by the Night Writer

I noticed one of those ads next to an on-line article I was reading this morning. No, not one of those talking about Obama wanting mothers to go back to school or terrorists to go back to Guantanamo or whatever is being promoted this week. This ad appeared to speak directly to a significant issue: The Five Dumbest Things You Can Do if You Have Too Much Debt.

A better title, though, may have been “Obama doesn’t want you to read this.”

Following the link, I discovered that the ad really did list the five things you shouldn’t do, rather than just starting you on a trail of multiple clicks to suck you into a scam. Reading them I thought the advice was as relevant to a country as they are to a family. Here’s the list, with my observations:

The five strategies you may want to avoid:

The first piece of advice from experts in the financial field is to be sure you don’t make your situation worse by making common mistakes. In particular, try to avoid:

1. Paying only the minimum payment on your debt, as this will result in the amount you owe actually growing, and your problems will only become worse.

This is especially true if you only pay the minimum on your existing debt and continue to take on new debt at the same time.

2. Relying on friends and family, as this can damage relationships with the most important people in your life.

Do we consider China a friend? Can we count future generations as “friends and family”?

3. Unscrupulous credit counselors that demand cash upfront or high fees for help they promise, but don’t deliver.

Ben Bernanke, I’m looking at you.

4. Using new, high-interest loans to pay off lower interest rate loans. While it may be easier to just have one payment, it will actually increase the amount you have to pay back.

Isn’t this what Quantitative Easing is all about?

5. Declaring bankruptcy–this can have permanent and severe consequences on your financial future. Avoid it if you can, especially when debt settlement may work for you.

Declaring bankruptcy is a good thing to avoid. But what if other countries declare it for you by removing the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency?

As it turns out, the advertisement wasn’t completely altruistic. It eventually made a pitch for working with a Debt Settlement company to develop and execute a plan to get your finances back in order. Unfortunately, you can’t hire a debt settlement group for an entire country.

You can, however, elect them.

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