Straightening up after credit fraud

It's a good thing I didn't make that New Years Resolution not to be critical (for one day) because here she blows.

We're trying to straighten out an ID/credit fraud, so yesterday we had cancelled our credit card, but it was a recording, and I decided I'd like to check with a live person. I waited until 1 p.m. thinking today's young [anyone under 55] professionals all do lunch at the same time. When I got there only 1 teller was at the window, and a number of retirees waiting. He explained to the line that some people called in sick and everyone else was at lunch (I saw about 5 empty offices from where I'm standing).

 
Someone wanders in from the back room to assist me, very casually dressed. Not even supermarket cashier level. I give him my ID and credit cards and explain the problem and asked him to check if indeed the account was closed. He goes to the back room (seems the upfront computers only do math) and comes back a few minutes later and says it wasn't cancelled and hands them back to me with no explanation. So I asked him to do it. He disappears again, comes back a few minutes later and says he can't do it. Someone else has to. When I ask who? He disappears again. Comes back. Someone can see you at 3 p.m. he says. I'll come back, I said, who do I see? He disappears again. Comes back and gives me a name. Where do I see her, I ask. and he waves his arm to the east. The other teller then gives better directions. And I return to the parking lot.

 
We do not bank there--they just do the credit stuff. We did Phil's banking there, but closed it after he died. My husband claims he's always had wonderful service there, but hadn't been inside since 2020.
Earlier in the morning I'd been to a branch of our bank to make sure they could flag anything unusual, since by this time our life history has been sold to the dark web. A very young [under 35] man, pleasant and eager to help, assisted us. He knew zip, nada, zilch. I explained how the bank handled it when my purse had been stolen in another county, smaller and tourist area. We don't do that anymore, he said (I doubt that, but big cities probably never did). He too was dressed very casually--a natty sweatshirt with the bank logo.

At the small dinner party we attended on New Year's Eve (most were over 80) we all had stories about our mothers going shopping wearing a hat and gloves.  Those days are long gone; in fact even 2010 has seen a big change in appearance.

Update: When I went back to the bank at 3 p.m. teller #1 was there to greet me instead of the woman bank officer. I asked him to double check the information on the cancelled credit card, and he showed me the screen.  It indeed had been cancelled yesterday, and the man I talked to hadn't clicked on the right place to show it.  Fortunately, I only live 1 mile away.

The corruption of banks

It's bad enough that our taxes fund the deaths of the unborn due to clever politicians' machinations--now our banks and investments with women in the board room are tainted? This is to further entrench the idea that a job can replace a family and the lie that abortion is "women's health care."

 
"One of America's largest banking corporations [Citigroup] is reportedly shelling out cash [for travel] to help employees circumvent state abortion laws." (The Blaze)

You may recall, this is how we ended up with employee benefits tied to jobs, which then later were assumed to be necessary for all. After WWII when there was a shortage of good workers with salaries and wages frozen (The Stabilization Act), larger companies began offering paid health insurance to circumvent government laws.

Biden nominee, Saule Omaova

Communists are slow learners, but they know their public--gullible, and always eager for something for nothing. "Entitlement spending isn’t the only radically progressive news out of the White House. The [WSJ] editorial board warns about President Biden’s nominee for the Comptroller of the Currency, [Saule Omarova, who wants to eliminate banks] who has fond memories of the Soviet economy and advocates a total overhaul of the U.S. banking system she'd regulate."

Who in the world is pulling the Biden strings?

Biden Nominates Literal Communist To Be In Charge Of Banks And Currency – Def-Con News (defconnews.com)

Terrifying: Biden Is Nominating Soviet-Trained Radicals Now – PJ Media

Reparations in the 21st century

How would reparations work?

First, it's imperative that it has to be about more than slavery, which is the mistake most white and black middle class Christians make when supporting that idea. If it were just slavery, that would leave out Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Megan Markle, the adoptive children of movie stars and the millions like Ilhan Omar who have immigrated from Africa and the Caribbean in the past 3-4 decades. And I do mean millions. Only 350,000 blacks came during slavery days--you can see more need to be added to the roster of the downtrodden and abused.

