OpEdNews » FRIENDLY COMMUNITY BANKS HAVE MORPHED--BY GOVERNMENT DEREGULATION--INTO MONSTERS UNDER THE BED

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Tag(s): Banking; Banking Mergers And Acquistions; ING; ING Bank; Mortgage Crisis; Netbank; Privatization; Sub-prime
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December 10, 2007 at 13:41:22

FRIENDLY COMMUNITY BANKS HAVE MORPHED--BY GOVERNMENT DEREGULATION--INTO MONSTERS UNDER THE BED

by Jim Freeman Page 2 of 2 page(s)

www.opednews.com

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No matter, PD has friends in high places and they are enough--unless of course the friends themselves are tossed out of office and into the slammer.

It doesn't look like that will happen.

Too many co-conspirators in both parties have dirty fingers for that to happen and the country is confused and under a lot of stress. The country has been coached to stay the hell under the bed and maybe, if they're good and don't complain, things might get better.

PD is out there rain or shine. You can see him if you draw back the edge of the curtain, leaning against a lamp post and intimidating the old folks. He's selling protection insurance against terrorists, throwing an occasional brick through windows of the few businesses left on Main Street, just to make a point. Like NetBank and GM and United Airlines.

And people are buying.

The old folks aren't buying, but they're dying off. They remember Al Capone and the Depression, FDR and Harry Truman. They are able to say to this president, "I knew Harry Truman and you are no Harry Truman."

The old folks, the National Memory, mostly afraid in their final years of losing their Medicare to that bully leaning against the lamp post. The same greaser punk who quadrupled their national debt and stuffed the cash in his pocket.

This privatizer brought us the likes of ING Bank and ING Direct, sailing in from Holland to siphon off the NetBank gravy and leave the crusts for the FDIC to clean up. This Reagan offspring is the greedy, lawless kid who grew up to wreck our airlines, bankrupt Detroit and send hired Blackwater killers abroad in our name.

PD got together with Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay and they found a way to buy off our government. They called it a 'Contract With America. Newt and Tom lured us into credit-card and mortgage debt, sold our Congress to K-Street, allowed us to vote for it all and then yanked the rug.

Jack Abramoff is yesterday's news. Only the old folks noticed.

George Donnelley speaks for you and for me. George is one of the millions of spokesmen and women who stand up for the old and intimidated, for the nation that has been snookered into shooting up on the neocon drug of choice.

George is not afraid, because he knows all about fear and the true fact the vicious PD enablers in the White House don't dare repeat . . .

. . . "we have nothing to fear but fear itself."

Words the old folks know. FDR, when he spoke them, included the things that are done in the name of fear, under the banner of fear, while fear has our undivided attention.

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2 comments

from Chicago, very left of center ... favorite quote "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross" -- Sinclair Lewis
chris ferryfrom Chicago, very left of center ... favorite quote "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross" -- Sinclair Lewis

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I joined a credit union in th 80's and I have never regretted joining. I have access to online banking, ATM, CD, loans etc. That would be my advice to any one using a fee laden bank ... switch to a credit union.

by chris ferry (0 articles, 5 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 13 comments) on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 7:08:47 AM

Jim Freeman's op-ed pieces and commentaries have appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, International Herald-Tribune, CNN, The New York Review, The Jon Stewart Daily Show and a number of magazines.
Jim FreemanJim Freeman's op-ed pieces and commentaries have appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, International Herald-Tribune, CNN, The New York Review, The Jon Stewart Daily Show and a number of magazines.

Chris, that is so cool

I gotta admit I knew nothing about credit unions and your note sent me to Wikipedia;

A credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members. Credit unions differ from banks and other financial institutions in that the members who have accounts in the credit union are the owners of the credit union.

Credit union policies governing interest rates and other matters are set by a volunteer Board of Directors elected by and from the membership itself. Only a member of a credit union may deposit money with the credit union, or borrow money from it. As such, credit unions have historically marketed themselves as providing superior member service and being committed to helping members improve their financial health.

Credit unions may be viewed as non-profit organizations, or alternatively as for-profit enterprises charged with making a profit for their members (who receive any profits earned by the cooperative in the form of dividends paid on savings, which are taxed as ordinary income, or reduced interest rates on loans).

This debate reflects credit unions' unusual organizational structure, which attempts to solve the principal-agent problem by ensuring the owners and the users of the institution are the same people. In any case, credit unions generally cannot accept donations and must be able to prosper in a competitive market economy.

In the United States, credit unions typically pay higher dividend (interest) rates on shares (deposits) and charge lower interest on loans than banks.[1] Credit union revenues (from loans and investments) do, however, need to exceed operating expenses and dividends (interest paid on deposits) in order to maintain capital and solvency. Often credit unions have a lower cost of funds due to a higher proportion of non/low interest bearing deposits, than typical commercial banks.

Credit unions offer many of the same financial services as banks, often using a different terminology; including share accounts (savings accounts), share draft (checking) accounts, credit cards, and share term certificates (certificates of deposit) and online banking.

Credit unions exist in a wide range of sizes, ranging from volunteer operations with a handful of members to institutions with several billion dollars in assets and hundreds of thousands of members.

by Jim Freeman (108 articles, 53 quicklinks, 224 diaries, 386 comments) on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 12:34:09 PM