Welcome back. Today we'll be opening up a whole new can o' worms. Today's deadly sin? Banks and Banking.
Now, here's where I may get just a bit vague. Then, when I'm more knowledgeable about the financial system and the way it works, I'll come back full circle and tear into it a lot better. Until then, if it sounds like I'm just spouting things off that I know little or nothing about, then I probably am.
Anyhow, I digress. Let's start with banks and banking in the most general fashion. A bank, as it is loosely defined, is an establishment for the custody, loan, exchange or issue of money, for the extension of credit, and that facilitates the transfer of moneys. Banks came into existence in the 14th century, and we have no one to blame but the Italians for their invention. But, of course, our more modern banking processes were refined by none other than...yessir, you guessed it. The country we tried so very hard to get away from (yet we adopted their method of law, as well as their banking policies), England.
In my opinion, there is no better waste of a good building on this earth than a building that sports a bank, especially with the advent of the digital age. Now most of us just bank online...unless of course you're trying to get a loan. Then we might just crawl away from the screen to go meet with our bankers. To me, banking is not only a waste of your valuable time (something we have oh so little of these days), but with every fee they add to their service to us, my mattress looks better all the time.
There's a show on CNBC I strongly suggest you watch for a minimum of 3 full hours before you ever darken the door of another bank, or check their homepage, or deal with any other type of intermediary that handles your money: American Greed. America's deadly sin for day G? Oh yeah baby. The plan will most certainly be to hit that one with some serious fervor. Financial laws in this country, which are lax, if not non-existent, do little or nothing to protect the rights of any type of investor. No, the general rule in this country is "Buyer Beware"....and if you mess up? Well, we'll most assuredly bring criminal charges against the wrong-doer involved, but as to your investment? Good luck w/that." Ponzi scheme after Ponzi scheme has crossed the desks of the FBI, and they're always quick to a bust. Safeguards have been implemented in the financial world...signs to look for, et cetera, and yet they aren't meant as a storm warning alarm for investors, only for the people in the financial business.
No, private or noob investors (as they are when dealing with America's other exclusive clubs, i.e., The Law Lodge and the Masonic Medical clubs) are pretty naive to the scope, ease and frequency that financial fraud is executed with these days. Anyone with the slightest charisma and half a brain can get away with millions of dollars if they properly set their paths to it. And we're not just talking about blue collar Mr. Smith investing the $2500 he somehow managed to save up over a five-year span; some of these people losing their money have hundreds of thousands and even millions to invest. If they can't see a scam like this coming a mile down the road, poor Mr. Smith's future can't even be dim. What does this say to me as an average consumer? It screams out that people involved in financials are a jealous and self-centered lot (as well as a more and more greedy lot), and aren't afraid to rat out the people that are taking advantage of clients or cheating the system, but don't care one iota about you, the end-user consumer, or your investment...unless they're directly involved. Otherwise, regulations would be a lot tougher to evade, and jail terms would be a whole lot stiffer, don't you think? You'd have to believe that after this happened 20 times or so that they'd be able to quash these scam giants even before they THOUGHT about drawing out their first hundred thousand. "Oh, he bought a helicopter with Mr. Little Guy's money you say? And he won't let me take the wife and the kids for a ride? Get the FBI on the phone, will you? We'll see how he acts after rotting in Federal Prison for a few years." No matter about Mr. Little Guy's money...he/she/they should have known it was a scam, as far as they're concerned. Thank God for CNBC, or we'd still be throwing our nest-eggs freely down the toilet without a half an idea of what hit us.
I can't help but remember the days (geez, I'm getting eld) when I got my piddly 3.5% interest on my checking account, and the more whopping 5-6% on my savings account. Now you get, what, 1.something percent? ON YOUR SAVINGS!! And nothing but since-added fee after fee for your checking/debit account. See my articles concerning ROLLING OVER under my politics and law blog on Blogger.com. Banks are the playground bullies these days, and we're the ones just taking the ongoing beatings! Worse yet, when they over-extend themselves, or scam the working folk out of their money, then ask our government for a bailout? Guess who pays to cover that? YOU DO! It might not be all at once, but you pay up for that in some other fashion, believe you me. And it was YOUR MONEY THEY OVER-EXTENDED ON/WITH IN THE FIRST PLACE!!
