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| Economy |
| Fed-up consumers planning for 'Bank Transfer Day' |
| 2011-11-06 |
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #10 To heck with the $5 debit card fee. I thought cashing out of BofA would be a damned good idea when I heard about this. BofA owns Merrill Lynch, which will not be on the winning side of the bet in all $75T worth of derivatives exposure. Big T, Trillion, as in 5x the national debt. Small losses will still be huge. Last month, BofA moved $53T of those bets from Merrill Lynch (which is not insured by the FDIC), over to BofA proper (the consumer banking side, which is insured by the FDIC). The FDIC, like the Federal Reserve, is an independent agency of the federal government. I.e., ultimately propped up by us, the taxpayers. So IIUC, closing accounts with BofA is, in fact, the public-spirited thing to do, since the bill taxpayers get stuck will be that much less when (when, not if) BofA derivatives go bust. |
| Posted by: RandomJD 2011-11-06 15:01 |
| #9 The Free Lunch party is a multipartisan affair. Some OWS'ers & Democrats belong, but not all. Also Republicans, but not all. Also several here on the 'Burg. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-11-06 14:37 |
| #8 Good point AlanC and Steve - I was getting at the BOA action was the 'shot heard round the world'. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-11-06 12:25 |
| #7 Yup. Those who want to destroy the system also want to leach off it and be paid handsomely by it. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2011-11-06 11:40 |
| #6 Steve, that's what I was getting at in #2. The OWS and Democrats all want everything for nothing. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2011-11-06 10:53 |
| #5 In actuality Bank Of America with their debit card fee started it. That is certainly going to be The Narrative (tm). But the upstream cause was a new law capping merchant fees on debt card transactions. Can you say "Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act"? It may be a surprising economic principle to some, but stuff has to be paid for, one way or another. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2011-11-06 10:12 |
| #4 I am actually in favor of the idea itself. Banking in America has stopped having a "principled purpose" for the public, and is just a default financial institution. Were there another way for "direct deposit" and "automatic bill payment", banks would lose a huge chunk of their revenue. However, despite the S&L crisis, S&Ls have maintained a "principled purpose" for their depositors. So efforts to improve their standing at the expense of banks should be lauded. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-11-06 09:30 |
| #3 Halloween is over but we still have some Zombies. |
| Posted by: Dale 2011-11-06 08:40 |
| #2 Actually it was the Dem Congress that forced the fee on banks as a way of trying to make up for the cost of regulations. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2011-11-06 08:22 |
| #1 And the OWS Crowd are already claiming to have 'started it'. In actuality Bank Of America with their debit card fee started it. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-11-06 00:41 |