Second, it will start with something recent that most people will remember. Maybe it will even be "affirmative action" since it failed to set things right and caused blacks undo hardship with debts they couldn't pay off. Maybe it will be "fair housing" initiatives since the concept caused so much "white flight" and pulled middle class blacks out of neighborhoods that needed them.

Third, it will include obviously bad and racist people, and we'll be asked to provide compensation for those hurt by those who consciously worked against blacks, like maybe a (Democrat) senator, former member of the KKK.

Fourth, it will include legal (at the time) business practices, either defined or redefined. Like red-lining of banks to stall mortgages. And if you've invested in that bank, or its parent company, or even if you use its savings and checking account services, you'll be part of the system, and therefore, guilty. You'll need to pay up.

Fifth, it will include local government services, like schools, parks, transportation. Did the schools in your community fail black children at higher rates than whites? Law suits coming right up. Maybe even the families of the board members and teachers will be held responsible. There goes that nice pension teachers get.

Sixth, it will include nutrition and health. We will be asked to overlook lifestyle causes of health problems, at least as far as reparations are concerned. If McDonald's is deemed to have too many stores in black neighborhoods (black because of redlining by banks) and black children have more obesity related health problems, then Mickey D will have to pay up, and if you've invested, sorry. That McDonald's has provided more top level management jobs for blacks since the early 1980s and been more environmentally responsible than most corporations will not balance the ledger.

And there will be more. There are currently national, state and local task forces for each of these. Keep your eyes and ears open. Non-profits are extremely lucrative for those at the top getting donations from foundations and gullible church mission boards. It's sort of a reparation payment all by itself.

Obama goes after the second amendment

General Eric Holder's Department of Justice has used its "Operation Choke Point" to manipulate banks and third-party payment processors to drop whole categories of businesses the Obama administration disfavors, such as online arms and ammunition sellers, tobacconists, and payday lenders. Left-wing nonprofit allies of the Administration like the Center for Responsible Lending and Americans for Financial Reform have provided media support.

“This is not law enforcement. It is intimidation backed up by the might of the government.” http://capitalresearch.org/2015/03/operation-choke-point/

Manipulating lending institutions to achieve social ends.  Who would have thought?  Isn’t that how we got the housing bubble and bust beginning with the Community Reinvestment Act in the 1970s and ending in the Great Recession of 2008? (Actually, it isn’t over; you can still get zero down home loans).

And isn’t that how we’re accumulating mounting college loan debt—to achieve social ends by paying universities through the back door while unprepared students enter through the front? Sallie Mae is like Freddie Mac.  Equal opportunity.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/01/29/fdic-retreats-on-operation-choke-point/

http://dailysignal.com/2015/03/02/newt-gingrich-choke-point-beginning-real-tyranny-united-states/

http://spectator.org/articles/42211/true-origins-financial-crisis#!

http://www.inc.com/mark-cuban/video-student-loans-bubble.html

Profiting from poverty—the alliance between the federal government, banks and corporations

Banks and retailers make a lot of money from poverty, but not in the way you might think. The unemployment figure is not that much higher than four years ago, but under Obama SNAP was $72 billion in 2011, up from $30 billion just four years before. Banks which manage the cards charge the poor fees just like they charge us. The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) reports:

"SNAP benefits are accessed via an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card that is processed using electronic funds transfer technology. EBT cards look and operate like bank-issued debit cards. SNAP benefits are accessed by swiping the EBT card on a point-of-sale (POS) terminal at an FNS retailer location and entering a personal identification number (PIN)."

It's a sweet deal. The poor go to the polls to reelect their savior believing he's helping them, and the corporations that make money from poverty funnel money into his campaign to keep them poor.  Ignore the fact that this report I cite is anti-big business and successful retailer like Wal-Mart.  The problem is the government, not capitalism, which is supposed to make a profit.

http://www.eatdrinkpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/FoodStampsFollowtheMoneySimon.pdf

There are 210,000 SNAP-authorized retailers nationwide, ranging from liquor stores to superstores to farmers markets. But there are rules--yes, you buy the food with the EBT card, and the alcohol and cigarettes with cash.  They may be poor, but they certainly aren’t stupid.  And as long as a liquor store also sells appropriate food items, it can accept EBT cards.