Finally, I intend to wrap up our little discussion on these major financial whiz-kids with only one of the biggest plays on America that we ever rolled over on...our Federally Mandated Income Tax. Wrought by none other than the banking industry, income tax came into our lives to stay in 1913. The only reason it was ever considered in the first place was because the government was losing money due to alcohol prohibition. To make up for it, the heads of our great nation got together with the financiers of the time and settled on charging us for part of the money that we earned honestly, with no small amount of blood, sweat and tears, and had all to ourselves, free and clear of any tax; the way it should have been, and should still be to this day. Our state governments, of course, jumped all over it too, conscience be damned. What did they care? They made more than enough money, and if they didn't, they'd just raise their salaries to compensate. Anyone who might have opposed this went for it anyway, because it was presented to them as a TEMPORARY solution to the government's money loss. When they voted to amend the Constitution to fully implement it as a PERMANENT solution to many possible future issues that might arise, what did we Americans do? Uh -huh...we ROLLED OVER!! You can't tell me this was the only viable solution they could muster in their meetings. They did it because they knew we'd swallow the need for it and someday open our wallets and give it up without even thinking about it, with the proper amount of brain-washing.
It was, by far, the easiest solution. Why? Because, by this time, we were sitting prettier that we had been for some time, and were well on our way to becoming the nation of rollovers we've been conditioned to be today. This is why gas, oil and the prices of just about everything else is sky-high. Doesn't have a single thing to do with inflation or the CPI (the Consumer Price Index) nor is it even supply and demand. No kids, this is yet another example of good old governmental greed; which, just like anything else, is learned, taught, then passed down through the generations like a legacy. I'd even go as far as to label it an influential model for our current American corporate moral compass. I guarantee no company in this land of ours would have tried an "Enron" back in the days the income tax was implemented. It was unheard of. The heads of corporations in those days truly feared consumer backlash. Corporate conscience and accountability are most certainly things of our once great past. Nor does our law accurately cover us with the proper insurance when incidents like these occur.
If you want some well-thought out advice? Look into the price of safes these days. You and I both know you could justify a high-quality one of these in no time whatsoever, when pitted against the bank fees you pay over the course of even a few months. Sure, you lose out on Federal Insurance, but look at how much money they get back to the victims of some of the biggies in nest-egg clean-outs. How much of your money do you imagine you'll get in return as opposed to what you put in? I'd look into that, if'n I were you. I've heard tell, when the banking system of a well-known super-power was told that they would be going under soon enough? The financiers of their banks kept it quiet as long as was possible. And when it went public, as you might well imagine, there was a rush of private citizens all running to their local banks to clean out their accounts, to no avail. So it happened that Russia's banks went bye-bye a mere week or so ago. The heads of those banks kept that information away from their clients ON PURPOSE!! Do you believe, for one minute, that put in the same situation, our banks wouldn't do the same? Think about it. Such could be the extent of deadly sin #2.
Anyhow, I digress. Let's start with banks and banking in the most general fashion. A bank, as it is loosely defined, is an establishment for the custody, loan, exchange or issue of money, for the extension of credit, and that facilitates the transfer of moneys. Banks came into existence in the 14th century, and we have no one to blame but the Italians for their invention. But, of course, our more modern banking processes were refined by none other than...yessir, you guessed it. The country we tried so very hard to get away from (yet we adopted their method of law, as well as their banking policies), England.
In my opinion, there is no better waste of a good building on this earth than a building that sports a bank, especially with the advent of the digital age. Now most of us just bank online...unless of course you're trying to get a loan. Then we might just crawl away from the screen to go meet with our bankers. To me, banking is not only a waste of your valuable time (something we have oh so little of these days), but with every fee they add to their service to us, my mattress looks better all the time.
There's a show on CNBC I strongly suggest you watch for a minimum of 3 full hours before you ever darken the door of another bank, or check their homepage, or deal with any other type of intermediary that handles your money: American Greed. America's deadly sin for day G? Oh yeah baby. The plan will most certainly be to hit that one with some serious fervor. Financial laws in this country, which are lax, if not non-existent, do little or nothing to protect the rights of any type of investor. No, the general rule in this country is "Buyer Beware"....and if you mess up? Well, we'll most assuredly bring criminal charges against the wrong-doer involved, but as to your investment? Good luck w/that." Ponzi scheme after Ponzi scheme has crossed the desks of the FBI, and they're always quick to a bust. Safeguards have been implemented in the financial world...signs to look for, et cetera, and yet they aren't meant as a storm warning alarm for investors, only for the people in the financial business.
