Were you appalled at what happened to the bank depositors in Cyprus? Most of us were; one doesn't expect depositors to have their money confiscated... let's be blunt: stolen... to bail out failing banks. But it could happen in the US and the UK. Ah, you say, but the FDIC will save you? Uh-uh. It's the FDIC that is cooking up plans to raid the depositors' accounts. Your money would be at risk for all the shaky derivatives and such that the bank might have unwisely invested in. How do you like them rotten apples?
As a depositor, you already cede your money to banks in exchange for a promise to repay it to you in cash on request; that's the basic arrangement of ordinary banking. The threat now is to the second part of that. Under the proposed new arrangement, you would still cede your money to a bank, and in exchange receive not a promise to pay, but a sort of equity in the bank. If the bank went belly-up, you would be a "stockholder" in the failed bank, with all the losses... and responsibilities... that holding equity entails. And you would have no choice in the matter: you would have no option to retrieve your money in cash.
My mattress is beginning to look better all the time...
As for the rest of us..
ReplyDeletehttp://edlhm.livejournal.com/17936.html
Enfant... heh. Same general idea as the one above.
DeleteIn my college days, there was a joke going around about the nervous bank robber who blurted out, "Alright, you motherstickers, this is a fuck-up!"
BTW, Enfant, it's good to see you. Are you holding up... um, bad choice of words... are you surviving OK in the face of everything going on in Greece?
Deleteeverything is OK, compared to what is going on out there.
DeleteI have my job as an ac.(salary cut by 40%)
Otherwise, 30% unemployment, 60% among young people.
In 10,5 mill. of Greeks, a small town of 4.000 has comm. suicide during the last three years.
It is an endurance race and not a sprint: 40 years, 60, 80 ... we'll never know or live enough to see things change..
(students have been occupying the university buildings for one month or more: I had no access to my office)
This is why Glass-Steagall needs to be put back into place - to separate commercial banks from the gambling banks. Depositors aren't getting the profits, so there is no reason for them to have the risks.
ReplyDeleteBryan, the Rethuglicans won't even approve a chair appointment for the CFPB; there's no way they would reinstate Glass-Steagall. Let's face it: the Republican Party is the new face of organized crime.
DeleteIt's getting interesting around here. The local Bank just sent an announcement that it would no longer FDIC insure 'investments' or 'Insurance.' So, logically, it infers that if the Bank collectivizes its deposits as Bank stock, considered to be investments it would no longer be insured under the FDIC, and former Insurance would no longer be applicable under FDIC (negating its own insurance.) Seems to me they are preparing the way for uninsured confiscation.
ReplyDeletekarmanot, based on the articles/posts I cited above, it certainly sounds as if the banksters are ready to grab the money and run. If they force me to "invest" in their bank... all bets are off. If they seize my money that I entrusted to them for safekeeping, I will not be responsible for what I do next,
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