The problem is thinking of this as Us vs Them. The banks hold the money of middle class and poor people while also giving loans out to middle class and poor people. TARP happened not just to bail out the fat cats but because the repercussions of a banking meltdown would be felt very acutely by the middle class. If anything the pain will fall heavier onto the middle class whose savings and jobs will be wiped out in a global bank run. You are just going to end up hurting those who you are claiming to be helping.
glynch, In the first 10 threads on the first page of D&D, you have an thread calling for more corporate handouts because they're asked for by the world's most powerful banker. And a thread asking people to take all their money from the banks. Do you really not see the conflict here? My suggestion: Vote your pocketbook. Move your accounts to credit unions and local banks that didn't need or take TARP funds. They've proven to be responsible, and you weren't forced to invest in them by the Federal Government.
This is a pretty bad idea. Better energy would be spent educating rather than a demoralizing and futile attempt at pissing in the wind. Transferring money to credit unions or local banks doesn't matter in the long run as the money flows back to the big banks in the form of credit and repo. The traditional days where banks made money from savings deposits are over. Most are geared towards churning credit and making money off of securitization, which is why a thrift like Wamu went bust. It'll take a deeper public understanding of the financial system to "bring them down" yet all we're interested is getting that shiny car while ignoring the numbers that generate the monthly payments.
I agree all the way. The question I ask business owners I talk to that have a problem with the TARP and bailout ect is who do you bank with? Most of these guys bank with the institutions they have a problem with. Bank with a community bank. Way better for the long term local economy and a bit more accountability when you have to look your banker in the eye.
There is really nothing we could do to hurt the more powerful banks- Goldman Sachs, Chase, Morgan Stanley, DBS, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Bank of America etc The heavy hitters can't be touched.
Nope, not when they own the government and regulating agencies. Who else is able to lose billions of dollars on shady investments, then get a free bailout from the government, then get permission to use shady accounting that doesn't give people the true picture of a company's liabilities, robo-sign on forclosures for houses where they don't even own the title, commit blatant fraud and then to top it off give themselves gigantic performance bonuses? It's almost as big of a joke as the first round of European "stress tests" Oh those banks...what would we do without them?
You are stuck on the Jimmy Stewart idea of banking. These boys make perhaps most of their money by playing the markets and doing"investment" bank type work. Lending money to poor and middle class folks?--are you kidding me? It is true there are still some small banks where this a major profit center.
the banks don't even carry that much money.. I once tried to withdraw 50k in cash from my account and they didnt have that much cash to give me.. This was at a Chase bank
Even if I had cash to withdraw, I'm not so sure I'd want to be carrying it around with all those weird black friday shoppers and their newly acquired guns....
Sad that it's gotten to a point where we are defending banks due to our dependence. The system lets the banks say "hey if I go down, you go down" and we nod our heads sheepishly.
Sure they make a lot of money doing "investment" type work that doesn't mean they don't also hold our deposits and give out small loans. If they didn't hold our deposits this protest would be meaningless. The bottom line is bank runs are never good things and the people who usually get hurt the most are the depositors or with the case of FDIC the taxpayers.