As unemployment decreased during the recession (which actually ended in June 2009), food stamp enrollment (SNAP) increased. From 2010 to 2011, enrollment jumped from 40.3 million to 44.7 million.

Free stuff. Works. It buys votes.

Obama campaign borrows from BofA

“Obama For America took out a $15 million loan from Bank of America last month, according to the campaign’s October monthly FEC report. The loan was incurred on September 4 and is due November 14, eight days after the election. OFA received an interest rate of 2.5% plus the current Libor rate.” (LIBOR stands for the London interbank offered rate and is the rate of interest that banks charge to lend money to each other.) 

Also the bank contributed $20 million toward the cost of the Democrat National Convention earlier this year.

I can’t understand it.  The O-Team were raffling off dinners with the President.  Didn’t that raise enough money? 

http://freebeacon.com/obama-campaign-borrows-15m-from-bank-of-america/

Slow to the gate--Ohio State students

Being a university town (Ohio State has about 50,000 students on one campus) I thought our students would be louder and rowdier about the Occupy thing, and then did finally hear that yesterday they were going to march from the campus to the state house.

Then today I read a notice about a lecture on medical disparities in the conference theater in the spiffy new $100 million union named for U.S. Bank, so I looked that up. U.S. Bank has $1.1 billion in deposits in central Ohio in 46 branches, and in exchange for the bank’s $1.05 million donation, the Minneapolis-based bank signed on for a 25-year naming rights deal to the 2,500-square-foot conference theater in the Ohio Union. Think of all the classroom buildings, theaters, playing fields, streets, parking lots, auditoriums, museums and schools that will need to give back money, if the Occupy whiners are successful in completely demonizing the banks. After all, it wouldn't be fair for some schools and cities to have the funds and not others.

Or, what if students just said NO to credit cards and used only checks or cash for their campus expenses? They could probably save even more if they said NO to beer and pizza!!!

How can bankers justify outrageously high bonuses?

What an odd question!

How do you justify your work contract? Your "merit raise," your paycheck, your perks that others don't have, your nice office, your club membership, your four week vacation when new hires only get one or two?

Why are you paid more than the janitor, the retail clerk, the UPS driver, or your pastor? Who's flogging your greed? What did you sign on for?

Google was invented by a Russian immigrant. He hadn't even finish college. Why should he be incredibly rich and famous and you're flipping burgers, or teaching third graders, or mucking stalls. Got me. But it's a good place to start (by creating suspicion, fear and envy) if you want to destroy the economy. Figure it out.

Obama and the banks

When the clutch/herd/murder/band/covey/swarm of advisers around Obama saw the stock market rally Monday at even the hint that Scott Brown might win, they squashed it on Wednesday with Obama's announcement of more bank regulation. I never had an economics course, but I was listening to Michele Bachmann, the lone voice of sanity in Minnesota (and the next legislator I'll support), yesterday who says Pelosi has painted a bulls eye on her forehead. Let me paraphrase until I can look her up. "Just get out of the way--no more new regulations or taxes and reduce what we already have. The economy will start to turn around in a quarter." Obama's move was a real smack down for any even considering saving the economy, a pay back for Tuesday's vote. I think he was responding to Brown's clear message, "Brown ran on a very specific, very clear agenda. Stop health care. Don't Mirandize terrorists. Don't raise taxes; cut them. And no more secret backroom deals with special interests." Krauthammer link.

But how was this portrayed by WaPo, which continues to carry his water even after all the disastrous moves (I won't call them mistakes, because I think they were intentional) with the economy, national security, and the environment of his first year. Here's what showed up in my e-mail--"The populist brushfire that has burned through Democratic fortunes this week threatened Friday to claim Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, imperiling his nomination for a second term and sending an unsettled stock market tumbling for the third straight day." Not a peep that the stock market tumble was as a direct result of Obama's announcement. Nope--just those stupid independent voters, those misinformed racist chicken littles out there running around like their heads were cut off. Why did this hurt the economy when unemployment is over 10%--and much higher here in Ohio?

"Daniel Ariens, whose company manufactures and markets snowblowers and lawnmowers, works closely with two regional banks in Chicago. If you want to stimulate the economy, he says, you can't keep "beating down on people who finance the infrastructure of this economy."

