OBAMA's CREDIT CARD DECLINED - President Obama Gets a Glimpse of the Real World

President Barack Obama's credit card was declined at a restaurant in New York City last month, he said.

"It turned out I guess I don't use it enough," Mr Obama said. "They thought there was some fraud going on."

Fortunately, he said, First Lady Michelle Obama had a credit card on hand and paid for the meal.

Mr Obama told the story at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as he announced new protections for debit cards used to deliver federal benefits.

An estimated 100 million Americans have been affected by identity theft in the past year, including high-profile security breaches at retailers like Target and Home Depot.

"I was trying to explain to the waitress, you know, I really think that I've been paying my bills," Mr Obama said. "Even I'm affected by this."

The US president is paid $400,000 (£250,000) per year, as well as given a non-taxable $50,000 expense account. The Secret Service is charged with watching the president's back, but who's watching his wallet?

When his credit card was declined last month while dining in New York, President Obama wondered if he had become a victim of identity theft.

"It turned out, I guess I don't use it enough," Obama said Friday at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"They thought there was some fraud going on," he said, chatting while announcing a government plan to tighten security for debit cards that transfer federal benefits like Social Security to millions of Americans. "I was trying to explain to the waitress `No, I really think that I've been paying my bills."' Fortunately first lady Michelle Obama was able to whip out a credit card they could use.

Identity theft is a growing problem and an estimated 100 million people have been affected by security breaches in the past year at retailers like Target and Home Depot. "Even I'm affected by this," he said.

It looks like a growing number of professional investors are preparing for a stock market crash, as hedge fund filings for the second quarter show a spike in defensive positions.

In particular, legendary billionaire George Soros made a huge bet against the market. He increased his short position on the Standard & Poor’s 500 by a startling 605%. The 9.69 million new shares of SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE Arca: SPY) put options gave Soros a total of 11.29 million shares and made it the biggest holding in his portfolio. Is the stock market about to crash? Hopefully not, and there definitely have been quite a few “false alarms” over the past few years. But without a doubt we have been living through one of the greatest financial bubbles in U.S. history, and the markets are absolutely primed for a full-blown crash. That doesn’t mean that one will happen now, but we are starting to see some ominous things happen in the financial world that we have not seen happen in a very long time. So many of the same patterns that we witnessed just prior to the bursting of the dotcom bubble and just prior to the 2008 financial crisis are repeating themselves again. Hopefully we still have at least a little bit more time before stocks completely crash, because when this market does implode it is going to be a doozy.


The move away from the U.S. dollar is yet another reaction to Western sanctions placed on Russia since it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March.

Russia and Iran have agreed to use their own national currencies in bilateral trade transactions rather than the U.S. dollar.

Similarly, Russia and China also agreed to trade with each other using the ruble and yuan in early September, following a Russian deal with North Korea in June to trade in rubles. The move away from the U.S. dollar is yet another reaction to Western sanctions placed on Russia since it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March.