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posted by takyon on Thursday September 01 2016, @07:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the taking-back-what's-ours dept.

Former Texas Agriculture Commissioner, creator of the Doug Jones Average, and perennially witty guy Jim Hightower writes via The Union Democrat of Sonora, California:

If tiny groups of Wall Street bankers, billionaires, and their political puppets are allowed to write the rules that govern our economy and elections, guess what? Only bankers, billionaires, and puppets will profit from those rules.

[...] They've rigged the rules to let them feast freely on our jobs, devour our country's wealth, and impoverish the middle class.

"Take On Wall Street" is both the name and the feisty attitude of a nationwide campaign that a coalition of grassroots groups has launched to do just that: Take on Wall Street. The coalition, spearheaded by the Communication Workers of America, points out that there is nothing natural or sacred about today's money-grabbing financial complex. Far from sacrosanct, the system of finance that now rules over us has been designed by and for Wall Street speculators, money managers, and big bank flim flammers. So--big surprise--rather than serving our common good, the system is corrupt, routinely serving their uncommon greed at everyone else's expense.

[...] A growing grassroots coalition of churches, unions, civil rights groups, citizen activists, and many others are organizing and mobilizing us to crash through those closed doors, write our own rules, and reverse America's plunge into plutocracy. The "Take On" campaign has the guts and gumption to say enough!

[...] The campaign has laid out a five-point [sic] people's reform agenda and are now taking it to the countryside to rally the voices, anger, and grassroots power of workers, consumers, communities of color, Main Street, the poor, people of faith... and just plain folks.

  • Getting the corrupting cash of corporations and the superrich out of our politics by repealing Citizens United and providing a public system for financing America's elections.
  • Stopping "too big to fail" banks from subsidizing their high-risk speculative gambling with the deposits of us ordinary customers--make them choose to be a consumer bank or a casino, but not both.
  • Institute a tiny "Robin Hood Tax" on Wall Street speculators to discourage their computerized gaming of the system, while also generating hundreds of billions of tax dollars to invest in America's real economy.
  • Restore low-cost, convenient "postal banking" in our Post Offices to serve millions of Americans who're now at the mercy of predatory payday lenders and check-cashing chains.

There's an old truism about negotiating that says: "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu". The "Take On Wall Street" campaign intends to put you and me--the People--at the table for a change.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 01 2016, @04:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 01 2016, @04:03PM (#396228)

    If you overdraw an account, and the bank closes it, you're at their mercy if you pay it back. Often they don't remove you from Chexsystems. Found that out the hard way with somebody I knew. Once a bank closes an overdrawn account (usually after adding a couple hundred dollars of fees, to boot), there's no point in trying to settle with them. The few hundred dollars they could have by settling the account is a drop in the bucket, and they don't care.

    Of course, standard advice applies. Don't overdraw your account!

    As simple as all that is really, I still have trouble being ok with a vital system that effectively banhammers you if you make a mistake while you're down on your luck. It seems to be part of the phenomenon that being poor is expensive. I like your idea of forbidding banks from charging check cashing fees for checks they issued.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Thursday September 01 2016, @07:24PM

    by sjames (2882) on Thursday September 01 2016, @07:24PM (#396330) Journal

    It's actually pretty easy to be overdrawn even if you carefully account for every penny and never float a check. All it takes is a surprise fee (as noted in 4 pt. font in the last paragraph of page 45 of the agreement we meant to mail you but never got around to).

    Another way is if they decide well after the fact that the check you deposited wasn't any good after all. As far as the bank is concerned, no check deposit is ever final and irrevocable.

    .

    My bank once tried to take a paycheck back after 2 years. Based on the processing stamps, it looks like they managed to drop it on the floor during the check exchange and were more than willing to palm the cost of their mistake off on me (former employer was out of business). It wasn't until I quoted the specific federal law disallowing them from taking it back after 180 days that the manager admitted that it was their error and their problem.

    That caused me an afternoon pain in the ass, but had I been living paycheck to paycheck, it would have meant a cascade of bounced checks and overdraft fees complete with knock on fees from the various companies where my checks bounced. Had I not known banking law and had the wherewithal to go credibly threaten the bank manager with legal action in person, I would have joined the ranks of the un-banked.

    • (Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Friday September 02 2016, @06:44AM

      by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Friday September 02 2016, @06:44AM (#396575)

      I have have had an account over-drawn because the bank took the money out of the wrong account: in a foreign currency even.

      I had opened that second account to save on currency conversion, not pay $100 in over-draft fees.

      Half of the fees were because the first overdraft fee hit the account after I have closed it (paid in full) as a result of the first over-draft fee. I had caught it before receiving mail about it.

      I now refuse to open more than one account if the fine print says they may draw money from any account.