What the big banks did to us and how to fight back.
This is kind of a two pronged issue today but both involve the same issue: the unacceptable control Wall Street and the big banks have over our lives. You may not bank at sneaky Wells Fargo (we're watching you assholes) but trust me, what they and others do every single day affects your life somehow. Stay with me.
Probably most people weren't as incensed as I was when, having done nothing to deserve it, my puny IRA funds lost over a third of their value and an equity line on our house was mysteriously frozen in 2006 by Bank of America. I'm not a risk taker and we pay our bills on time. I felt like a fish in a barrel and it pissed me off.
Having only lived here a year or so when this "crash" happened, I made it my business to squint through pages and pages of foreclosures in the Record in those early years. I saw my friends' and neighbors' names there. Over and over, the same banks were mentioned: Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Deutsch Bank, JPMorgan, you know the list. The notices always included "mortgage backed asset" with a date ranging from 2004-2008. (many with that bogus MERS robo signing outrage). These are the crap bundled "CDOs": collaterized debt obligations, that mixed subprime loans with some decent prime loans, sold them off to investors and just to be safe when the house of cards fell, bet against them with securities derivatives, which along with credit default swaps, another betting method, made sure the money churned in both directions just in case. And all those derivatives got sold to guileless pension funds and naive investors. Slick JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs even bet AGAINST the crap they were selling and made money off the crash and the misery of millions.
I'm oversimplifying here but hope you get the big picture. I still read the foreclosures every day. Today there are two, both associated with mortgage backed assets dating from the mid 2000's. But wait! There's more. The foreclosures I read now are associated with the banks that survived (thanks to us) and mortgage backed assets dating from 2012! So they never stopped! Even though we were all supposed to breathe this big sigh of relief after Dodd Frank, the lamest "regulation" ever passed, to these banks, it's just a cost of doing business.
Still here? So, also for years I've been following Ellen Brown and also the Public Banking Institute . After the 2008 debacle, many smaller banks got sucked up into larger ones, one of the reasons given that they were too small to deal with ALL THOSE REGULATIONS demanded by Dodd Frank. Right, because...accountability in a bank is too much work. We always banked locally, knew who was on the board of directors and literally had to keep changing banks as ours kept getting swept into larger ones. But guess what? During and after the big financial crisis, one bank came out absolutely fine. Ever hear of this? The Bank of North Dakota was founded in 1919 in response to a farmers’ revolt against out-of-state banks that were foreclosing unfairly on their farms. Since then it has evolved into a $7.4 billion bank that is reported to be even more profitable than JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, although its mandate is not actually to make a profit but simply to serve the interests of local North Dakota communities. Along with hundreds of public banks worldwide, it has demonstrated what can be done by cutting out private shareholders and middlemen and mobilizing public revenues to serve the public interest. Banks now create most of our money supply and need to be made public utilities, following the stellar precedent of the Bank of North Dakota, which makes below-market loans for local communities and businesses while turning a profit for the state. Ellen has been a big proponent of public banks and I've always thought it was a great idea but never knew where to start. Now both California and Washington state have legislation to create a public bank. Pensions can be invested safely, money stays in the state for low cost loans to business and infrastructure projects.The CEO's salary is capped and the bank is controlled locally, not by Wall Street. This is possible. We would do well to follow what's happening in both states as we deal with our climate change challenges. Anybody know some retired bankers to get this rolling? This would be so cool.
Probably most people weren't as incensed as I was when, having done nothing to deserve it, my puny IRA funds lost over a third of their value and an equity line on our house was mysteriously frozen in 2006 by Bank of America. I'm not a risk taker and we pay our bills on time. I felt like a fish in a barrel and it pissed me off.
Having only lived here a year or so when this "crash" happened, I made it my business to squint through pages and pages of foreclosures in the Record in those early years. I saw my friends' and neighbors' names there. Over and over, the same banks were mentioned: Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Deutsch Bank, JPMorgan, you know the list. The notices always included "mortgage backed asset" with a date ranging from 2004-2008. (many with that bogus MERS robo signing outrage). These are the crap bundled "CDOs": collaterized debt obligations, that mixed subprime loans with some decent prime loans, sold them off to investors and just to be safe when the house of cards fell, bet against them with securities derivatives, which along with credit default swaps, another betting method, made sure the money churned in both directions just in case. And all those derivatives got sold to guileless pension funds and naive investors. Slick JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs even bet AGAINST the crap they were selling and made money off the crash and the misery of millions.
I'm oversimplifying here but hope you get the big picture. I still read the foreclosures every day. Today there are two, both associated with mortgage backed assets dating from the mid 2000's. But wait! There's more. The foreclosures I read now are associated with the banks that survived (thanks to us) and mortgage backed assets dating from 2012! So they never stopped! Even though we were all supposed to breathe this big sigh of relief after Dodd Frank, the lamest "regulation" ever passed, to these banks, it's just a cost of doing business.
Still here? So, also for years I've been following Ellen Brown and also the Public Banking Institute . After the 2008 debacle, many smaller banks got sucked up into larger ones, one of the reasons given that they were too small to deal with ALL THOSE REGULATIONS demanded by Dodd Frank. Right, because...accountability in a bank is too much work. We always banked locally, knew who was on the board of directors and literally had to keep changing banks as ours kept getting swept into larger ones. But guess what? During and after the big financial crisis, one bank came out absolutely fine. Ever hear of this? The Bank of North Dakota was founded in 1919 in response to a farmers’ revolt against out-of-state banks that were foreclosing unfairly on their farms. Since then it has evolved into a $7.4 billion bank that is reported to be even more profitable than JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, although its mandate is not actually to make a profit but simply to serve the interests of local North Dakota communities. Along with hundreds of public banks worldwide, it has demonstrated what can be done by cutting out private shareholders and middlemen and mobilizing public revenues to serve the public interest. Banks now create most of our money supply and need to be made public utilities, following the stellar precedent of the Bank of North Dakota, which makes below-market loans for local communities and businesses while turning a profit for the state. Ellen has been a big proponent of public banks and I've always thought it was a great idea but never knew where to start. Now both California and Washington state have legislation to create a public bank. Pensions can be invested safely, money stays in the state for low cost loans to business and infrastructure projects.The CEO's salary is capped and the bank is controlled locally, not by Wall Street. This is possible. We would do well to follow what's happening in both states as we deal with our climate change challenges. Anybody know some retired bankers to get this rolling? This would be so cool.
posted by Mary at 9:15 AM
1 Comments:
I"Ve heard of this Dakota bank before. They have shown the way to moral banking and shown also that it is possible when greed and corruption aren't at the center of it all.
Karen Neff
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