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TechnoratiThe Movement Against the Banks
A massive rally in Chicago next week aims to express public displeasure with the massive bank bailout outside the American Bank Association annual meeting. Protesters will converge at 11:30 on Monday, October 26, at 301 North Water Street, where the meeting is taking place.
"The same financial institutions that caused the economic crisis and took billions in taxpayer bailouts are back to earning incredible profits," rally organizers—including Public Citizen, the AFL-CIO, and Change to Win—declare. "Meanwhile, Americans face shrinking pensions, rising foreclosures and unemployment, state budget cuts, predatory lending, outrageous overdraft fees, and sky-high credit card interest rates."
Protesters will demand oversight and accountability and reforms that would rein in the banks. It is an important moment, since Congress takes up regulatory legislation, including the idea of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, this month.
The Obama Administration is backing the idea of a consumer protection agency, but shying away from other reforms, including breaking up the "too-big-to-fail" banks and separating commercial banking activities from the investment activities that led to the current financial crisis. Today's New York Times includes a profile of Paul Volcker, the Federal Reserve chairman from 1979 to 1987, describing how he has been marginalized by Obama's pro-Wall Street economic advisors for suggesting a return to the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which, before deregulation, mandated that commercial banking and investment activities be separate.
"His disagreement with the Obama people on whether to restore some version of Glass-Steagall appears to have contributed to published reports that his influence in the administration is fading and that he is rarely if ever in the small Washington office assigned to him," the Times reports.
Meanwhile, Bankster, "your go-to site for updates on the financial services re-regulation fight in Congress and for progressive net-roots campaigning against the big boys on Wall Street"—is up and running.
The site, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy, aims to be the most comprehensive resource on the web for lay people who want to understand the battle for control over the financial services industry.
The site calls for criminal penalties for the bankers: "On the one-year anniversary of the Banksters blowing a hole in the global economy, no employee of a major American bank or financial institution is behind bars," Bankster points out. "Compare this to what happened after the Savings and Loan heist almost 20 years ago. No less than 1,852 S&L officials were prosecuted and 1,072 were jailed. Over 500 CEOs and top officers were indicted. What is going on here? Don't we believe in holding people accountable anymore? Tell the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI to get cracking!"
Among the other citizens' groups featured on the site are the "10 percent is enough" campaign that brings together leaders from all the major world religions to oppose usurious interest rates on moral grounds.
And just in time for Halloween, the anti-death-bonds campaign focuses on an issue Michael Moore brought to light in his new movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story": employers and investment firms such as Goldman Sachs taking out life insurance policies on working people and naming themselves the beneficiaries, so they can benefit from your death.
All of these issues should galvanize public opposition to the banks' control of their own regulators in Washington. As Bankster puts it, "If you want to rein in the Banksters and if you think America deserves better than a ‘boom and bail’ economy, you need to muscle up and weigh in." Only engaged citizens can stop the banks.
36 Comments so far
Show AllHere's something that everyone can do right now:
In the first Great Crash of 1929, and even before the Great Depression that ravaged the American working/middle-classes, the most memorable scenes were of financial manipulators jumping from windows.
Hopefully, today --- if we are smart --- in this second Great Crash and before the second Great Depression can totally devastate the public, the most memorable scenes will be of the Wall Street Looters, Hedge Fund Whores, and Private Equity Pirates who caused this being pushed out of windows.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Seems it took a crisis to awaken the sleeping giant,(the American public).
It is good see people so upset over the [robbery] that as just taken place by our government, on behalf of Wall street. Under the lie of "TO BIG TO FAIL".
So, what do we do with that anger? How do we channel it for "real change"?
You want to Wall street scream, foul?
My first suggestion is a simple one. Your angry with the credit card companies? Well "stop" using their cards and use cash. Cut back to only what you need and stop buying all those things you don't.
They don't think you can't live without them. But,you know their was time when people did. Lets show them we really don't need them to buy that item that, we really didn't need to begin with.
Most people don't realize that in our current monetary system, private banks, including the Federal Reserve, create money out of thin air -- whenever anyone, including the government, takes out a loan. On the money the private banks create out of thin air, the private bankers collect interest, accumulating huge wealth for doing nothing to earn it. With this wealth, the private bankers have acquired huge power and control the media, Congress, influence the president, and influence US and world events, all for their own private benefit.
