In an article titled "Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Spending", M.P. Dunleavey writes for the New York Times about her struggles to get out of $30,000 in credit card debt.

Ditching debt requires dealing with the emotional underbelly of owing money, and coming to terms with a culture that has serious debt addiction issues. Getting out of debt can feel like a battle — because it is one, on many fronts.

She goes on to note that "carrying credit card debt for months or years is a red flag signaling that you can’t afford your life."

Her advice - figure out how to afford your life on the money you have - with one other piece of advice: "brace yourself" - it's hard!

Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of TIME, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, writes this week's Time Magazine cover story titled "How to Save Your Newspaper". His article is all about how save your newspaper from what appears to be inevitable financial ruin. Isaacson's answer: micropayments.

The key to attracting online revenue, I think, is to come up with an iTunes-easy method of micropayment. We need something like digital coins or an E-ZPass digital wallet — a one-click system with a really simple interface that will permit impulse purchases of a newspaper, magazine, article, blog or video for a penny, nickel, dime or whatever the creator chooses to charge.

He's aware the earlier efforts (citing Flooz, Beenz, CyberCash, Bitpass, Peppercoin and DigiCash!) - but feels the times have changed. Along the way, he chastises PayPal for being too expensive for true micropayments and mentions Spare Change, Bee-Tokens, Tipjoy, and TwitPay.

According to today's G.19 Consumer Credit report issued by the Federal Reserve for December 2008, "consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 3 percent in the fourth quarter. Revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 5-1/2 percent, and nonrevolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 1-3/4 percent. In December, consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 3 percent."

Kimberly Kiefer Peretti of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the US Department of Justice has authored a paper titled "Data Breaches: What the Underground World of “Carding” Reveals" to be published in the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Journal. READ MORE »

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) has announced that it has selected Patria Services Corp., a SaaS technology-based trigger marketing company based in Wilmington, Delaware, as its Preferred Service Provider for community banking life event marketing solutions, specifically for residential movers. Patria will help ICBA member banks target and model relevant incentive offers to consumers moving in and around the bank’s footprint to generate new deposit balances. Patria handles all aspects of the program including list selection, creative design, distribution, offer modeling and marketing materials.

J.P. Morgan has announced that it has "helped the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) deliver early food stamp benefits to Kentuckians recovering from the state’s recent devastating ice storm."

"CHFS’ Department for Community Based Services usually issues electronic monthly food benefits on a staggered schedule during the first ten days of each month. Due to the storm, nearly 252,000 food stamp recipients who typically receive funds between the third and tenth of the month were given early access to benefits on February 2nd. These benefits are delivered via J.P. Morgan-issued Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards."

Earlier this week, American Express held a financial community meeting. The presentation materials including remarks by CEO Ken Chenault are available on the American Express website.

• NYTimes.com: New U.S. Plan to Help Banks Sell Bad Assets
• The Merchant Account Blog: Spotting large scale credit card fraud
• Steve Klebe's Payment Talk: Visa/MasterCard Results & the Economy
• NetBanker: UK's MoBank Could be the First of a New Wave of Banking & Payments Companies Optimized for Mobile Delivery
• Digital Money Forum: Payments without banks
• CreditCards.com: Federal Reserve's December 2008 G.19 report on consumer spending
• New Mercator Advisory Group Report: Credit Card Issuer Processing: State of the Industry
• Western Union Names New Leadership to Support Americas Region Go-to-Market Strategy
• PCI DSS Compliance Blog: PCI Compliance and Terrorism
• The Financial Services Club's Blog: The Card Awards: and the winners are ...
• The Consumerist: Ripoffs: Student Loan Refund Debit Cards Laden With Hidden Fees
• Credit Card News: Altenative Credit Scores Provide Hope for Millions
• Seeking Alpha: Four Key Points from Visa's FQ109 Conference Call
• Factors To Consider When Selecting A POS System
• 99Bill Joined Forces with PayPal