"Our money has been used to make the system worse ...let's make it better!

[merrill]

"Our money has been used to make the system worse -- what if we used it to make the system better?"


Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs

The big banks on Wall Street, propped up by taxpayer money and government guarantees, have had a record year, making record profits while returning to the highly leveraged activities that brought our economy to the brink of disaster.

In a slap in the face to taxpayers, they have also cut back on the money they are lending, even though the need to get credit flowing again was one of the main points used in selling the public the bank bailout.

But since April, the Big Four banks -- JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo -- all of which took billions in taxpayer money, have cut lending to businesses by $100 billion

Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs | | AlterNet

 

[Warrior102]

You don't earn any money - so this doesn't apply to you.

 

[merrill]

Everybody earns money and pays taxes somehow including me and have been for several decades. Which makes me among the substantial voting stakeholders.

Meanwhile...

How? For starters, you could move your money to a small bank.
December 30, 2009 |

Over a pre-Christmas dinner, the two of us, along with political strategist Alexis McGill, filmmaker/author Eugene Jarecki, and Nick Penniman of the HuffPost Investigative Fund, began talking about the huge, growing chasm between the fortunes of Wall Street banks and Main Street banks, and started discussing what concrete steps individuals could take to help create a better financial system.

Before long, the conversation turned practical, and with some help from friends in the world of bank analysis, a video and website were produced devoted to a simple idea: Move Your Money.

Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs | | AlterNet

 

[code1211]

"Our money has been used to make the system worse -- what if we used it to make the system better?"


Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs

The big banks on Wall Street, propped up by taxpayer money and government guarantees, have had a record year, making record profits while returning to the highly leveraged activities that brought our economy to the brink of disaster.

In a slap in the face to taxpayers, they have also cut back on the money they are lending, even though the need to get credit flowing again was one of the main points used in selling the public the bank bailout.

But since April, the Big Four banks -- JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo -- all of which took billions in taxpayer money, have cut lending to businesses by $100 billion

Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs | | AlterNet

The four banks you list were forced to accept the money. The government thought that if they only gave money to the weak banks, there would be a run on those banks.

The lending practices of the past were to give money to anyone who asked and this created toxic assets. There is plenty of money to lend and the banks are lending to people who can prove they will repay it.

Creating MORE toxic assets is not the recipe for reducing the total number of Toxic assets.

 

[merrill]

"Our money has been used to make the system worse -- what if we used it to make the system better?"


Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs

The big banks on Wall Street, propped up by taxpayer money and government guarantees, have had a record year, making record profits while returning to the highly leveraged activities that brought our economy to the brink of disaster.

In a slap in the face to taxpayers, they have also cut back on the money they are lending, even though the need to get credit flowing again was one of the main points used in selling the public the bank bailout.

But since April, the Big Four banks -- JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo -- all of which took billions in taxpayer money, have cut lending to businesses by $100 billion

Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs | | AlterNet

The four banks you list were forced to accept the money. The government thought that if they only gave money to the weak banks, there would be a run on those banks.

The lending practices of the past were to give money to anyone who asked and this created toxic assets. There is plenty of money to lend and the banks are lending to people who can prove they will repay it.

Creating MORE toxic assets is not the recipe for reducing the total number of Toxic assets.

Nobody forces big banks to do anything certainly not politicians..

 

[Oddball]

I'd rather move my money to the Caymans.

 

[merrill]

Meanwhile, America's Main Street community banks -- the vast majority of which avoided the banquet of greed and corruption that created the toxic economic swamp we are still fighting to get ourselves out of -- are struggling. Many of them have closed down (or been taken over by the FDIC) over the last 12 months.

The government policy of protecting the Too Big and Politically Connected to Fail is badly hurting the small banks, which are having a much harder time competing in the financial marketplace. As a result, a system which was already dangerously concentrated at the top has only become more so.

We talked about the outrage of big, bailed-out banks turning around and spending millions of dollars on lobbying to gut or kill financial reform -- including "too big to fail" legislation and regulation of the derivatives that played such a huge part in the meltdown.

And as we contrasted that with the efforts of local banks to show that you can both be profitable and have a positive impact on the community, an idea took hold: why don't we take our money out of these big banks and put them into community banks?

Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs | | AlterNet

 

[Sunni Man]

Nobody forces big banks to do anything certainly not politicians..

Have you already decided what day your OWS tent city is going to reopen in the spring?

 

[Valox]

I really don't understand why people do business with big banks. I was going to open up a BoA account years ago, but was appalled at all of their charges. These banks have a lot of overhead and need to charge their customers a lot of fees.

With my local bank, I get a lot of great benefits free of charge and they even invest a small percentage of my debit/card use to the community, in which I picked education.

 

[merrill]

WE use three credit unions. My first experience began at age 16. Haven't looked back.

Credit Unions are practical and leave a bit of red tape behind.

 

[merrill]

Do your community a favor...

Move Your Money
Why put up with megabank megalomania? Here are two websites to help you find a local bank that gives a damn about you and your community:

Welcome to CU National Finder
and http://www.moveyourmoney.info/find-a-ba

Keeping money local keeps more money available to local business people
and local home owners.

 

[syrenn]

"Our money has been used to make the system worse -- what if we used it to make the system better?"


Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs

The big banks on Wall Street, propped up by taxpayer money and government guarantees, have had a record year, making record profits while returning to the highly leveraged activities that brought our economy to the brink of disaster.

In a slap in the face to taxpayers, they have also cut back on the money they are lending, even though the need to get credit flowing again was one of the main points used in selling the public the bank bailout.

But since April, the Big Four banks -- JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo -- all of which took billions in taxpayer money, have cut lending to businesses by $100 billion

Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs | | AlterNet

Your/Our money?




So long as its other peoples money right?