The authority to create money belongs to the people. The US Constitution places this authority in Congress. Money is the medium of exchange by which we exchange goods and services. The creation of money should be the prerogative of a sovereign government. The free market then exists within this environment of money created by the government (via public banks, for example).
By usurping the authority to create money, the private bankers effectively syphon $1+ trillion per year from the people, local, state, and federal governments, by collecting undeserved interest on money created out of thin air. Only the government should be creating money out of thin air and only the people should be benefiting from any interest or feeds on its creation. The public also should not be paying excessive interest rates that double or triple actual costs to the individual, local, state and federal governments!
To understand that something is very wrong with our current debt-based private monetary system, consider the following. Since money, in our current system, is created out of thin air whenever anyone takes out a loan, there is always more debt than money! The public is in debt to approximately $50 trillion and there is only $13-15 trillion in the money supply!
What to do?!?! Understand what is really going on! The private banksters use bank double-speak to mislead the public into what really is going on. For example, the Federal Reserve is neither "Federal" nor has "reserves."
(1) Read "Web of Debt," by Ellen Hodgson Brown (www.webofdebt.com), "The Lost Science of Money," by Stephen Zarlenga (monetary.org), and "Fixing the System: A History of Populism, Ancient and Modern," by Adrian Kuzminski. Here's a review of "Web of Debt": http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4427.shtml .
(2) Repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Take back the authority to create money by passing the American Monetary Act (http://www.monetary.org/amacolorpamphlet.pdf ) or a similar bill that prohibits private banks from creating money out of thin air.
In the meantime, folks are proposing the idea of public state and local banks, modeled after existing public banks, e.g., the Bank of North Dakota (which has existed for ~80 years), to benefit the people!
Hopefully the White House order to limit pay to bankers will not stem the tide of protest. It shouldn't, since the order does not change the way the banks do business, does not take the money back, and does not allow us to know how it is spent.
It is something, however -- and a sign that the administration does make some response to sufficient pressure.
Let's push again.
Obama has to replace Geitner and Summers NOW. These two are just Wall sts. inside guys. As long as DC is run by Wall st. nothing of any substance can and will be changed.
"The same financial institutions that caused the economic crisis and took billions in taxpayer bailouts are back to earning incredible profits,..."
Really? Have they all returned the money they borrowed from taxpayers TARP and other funds? No....they have not! Are they being transparent with the trillions in debt they have on their balance sheets? No....they are not!
"Remember, in March, your elected representatives pressured the Financial Accounting Standards Board to SUSPEND the mark-to-market rules shortly after receiving MILLIONS in campaign contributions. Furthermore, the losses continue to climb, unaccounted for and unfunded, but earmarked for the PUBLIC. They obviously DON'T work for you...." - Ty Andros http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/andros/2009/0921.html
As Henry Ford said:
"It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did I believe there would a revolution tomorrow."
Tomorrow might be here before most people believe!
C'mon, people, driving the banks to their knees is easy: Just get your money out and put it in a credit union. If you really want to freak them out, pick a day for everybody to do it, say, 24 Dec. I had a small account at BoA a few years ago, and when I closed it to add it to my local CU account, the officer was quite worried and obsequious. He kept asking me if there was something wrong. I was not able to tell him that I thought his organization sucked (nothing specific in my case, I just don't trust dinosaurs), but boy, did it feel good to see the back of them.
Of course that won't be as easy for those with credit card balances, but ya gotta start somewhere.
The extra good news is I can get money out of any CU ATM in the country without fees.
"A massive rally in Chicago next week aims to express public displeasure with the massive bank bailout outside the American Bank Association annual meeting."
I bet the banksters are scared now
Or maybe not!
Pull the money out. They hear that.
If you owe, look to refinance with an outfit that does not lobby.
In many situations it's good business anyway. I watched 401k's decimate. My wife's disappeared. But the credit union account didn't lose a dime.
For decades I have had a Working Assets Visa Card and it has been administered by various banks. The latest is Bank of America. As a good user of credit cards, for some time now I have paid off my credit card each month whenever I have used it.
Those of us who pay off the cards each month are called by the banks DEAD BEATS, a term which USED to refer to people who did not pay their bills.