Todd Teske, CEO of Briggs & Stratton Corp., is concerned about who will pay for more regulation. "I've heard this has the potential for driving up costs for the banks," he said. "To the extent those costs are passed on to their customer base, that becomes problematic."

"Uncertainty over financial regulatory authority and what it means to the largest financial providers to the economy is not good," Keith Sherin, chief financial officer of General Electric Co., said Friday. GE is challenging some proposals in Washington that could change how its bruised finance arm, GE Capital, is structured, regulated or taxed. A recently proposed Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee could cost GE Capital $500 million, after taxes, for a full year." WSJ Link

Could the problem be that no one in the Obama administration has ever worked for any sector other than the government which only sees higher taxes and more regulations as the way to recovery and/or growth? Think about it. Gov. Granholm of Michigan is one of his economic advisers.

Please eat and drink in the staff lounge

Yesterday I closed out an IRA at a local bank and moved it to a stock account. It's like trying to round up a bunch of cats, and once you start drawing these down, you really are better off to have them in one place.

It's a handsome, beautifully appointed bank. The woman invited me to her desk in the open lobby when I explained what I wanted. She brought with her a large, Styrofoam coffee cup with the rim completely covered with lipstick. I looked. There was none on her mouth--it was all on the cup. Also on the desk was a pint jar of flavored tea, and a smaller bottle of coke. Really now, it's a bank. It's a place of business. Must you eat and drink in front of the customers?

About two years ago we went to a different local bank to begin the process of selling a house to our son. The loan officer was talking to us through her sandwich--rustling bag, drippy napkin, picking her teeth, etc., so she turned us over to the new guy. He knew nothing about mortgages, so we moved on, but at least he wasn't eating.

I've been in clinics awaiting a colonoscopy where the staff not 10 feet from the gurneys are eating and drinking and discussing the week-end events.

No wonder we have an obesity problem in this country! People are in a state of panic thinking they might be be out of sight of food for an hour so they bring it into the work area. Someone needs to swab and culture their keyboards and use it in a health class.

More rules for banks--how's that working out?

Obama loves a straw man, doesn't he? If it's not fat cat CEOs, it's banks, it's lobbyists, or Americans who haven't heard enough of his speeches on healthcare. Anyone but him. On Thursday he proposed more rules that would impede the growth of large banks. In Wednesday's WSJ there was an article about HAMP, Home Affordable Modification Program--the $75 billion mortgage modification program which is suffocating the banks with its accounting rules. I think it's part of ARRA and so far has a 1% success rate. Has there ever been a boondoggle like ARRA with so many billions and so little to show for it? It requires banks to declare a loss when they haven't had one. Now how would you like to step into that cess pool and have the IRS or some regulator 5 years from now send you to jail? And you can bet your old passbook that strategic defaulters will learn how to muck it up and make it work and the plumber or university professor who foolishly bought at the top of the real estate run up won't be able to make it through the red tape, or will just walk away from their mortgage. (Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I don't think any of these programs are designed to work.)

Read Arkadi Kuhlmann's article "Why mortgage modification isn't working."

Kiplinger drinks the Obama Kool-aid

This little item came through today in AIArchitect, the "Kiplinger Connection."

Economic Stimulus
Was the economic stimulus a success? Depends on how you measure.
The answer’s no, if set against Obama’s original goals: Holding joblessness around 8% and limiting the economic contraction this year to about 1.2%. [Yup, he missed that big time.]

But measured against what would have been, it was a rousing success. [You're kidding, right? Have you noticed your grandchildren will pay for this?] Washington added about $90 billion to GDP in the second and third quarters, through direct payments to the states, COBRA subsidies for the unemployed, reduced income tax withholding plus the first round of infrastructure spending. [Notice how little was spent on infrastructure--but isn't that what he promised?] Otherwise, the second quarter contraction would have been worse than the 0.7% it was, and third quarter GDP would have been expected to come in flat. As it is … GDP surely rose in the third quarter, probably by a healthy 3.5% or so. [Gee, maybe he can keep this going 10 years like FDR did?]