No, private or noob investors (as they are when dealing with America's other exclusive clubs, i.e., The Law Lodge and the Masonic Medical clubs) are pretty naive to the scope, ease and frequency that financial fraud is executed with these days. Anyone with the slightest charisma and half a brain can get away with millions of dollars if they properly set their paths to it. And we're not just talking about blue collar Mr. Smith investing the $2500 he somehow managed to save up over a five-year span; some of these people losing their money have hundreds of thousands and even millions to invest. If they can't see a scam like this coming a mile down the road, poor Mr. Smith's future can't even be dim. What does this say to me as an average consumer? It screams out that people involved in financials are a jealous and self-centered lot (as well as a more and more greedy lot), and aren't afraid to rat out the people that are taking advantage of clients or cheating the system, but don't care one iota about you, the end-user consumer, or your investment...unless they're directly involved. Otherwise, regulations would be a lot tougher to evade, and jail terms would be a whole lot stiffer, don't you think? You'd have to believe that after this happened 20 times or so that they'd be able to quash these scam giants even before they THOUGHT about drawing out their first hundred thousand. "Oh, he bought a helicopter with Mr. Little Guy's money you say? And he won't let me take the wife and the kids for a ride? Get the FBI on the phone, will you? We'll see how he acts after rotting in Federal Prison for a few years." No matter about Mr. Little Guy's money...he/she/they should have known it was a scam, as far as they're concerned. Thank God for CNBC, or we'd still be throwing our nest-eggs freely down the toilet without a half an idea of what hit us.
I can't help but remember the days (geez, I'm getting eld) when I got my piddly 3.5% interest on my checking account, and the more whopping 5-6% on my savings account. Now you get, what, 1.something percent? ON YOUR SAVINGS!! And nothing but since-added fee after fee for your checking/debit account. See my articles concerning ROLLING OVER under my politics and law blog on Blogger.com. Banks are the playground bullies these days, and we're the ones just taking the ongoing beatings! Worse yet, when they over-extend themselves, or scam the working folk out of their money, then ask our government for a bailout? Guess who pays to cover that? YOU DO! It might not be all at once, but you pay up for that in some other fashion, believe you me. And it was YOUR MONEY THEY OVER-EXTENDED ON/WITH IN THE FIRST PLACE!!
Finally, I intend to wrap up our little discussion on these major financial whiz-kids with only one of the biggest plays on America that we ever rolled over on...our Federally Mandated Income Tax. Wrought by none other than the banking industry, income tax came into our lives to stay in 1913. The only reason it was ever considered in the first place was because the government was losing money due to alcohol prohibition. To make up for it, the heads of our great nation got together with the financiers of the time and settled on charging us for part of the money that we earned honestly, with no small amount of blood, sweat and tears, and had all to ourselves, free and clear of any tax; the way it should have been, and should still be to this day. Our state governments, of course, jumped all over it too, conscience be damned. What did they care? They made more than enough money, and if they didn't, they'd just raise their salaries to compensate. Anyone who might have opposed this went for it anyway, because it was presented to them as a TEMPORARY solution to the government's money loss. When they voted to amend the Constitution to fully implement it as a PERMANENT solution to many possible future issues that might arise, what did we Americans do? Uh -huh...we ROLLED OVER!! You can't tell me this was the only viable solution they could muster in their meetings. They did it because they knew we'd swallow the need for it and someday open our wallets and give it up without even thinking about it, with the proper amount of brain-washing.
It was, by far, the easiest solution. Why? Because, by this time, we were sitting prettier that we had been for some time, and were well on our way to becoming the nation of rollovers we've been conditioned to be today. This is why gas, oil and the prices of just about everything else is sky-high. Doesn't have a single thing to do with inflation or the CPI (the Consumer Price Index) nor is it even supply and demand. No kids, this is yet another example of good old governmental greed; which, just like anything else, is learned, taught, then passed down through the generations like a legacy. I'd even go as far as to label it an influential model for our current American corporate moral compass. I guarantee no company in this land of ours would have tried an "Enron" back in the days the income tax was implemented. It was unheard of. The heads of corporations in those days truly feared consumer backlash. Corporate conscience and accountability are most certainly things of our once great past. Nor does our law accurately cover us with the proper insurance when incidents like these occur.
If you want some well-thought out advice? Look into the price of safes these days. You and I both know you could justify a high-quality one of these in no time whatsoever, when pitted against the bank fees you pay over the course of even a few months. Sure, you lose out on Federal Insurance, but look at how much money they get back to the victims of some of the biggies in nest-egg clean-outs. How much of your money do you imagine you'll get in return as opposed to what you put in? I'd look into that, if'n I were you. I've heard tell, when the banking system of a well-known super-power was told that they would be going under soon enough? The financiers of their banks kept it quiet as long as was possible. And when it went public, as you might well imagine, there was a rush of private citizens all running to their local banks to clean out their accounts, to no avail. So it happened that Russia's banks went bye-bye a mere week or so ago. The heads of those banks kept that information away from their clients ON PURPOSE!! Do you believe, for one minute, that put in the same situation, our banks wouldn't do the same? Think about it. Such could be the extent of deadly sin #2.
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