Well, I have HAD it. According to this, Bank of America is now planning to punish people like me who regularly pay off their bills each month in full:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/block/2009-10-19-bank-of-america-card-fee_N.htm
Latest bank fee is for paying off credit card on time every month
I'm a member of a credit union (have been for a few years) and within the next few weeks I'm going to apply for their credit card and once I have it, I'm going to cut up the B of A card and return it. I will take a hit on my credit score but I don't care. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!!
Isn't it amazing how incredibly GREEDY banks can be? Is there no end? B of A received huge amounts of bailout money, they are making money hand over fist and it's STILL not enough? Where does it end?
BoA is second only to Chase. My teenage son banks with them and there isn't a month that goes by that they don't pile up bogus charges on top of bogus charges that amount to hundreds of stolen dollars in their pockets. Just this month, they hit him with $30 for making 3 ATM transactions ($10/each), $25 late fee and $6 interest...on an effing checking account! I kid you not! I told him to close the account and tell them what to do with themselves. I just can't stand it anymore!
Yes, BOA is paying out huge bonuses this year, in fact the biggest of all financial firms. However, rather than making tons of money, I have read that they have actually started losing money again this year.
paranoid what do you think a campaign contribution is?
a bribe rolled up in legitimacy .
In the spirit of "teabagging" is there a way to send "scumbags" to our Congressional Representatives as a protest?
Yes, wrapped in body bags.
Elmwood asks:
"Was that an economic terror attack on Congress and the US people?"
Yes, it was. It is, and they're still getting away with it in broad daylight.
-30-
"Only engaged citizens can stop the banks."
By nationalizing the Fed.
Fall 2008, economic meltdown started, was that just an accident, or a contrived event? Financial wizards know how to manipulate economies, was our economy manipulated to create a crisis that a few could profit from? Didn't some members of congress say they were warned to act fast or there could be riots in the streets?
Was that an economic terror attack on Congress and the US people?
Where was any discussion of how the "free market" was supposed to react to the banking problem? Alan Greenspan goes "oops, my bad." What BS!
It was a "contrived event." But it started much earlier, in 2005. That was when the seeds of destruction were planted, mostly by Goldman Sachs in collaboration with some select hedge funds. The goal at the time was to take over the mortgage writing industry through massive illegal stock manipulations of mortgage writing firms while destroying the value of the MBS and related bonds by massively shortselling the only exchange--the ABX--that provided the mandatory mark-to-market mechanism for valuing those bonds (Timeline-wise, the massive stock manipulations started in 2005, the ABX attacks in 2007). It was the combination of these attacks that caused the credit markets to sieze, the mortgage writers to fail massively, and as collateral damage the great destabilization of the global financial system.
Other policy decisions helped the debacle along--especially the emasculinazation of the SEC, which could have brought a halt to the whole game in 2006 by enforcing its long standing rules/laws regarding market and stock manipulation. But the SEC pointedly refused to do its job--the SEC actively abetted the looting being done by Goldman, other Wall Street firms, and assorted hedge funds--behaviors documented in many letters to the SEC, Senate Finance Committee, and via a paid ad in the WaPost. We tried, but we were studiuosly ignored or worse--the SEC and others denied the existence of any illegalities out of one side of their mouths, while throwing a bone to one vested interest group that couldn't be ignored--the NASD (National Association of Stock Dealers)--through the creation of the RegSHO List.
I've posted on this subject before, and those who've read comments here since they started will have read a previous version of the above. I point folks interested in knowing more to this website, http://www.deepcapture.com/ I experienced the above events from the inside, which is why I'm intimate with them. A lot of Republicans (most of those I was involved with were) became radicalized by those events. Many lost their retirement nest eggs. And Goldman Sachs's plan to gain control of the Social Security Trust Fund was derailed; you can be certain it will try again--probably as I write. If ever there was a type of vermin needing to be destroyed, Goldman Sachs would be the epitome of that vermin.
"But it started much earlier..."
Yes, but it started much MUCH earlier.
Please have a thorough read through “Collateral Damage” by E. P Heidner, part I and II. >>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<
The articles are lengthy, some parts not easy to follow and to digest and they need to be read with an open mind. But they are well worth the effort. They provide the most distressing information.
The implications will challenge how you look at politics, economy, history, finance, war and terrorism. Many persons in the documents are well known; many are right now in pivotal positions of politics and finance. These people do shape OUR life and that of our children right now. The details are stunning. The consequences are BEYOND BELIEF.
