and practices in hopes of avoiding defaults by credit card users. What are they up to? LOWER CREDIT LIMITS This is the biggest and perhaps most ominous...