One reason for the view that the stimulus isn’t panning out: Obama’s tendency to focus on infrastructure development. Spending on it has been slow to take off…with long lead times for planning and contracting … and slow to pay off in terms of increased business spending and job creation. [Or maybe he was wasting too much political capital on stealing our health care and had no appointments who knew anything about business and capitalism?]

Shoulda coulda woulda--there is no way to measure "what would have been," just as there's no way to know about that job you didn't take, or the one you didn't marry, or that promotion you didn't get, or club you didn't join, or that trip you didn't take. Sure--might have been super, or it could have been a bust. You just don't know. Nor do we know what would have happened if the federal government had just let the recession run its course, let bad companies fail--no cash for clunkers, no take-over of banks and automakers, no petty czars poking their noses into business, no threatening Fox News for pointing out the obvious, no denigration of 95% of American businesses who belong to the Chamber, no take over of the economy in order "not to waste a crisis." But if government stayed out of our business, out of market manipulation, out of mortgages, out of schools--well, wouldn't that mean we don't need them. And what would they do with all that surplus, pent up wind power?

Softball article on BOA and ACORN in WSJ

Isn't that just so sweet. James R. Hagerty wrote, Bank of America, "a corporate partner of ACORN" is going to end its relationship. I'm not diminishing the seriousness of the video'd prostitution sting at the ACORN offices, but really, these ACORN guys at the top of the chain were high class hookers long ago selling mortgages to people who can't pay for them. Clinton knew it; Bush knew it; Obama says he's clueless and clean. Sex just got the public's attention. Go to American Spectator to see how this works using Greenlining as an example. Greenlining is another nonprofit partner which you can see on this long list.

The requirements for an ACORN-assisted mortgage is still on their web page--it looks pretty loosey goosey to me. And we wonder why CRA contributed to the housing crash?

• 2003 and 2004 year tax returns and W2s [what's wrong with 2007 and 2008?]
  
• One month of current paystubs
  
• 3 most recent bank account statements
  
• $20 in check or money order for a credit report
  
• Rental history for the last 12 months: cancelled checks, receipts, landlord letter, etc.

Banks were being forced to lend to non-credit worthy applicants, to set aside all the known principles of sound financing to reduce the possibility of default. Take a look at what minorities were borrowing, as compared to whites, and guess who was pushing them there--certainly not the banks! Immigrant homeowners were actually failing less than native born minorities--probably had traditional resources backing them.

From Winter 2000 City Journal:

"The Clinton administration's get-tough regulatory regime mattered so crucially because bank deregulation had set off a wave of mega-mergers, including the acquisition of the Bank of America by NationsBank, BankBoston by Fleet Financial, and Bankers Trust by Deutsche Bank. Regulatory approval of such mergers depended, in part, on positive CRA ratings. "To avoid the possibility of a denied or delayed application," advises the NCRC in its deadpan tone, "lending institutions have an incentive to make formal agreements with community organizations." By intervening—even just threatening to intervene—in the CRA review process, left-wing nonprofit groups have been able to gain control over eye-popping pools of bank capital, which they in turn parcel out to individual low-income mortgage seekers. A radical group called ACORN Housing has a $760 million commitment from the Bank of New York; the Boston-based Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America has a $3-billion agreement with the Bank of America; a coalition of groups headed by New Jersey Citizen Action has a five-year, $13-billion agreement with First Union Corporation. Similar deals operate in almost every major U.S. city. Observes Tom Callahan, executive director of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, which has $220 million in bank mortgage money to parcel out, "CRA is the backbone of everything we do."

Now ACORN is back in the swim, getting federal dollars to run foreclosure workshops. Sweet deal. You get the homeowner in the mess, charge a fee and get a kick back from the bank; then get government funds to run workshops, collect fees, to get them out of the mess you made for them.

NeighborhoodWorks America is just another branch of ACORN, as are others on this list. ACORN has so many tentacles interwoven with state, local, federal and church agencies, we may never get it figured out.

Finding bank failures in the library

"Works on bank failures are classed in 332.1 Banks, which has the note: “Including bank failures.” An example of a work about bank failures classed in 332.1 is Systemic Financial Crises: Resolving Large Bank Insolvencies. For more on how cataloguers in libraries are handling bank failures, see 025.431: The Dewey Blog. A very clever idea for a blog.