I would agree that the whole supporting context for what occured started far earlier, with some aspects dating to the 1787 constitution. And the fundamental ideology involved is very old, only now evolved and rather sophisticated, yet just as evil and repugnant; or perhaps even more-so given the barbarians's refusal to become civlized over the centuries despite their pretences and other feeble attempts to try and prove they've changed.
Over my years, decades now, of being a student of the US Empire and world history, I've found a great many types of "distressing information" that along with past and current Imperial behavior has served to radicalize me quite well. I will add your suggested reading to my inbox.
If in 30 years I can leave my kid the small productive self-sustaining farm I'm building now and can convey it to her free of encumberances, then my plan for dealing with the years to come will prove a success. The real dramas have yet to come--the physical shortage of hydrocarbons for energy production that will finally choke Business As Usual combined with the increasing negative effects of the Climate Crisis are just two of many.
Sorry. Misplaced another post.
I find this quote interesting: "Tell the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI to get cracking!" It's like CODEPINK deciding maybe some degree of US military intervention in other countries is ok if the goal isn't stealing resources but a pro-woman political agenda. Look at one of the comments here saying bankers should be in Guantanamo, which I assume would be for them to be tortured. War and torture are all great as long as it is part of an agenda to make the world a better place and get the bad guys. But that is the right's argument as well, they just have a different vision of what a better world would be.
But there is really no justification for war, torture or authoritarian states. I could not care less under any circumstances whether the FBI gets cracking. They should be abolished like a long list of government agencies including the ones responsible for the current economic crisis. I also think jokes about killing and torturing bankers from "peace-loving" leftists is clear proof of their hypocrisy. I don't think the president should send anyone ever to Guantanamo, I think he should have closed it and not revived and expanded the US experiment with torture.
The current crisis is not because bankers are greedy. That sort of thinking is similar to how people on the right supported the Iraq War as a way to fight the 9-11 terrorists. Bankers have as much to do with the economic crisis as Iraq had to do with 9-11. I know it is nice to have a scapegoat for your frustration and anger and fear. And it is interesting that people would be arguing for a stronger federal justice system and screaming for more torture in Guantanamo now for the bankers just like people did for the terror suspects.
But in both cases the real problem is the policy of the US federal government. If we were not sending troops all over the world and involving ourselves in other countries' politics, we wouldn't have the same problems and the worse it gets of course the more the government says they need to have even more troops and be dropping even more bombs. Same with the economy. The more the Fed and government agencies ruin the economy with policies that benefit the corporations and encourage debt both private and public, that inflate the economy with reckless irresponsible fiscally unsound stimulus, promote programs with great moral hazard both for individuals and for businesses and try to micromanage everything, the more problems you will have.
Look at history, the Fed was created to protect us from booms and busts, a couple decades later the biggest bust ever. Then all the government meddling you could invent didn't change anything until the war. And war is the government's product. If the government was a corporation, which it is, the worst and most despicable of all corporations, it main product and service is killing innocent people and war. So inevitably as things go badly and it must resort to more and more authoritarian policies to fix its own mistakes it will always lead to war. That is the government's end game.
In this current financial crisis, we can turn to more authoritarian state intervention, we can cheer on the FBI, and cry for justice and torture and death and that is surely what we will get. Eventually we will find this somehow leading to more troops, more war, more bombs. And since this mess is domestic, who knows maybe even in your own hometown! The real solution is with the people, the free citizens of a free country.
There are plenty of solutions to beat the bankers, because some are truly shady and crooked, especially those with government ties. And these solutions do not require something like resorting to an authoritarian state. That is the main part of the problem not the solution. You see lots of post on CD about real revolution. You want a real revolution? A real one fights authority from the state as well as the greed and lies of corporate power, and the two are essential to each other and really the same thing.
So as far as I'm concerned, unlike the fascist author of this article, I HOPE THE FBI FAILS!
Wow, just bash Code Pink, why dontcha. You sound like a libertarian who denies that any regulation can be meaningful. But lets leave fantasy-land for awhile, shall we? Do you really think that the banksters will change their criminal ways without regulation? What is truly fascist is the corporate rule and government collusion we have now. We're not asking for socialist authoritarianism here either, just a couple of sensible rules to keep the bankers from ripping the rest of us off.
