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Happy Bank Transfer Day!

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Happy Bank Transfer Day!

bank transfer day
Otherwise known as - you're charging me 22% credit card interest when I have a FICO score above 750 and no missed payments? Seriously?

Today has been declared bank transfer day. A nationwide consumer call to action to pull money from Too Big To Fail, derivative ridden, foreclosure fraud laden, fee crazed, bail out happy, offshore outsourcing our jobs, banks.

Credit Unions are rejoicing and celebrating the event. From a Credit Union National Association, press release:

At least 650,000 consumers across the nation have joined credit unions in the past four weeks

This represents $4.5 billion in deposit transfers to credit unions. The online banks and smaller banks probably have similar amounts in transfers.

The Federal Reserve statistics on money stocks show fed up customers have a long way to go to make a serious dent on commercial banks. Savings deposits at commercial banks are about $5 trillion whereas credit unions, thrifts are about a trillion. Checking accounts and the like are a little more even, with about $237 billion at commercial banks and $177 billion at credit unions, savings and loans. Growing the credit unions, smaller financial institutions that actually give the consumer a good deal, loan, invest in the real U.S. economy and hire Americans ....well, let's just say ya gotta start somewhere.

Friday Movie Night - March of the Bonus Army

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hot buttered popcorn It's Friday Night! Party Time!   Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

Earlier Economist Ralph Gomory publicly stated we all should respect Occupy Wall Street and pointed to the history of protest in the United States. Gomory's article reminded me of the Great Depression and the Hoover administration's lack of responsiveness to the people, in particular WWI veterans. The vets were desperate for money and wanted to receive their military service bonus checks early. They were refused and this ignited a protest by the WWI veterans called the Bonus March.

Below is a 2006 documentary March of the Bonus Army.

Naming Names Of Corporations Who Pay No Taxes

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G.E., yes that G.E. who is in the White House, not only hasn't paid taxes for the last three years, our government actually paid them. From 2008-2010, G.E. received tax rebates of $4.737 billion, while earning a pretax profit of $10.46 billion. This is while they offshore outsource jobs to China and get bail outs for their financial branch, G.E. Capital.

Citizens for Tax Justice have published a new study, Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010, which is simply a must read for every American. Some of the most notorious multinational corporations, complete with bail outs and offshore outsourcing your job, paid negative taxes for the last three years. In other words, we paid them.

The study covers 280 corporations. Some of what they found:

  • Seventy-eight of the 280 companies paid zero or less in federal income taxes in at least one year from 2008 to 2010.
  • Thirty corporations paid less than nothing in aggregate federal income taxes over the entire 2008-10 period.
  • 2009 was a particularly banner year for non-payment of taxes. In that year, 49 companies paid zero or less in federal income taxes.
  • In 2008, 22 companies paid no federal income tax, and got $3.3 billion in tax rebates. In 2010, 37 companies paid no income tax, and got $7.8 billion in rebates.

Below is a table from the report, showing the top worst offenders, their pretax profits, their tax or rebate and their effective tax rate.

Greece, You Don't Get a Say After All

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papndreouThe Greece Prime Minister, George Papandreou, just rescinded the referendum on the latest Greek bail out:

Prime Minister George Papandreou called off his plan to hold a referendum on Greece’s new loan deal with the European Union, withdrew his previous offers to resign and opened conciliation talks with his conservative opponents.

This is a 180° move to not let the Greek people have a say in austerity and bail outs. Papandreou had announced a referendum, a national vote for the people, on whether they wanted yet another bail out...or not. The idea the Greek people could have a say in what their country did sent politicians, corporations and Wall Street into a tizzy and a spin.

Just yesterday author Numerian told us the real game:

Give the People a Vote on Bank Bailouts? Markets and Politicians Horrified at the Thought

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Stock markets around the world reacted with horror this week to the news that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has ordered that the terms of a proposed EU rescue package worth €130 billion should be voted on by the Greek people in a national referendum. The Nikkei, the German DAX index, the French CAC-40, and the Dow Jones Industrial index all ended the day down 2% or more. The euro took a pummeling on the foreign exchange markets.

Global leaders involved in the Greek rescue talks expressed shock and disappointment that the Greek government would throw into jeopardy the carefully-constructed rescue plans that required approval from all 17 EU governments. The White House press secretary, speaking on behalf of the President, urged Greece to accept the bailout terms as soon as possible. It was US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who first recommended to the EU leadership that it significantly expand its bailout fund from €440 billion to as much as €2 trillion in order to calm global financial markets.

Now let’s step back a minute and consider how ludicrous this all is. The Greek Prime Minister proposes that the Greek people, who have borne the burden of one austerity package after another each time Greece has approached the EU for help, at long last get to have a say in these discussions. Politicians everywhere express dismay and surprise that any politician, especially one on the receiving end of the bailout talks, would even consider allowing the people to at long last have a vote in these decisions. Financial markets plummet on the news. Since when did democracy become the enemy of good governance in democratic countries?

You Do Count - BoA Backs Off Predatory Debit Fee

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We all know our vote doesn't count. We all know our government elected officials simply doe whatever corporate lobbyists want them to do and America be damned. But there is one vote that still seems to matter these days and that's your vote as a consumer. You just won. Bank of America dropped their $5 buck a month debit card fee:

Americans Are Awash In Spin

orwellian
I have come to the conclusion that Big Brother's subjects in George Orwell's 1984 are better informed than Americans.
 
Americans have no idea why they have been at war in the Middle East, Asia and Africa for a decade. They don't realize that their liberties have been supplanted by a Gestapo Police State. Few understand that hard economic times are here to stay.
 
On October 27, 2011, the US government announced some routine economic statistics, and the president of the European Council announced a new approach to the Greek sovereign debt crisis. The result of these funny numbers and mere words sent the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to its largest monthly rally since 1974, erasing its 2011 yearly loss. The euro rose, putting the European currency again 40% above its initial parity with the US dollar when the euro was introduced.
 
On National Public Radio a half-wit analyst declared, emphatically, that the latest US government statistics proved that the recovery was in place and that there was no danger whatsoever of a double-dip recession. And half-brain economists predicted a better tomorrow.
 

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