Barney the dog has left DC

We'll enjoy the memories of his antics. Barney the Frank is still there, marauding through the halls of Congress, looking for plunder, still misleading us into more debt. Barney Frank, the Representative from Massachusetts has done more damage to this nation than the senior senator from that state could ever have imagined.

Rep. Barney Frank asserted Thursday that the Obama administration can be more trusted than the Bush administration to ensure that banks do not misuse money they get from a $700 billion bailout fund. Chicago Tribune

Yes, good ol' Barn. He's the one who told us there was no problem with Fannie and Fred; he's the one with Chris Dodd whose oversite responsibilities got us here along with all the other Democrats and "can't we all get along" Republicans. He's the one who should be brought before Congress to do the mea culpa they are forcing on CEOs.

As my artist friend Charlie wrote, Barney is attempting to "wash his hands and those of the Democrat party of any blame for the mess, and lay total responsibility on the Bush administration and Republicans in General. The truth is that Frank and the liberal left generated the whole problem by coercing financial institutions to make loans to people who couldn't afford them and using their political clout in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to cover up the problem. (The loans were nicknamed "NINJA" loans....No Income, No Job or Assets)." Yes, I've written about that many times at this blog, and my man Bush certainly can take part of the blame. Four years ago he was praising the number of new home owners among minorities, pandering to the liberals in his own party and moderate Democrats. Owning a home isn't a "civil right," and there was a very good reason for 20% down and fixed mortgages. Once the government began demanding that banks become social workers and nannies, the scene was set for our current playbook.

If government would stay out of this, we could come out of this recession as we've come out of the last 5 or 6, without a massive Depression, but we're on our way! Wheeee! But now we have a $13 a week payback "to make work pay" for all those who believed in Hope and Change.

A bank regulator tells his side

John Corby on 610 a.m. in Columbus offers a call-in show with topics from uses for bacon (yesterday) to what's the dumbest trick you pulled as a teen-ager. Today, the subject seems to be a bit more serious--the government bailout. As I walked in the door (I was outside picking up branches from the storm 2 weeks ago) I heard

--a bank regulator saying the banks were forced into the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and each bank had to have a plan and a department. Bank field examiners spent over 50% of their time enforcing the Act, which took away from the enforcement of safety and soundness of the investments. Every bank in the nation, under the CRA, had to reinvest part of its own capital in the community, i.e. lending to borrowers, primarily minorities, who were not qualified for loans. This participation (which was forced) showed the banks were supporting the community. The caller said he and other bank employees who realized what was going on would have never been able to speak up for fear of losing their jobs, and that those who oversaw the CRA at his bank were the most liberal and militant in the organization. Then the banks were blamed for all the subprime loans they were forced to write. From the horse's mouth

Before we taxpayers fund the bailout, we need to dump the CRA which started the downward plunge and abandon this crazy idea that everyone needs "the American dream." And that includes its slush fund, Housing Trust Fund, which goes to the states for local organizations to put poor people in housing (which usually no one else would buy) including my own church. It's a nightmare for many. There needs to be good, sound, affordable housing stock. But it doesn't mean that every welfare mother who's taken a training program in computer programming and found a decent job should be shoehorned into "affordable" housing with a mortgage which will be a burden to her and her children. I'm sure this was all done with the best intentions, but the consequences have resulted in a national crisis. These same people in a good rental or subsidized housing with an adequate investment vehicle on the side would have been far better off and not experienced one more failure in their lives.

"The CRA forces lenders to spend money, time, and resources on documentation, PR, and other compliance costs. Moreover, the examination process to determine the level at which a bank is meeting its CRA obligations can sometimes take several months. This has become a major point of leverage—and source of funding—for “community” activist groups. Lending institutions, rather than face the increased expense of a slowed deposit facility application due to a CRA challenge, have committed over $7 billion to such groups and $23 billion to community development lending projects since 1977. Some companies seek to mitigate the threat by funding activist groups’ projects, instead of reforming their overall approach to community reinvestment, according to Jonathan Macey of Yale Law School.

Groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), aware that even small delays in approval can result in substantial losses of money for financial institutions, have been exploiting such a strategy for years. For example, Chase Manhattan and J.P. Morgan donated hundred of thousands of dollars to ACORN around the time that they applied for permission to merge." The Community Reinvestment Act's Harmful Legacy March 20, 2008

Fortune 100 Foundations Lean far to the Left

From article summary: "Although many believe selfinterested corporations lavish funds on politically conservative groups, it just isn’t true. A painstaking analysis of tax returns for Fortune 100 foundations reveals the nonprofits overwhelmingly favor groups that push for bigger government and tougher regulations." Of the 53 nonprofits of the top 100 which donated or funded political causes or candidates, the ratio was 14.5:1--$59 million for the left, and $4 million for the right. Read the story here

If this defies common wisdom (not to mention common sense), there must be a reason. As in most things--you only need to follow the money. Or follow the banker or CEO into the halls of the Senate. They give to left leaning, pro-big-government politicians because the regulation or influence will hurt their competition. Why would big oil or big automaker or big lumber be funding and supporting environmental issues that on the surface would seem to be anti-business-as-usual. Well, obviously, it's the small guy with fewer resources and smaller R & D budget who will be hurt, not the mega-behemoths of industry.

La Raza, for instance, which wants the Southwest returned to Mexico in fact if not in treaty or out and out war, is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the wealthy foundations of the top Fortune 100 companies. Now why do you suppose big business has a stake in keeping wages down through illegal immigration? Hmmmm. Banks also are heavily investing in Hispanic causes, which tend to be sympathetic to amnesty and illegals. James Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has made political contributions to high-profile Democratic lawmakers and candidates, including New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama, and extremely small amounts to a few Republicans (I'm betting they are RINOs). The JPMorgan Chase foundation gave 2.6% of its giving dollar to political causes, all of which were on the left.

So the next time you read or hear a whiny liberal or progressive legislator, journalist, academic or bloggers moaning about the conservatives being so rich, look for those crossed fingers behind their back or keyboard--just 'taint so.

The paperless society

This morning I moved a mature IRA from one bank to another, because the first bank was charging me $30 a year just to use my money! Do you know that by the time I got home from those two transactions about a mile apart, I had 26 pieces of paper, or 27 pieces if I counted the check, 25 of them 8.5 x 11. Both banks used to be called something else--or at least one was, and the other was started by officers of a former savings and loan. I can remember the days when they rolled the certificate into a typewriter and I signed a little card for the beneficiaries which stayed there. In those days, I thought it took a long time, but now with computers it is much longer. Plus, the computers don't even update your account until the next day, so on one sheet I had to write in the new amount. But the staff are always pleasant, handsome and cheerful, so it's nice to go to a bank and enjoy the comfy furniture and have a chat. Just make sure you have plenty of time. Plus it is a beautiful, sunny day in central Ohio. My artificial flowers are doing fabulously even in the cold snap.

4049

Maybe he could take up golf

Lionel Tiger is an anthropologist who sees himself as an economist when he writes for the op ed page in the WSJ. I see him as a poet, because his writing about the subprime mess is so obscure and squishy, it just screams for the pages of Poetry. In today's piece he writes movingly of Maria (note the Hispanic, i.e. working class allusion) and her home loan problems. Tiger says that the savings and investment industry is built on optimism and overestimates--by all parties, but the blame when that goes awry does not go to Maria, however. Here's where I see the poetry.

Blame
by Norma Bruce
based on Lionel Tiger's essay

For Allen who
never checked Maria's paperwork,
who assumed because she had a heartbeat
she was both
fine and subprime
all at once and
he didn't give a damn.

For the companies who
lurked outside
the gated-city building sites
promising the moonlight
on the deck
for just a little
overestimate please.

For the regulators who
couldn't follow
the trail of crumbs
leading from an
intimate overestimate
by a hopeful Maria
for a humble bungalow.

For the massive banks of Paris who
decided to close
their cash windows
and take
a long lunch
just when Maria comes
to refinance.

For the rating agencies who
are largely paid by the
companies they rate
[without a word to condemn the social scientists
who urged the high-risk, poor-credit workers
before they were ready,
to grab for the American dream.]

Read about banking on illegal immigrants, and see how business, the federal government loop holes and do-gooders work together, but we the people will pay.