No offense, but I find most libertarians to be disingenuous, or at least living from a huge disconnect. Freedom is for those who have enough money to do what they want, but find themselves hindered by rules and regulations that they feel deny those freedoms. They enjoy the things that taxes buy, such as roads and other things, but resent funding them through a social pool.
Some of their causes do intersect with progressive causes, especially the anti-war movement. This is partly because they do not believe--you guessed it--they should have to pay for it through taxes, and partly because they believe that others should be left alone to determine their own lives (which most progressives agree with). However, I wonder if it would still be true if it affected a libertarian's accumulated wealth. Most progressive causes do not intersect with those of the libertarian, who is generally more concerned with himself and HIS rights than those of others, even if cleverly disguised.
Developing a self-sustaining economic/political system that provides rough economic equality and rough political equality has to be the first goal. The maintenance of rough economic equality enables the maintenance of roughly equal political power and vice versa, and the erosion of either leads to the erosion of the other. Roughly equal economic/political power appears to be necessary for the achievement of peace and justice, as apparently human nature dictates that the powerful will almost always abuse the weak. Since the achievement of roughly equal economic/political power is paramount, I do not have an argument with those who might add "by any means necessary."
How could the FBI going after Bankers be a bad thing? Invariably their investigations would lead to corrupt government officials and regulators.
Your post is very confusing. At first you seem to be saying that we shouldn't direct our anger at the bankers. I was going to point out to you their culpability in fucking up our lives, but you seem well aware of this fact.
The bankers are the government, and government policy is simply corporate policy. If the FBI could go after any one of these players, I support that. Obviously the FBI is a corrupt tool of a fascist state, but there are individuals there who are people of integrity, I'm sure.
I wouldn't say that the author is fascist, but cannot deny that we are headed towards a fascist state. Both the banks and the government are guilty of collusion and conspiracy, including 911. The only power that we have is that there is 99% of us, and 1% of them. A second revolution will be coming, only I do not know when.
"The current crisis is not because bankers are greedy. That sort of thinking is similar to how people on the right supported the Iraq War as a way to fight the 9-11 terrorists. Bankers have as much to do with the economic crisis as Iraq had to do with 9-11."
I see that lewrockwell.com is joining the corporatists in posting nonsense on this site.
It is absolutely indisputable that the current financial crisis developed precisely because bankers are greedy and have the means to warp governmental policy. You have your dog and tail reversed.
q
Normally, I would not support trashing Obama but I am ready to make an exception since this author backed it up with facts, evidence, and details. I sure this same outrage with Obama as does this author.
We will have to pressure Congress more than ever. We must also counter pressure Obama who is under pressure from the banks.
Michael Moore also shared some great ideas you can do to hold those banks accountable if neither Obama nor Congress will budge.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/22-0
"Show up. Picket the local branch of a big bank that took the bailout money. Hold vigils and marches. Consider civil disobedience. Those town hall meetings are open to you, too (and there's more of us than there are of them!). Make some noise, have some fun, get on the local news. Place "Capitalism Did This" signs on empty foreclosed homes, closed down businesses, crumbling schools and infrastructure. (You can download them from my website.)"
"Take your money out of your bank if it took bailout money and place it in a locally-owned bank or, preferably, a credit union."
I wouldn't count on any objective coverage of this protest in the mainstream media if there's any at all.
q
If anybody from Iowa is reading this, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is taking 75 people on a bus to the Showdown in Chicago and we still have six seats open on the bus. Call 515-282-0484 or email iowa@iowacci.org
David Goodner
Community Organizer
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
2001 Forest Avenue
Des Moines, Iowa 50314
515.282.0484
david@iowacci.org
We Talk. We Act. We Get It Done.
It is my opinion that the bankers who caused the 2008 crash have done more harm to the security of our country than the 9/11 attackers. Why, then, are they not in Guantanamo Mr. President?
Your examples are correlated. Read the link ("Collateral Damage") provided above.
I have posted this same thought a number of times on Common Dreams, but I like saying it so I'll put it out there again.
The large financial institutions, the banks, investment banks, insurance companies et al, are criminal conspiracies. The only reason they don't get perp walked is that they have the lawmakers bought and paid for.
Unfortunately this includes some of the president's top advisers.