BANK STORIES

Banks are pigs. They have an insatiable desire to make more and more money for themselves to the detriment of those they service. Whose money they hold, work with, and profit from.

Recent occurrences bear out the propensity of banks to overindulge for personal benefit while forgetting the people they were organized to service.

Chase Bank. One of America's oldest banking institutions. Due to numerous mergers the past decade, the bank today is JP Morgan Chase Bank doing business as Chase.

Although U.S. taxpayers bailed Chase and other banks out for their own wrongdoing in 2008 and saved their asses, the banks have not been thankful. To this day, the American people await Chase and other banks return to loaning monies to Main Street rather than Wall Street. 

The banks have survived and are making more money than ever. Major bank CEO's are being paid $20-40 million a year bonuses. Part of the one percent.

Chase announced recently that effective August 1, Chase is going to charge depositors a fee for holding their money. You got it. Savings and checking accounts will be charged a fee payable to the bank. Chase feels it is entitled to something for holding people's monies. The same monies banks invest overnight to a 20 percent profit for themselves and pay depositors 1.5 per cent a year on their deposits.

The fee will be $.25 per $100 deposited. It will add up to millions if not billions of dollars a year.

Pigs might be too gentle a description. They are whores! They will provide any service for a fee.

The next situation is even better. More difficult to believe than the $.25 charge scenario.

There has been a successful move in recent years in certain European and Asian nations by banks. If money in a savings or checking account lies dormant for a specified number of years, the account is deemed inactive and the bank removes the money. The money no longer belongs to the depositor.

Australia did it last year for the first time. The banks grabbed $360 million from dormant accounts.

There is an additional twist. States are permitted to create and apply the dormant account theory based on state law. Each State must pass its own law as California and Georgia have done.  California and Georgia were delighted to pass such legislation. Why not? The money does not stay with the bank. It goes directly to the State. The State thereafter can use the monies to help pay its own debts, finance under funded state pension funds, etc.

The dormant account rule applies to safety deposit boxes, also. No activity and the box is emptied. Cash, jewelry, bonds, etc.

The pigs prevail again. However, this time for the benefit of State governments.

It is one hand washes the other. The banks need federal and state laws to permit them to steal legally from depositors. Along the way, why not do the States a favor and grab some money for them.

Note that what one bank does today, others will do tomorrow. The same with State banking laws.

Which brings us to offshore banking accounts. There are trillions of dollars held in offshore banking accounts by American corporations or corporations doing business in the United States. They sit there because the corporations do not wish to pay U.S. taxes on the money. Taxes which we sorely need to pay down debt and provide for our people.

Recognize that many Congress persons want to cut, alter or eliminate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The same Congress persons who voted to permit corporate America to enjoy the benefit of tax free off shore accounts.

It does not make sense to me. 

Now to the point of this tirade re offshore accounts. 

Putin announced last week that many Russian businesses are burying their money in offshore accounts to avoid Russian taxes. He said it was time to do something about it.

I believe Putin will. If he moves with the same speed he has re Crimea and gas outlets in North Korea, South Korea and China, he will have the problem resolved in my opinion by year's end. Of course, Putin has an advantage. He rules/governs a totalitarian state. He's the boss, he calls the shots. Russia's legislative body is controlled by Putin. 

I am eager to see how Putin handles his off shore problem. We might learn something from it.

I wonder if we will ever reach the point where the people run the government again. It seems to me Congress is beholden to the corporations and the corporations own Congress. Government of the people, by the people and for the people is yesterday's news. What will it take to return us to those days?

THE THEFT OF SOCIAL SECURITY

The U.S. Government has stolen significant monies from the Social Security Trust Fund. Legally, of course.

 

The theft of Social Security is not understood by many. Even elected officials whose business it is to understand  federal program as large as Social Security. Congress persons have standard talking points which are not true. They erroneously represent to the American public that Social Security cannot support itself, that Social Security is broke, that Social Security benefits must be cut, etc.

 

These Congress persons either know not that of which they speak, or are intentionally misrepresenting the facts.

 

You will find this column interesting. Guaranteed.

 

The United States is in debt to the tune of $17 trillion dollars. Who is the biggest creditor of the United States? To whom does the United States owe the most money?

 

If you believe China, you are wrong. The largest creditor of the United States, the entity the U.S. Government owes the most money to, is Social Security. Specifically, its Trust Fund. $2.7 trillion dollars and going up each day. The second biggest creditor is China. The United States borrows money from China sometimes on a daily basis. The United States owes China $1.3 trillion. Japan is close behind at $1.1 trillion.

 

The United States owes Social Security more than twice what it owes China. And more than its combined debt obligations to China and Japan.

 

Surprising. Shocking.

 

Social Security is not broken. It has worked well for 78 years. The United States government is broken. Government has been grabbing money from Social Security for years, has never paid a penny back, and from what I can determine, has no plan to pay any money back. It has been made to appear that Social Security is a noose around the neck of the United States economy. The people have been told that Social Security benefits must be cut so the economy may survive! What bunk!

 

Lets look at the pertinent facts.

 

Social Security comes out of every Americans pay check. An employer contribution added to it. The Government pays not one penny of the monies deposited in the Social Security Trust Fund.

 

The amount a person pays into the Trust Fund over the course of a working life time is substantially more than the benefit derived. A worker pays into the Fund generally for 40-50 years. The monthly Social Security check received by the senior citizen is peanuts in comparison.

 

Social Security has in every year of its existence taken in more than it has paid out. There is always a surplus.

 

The monies Social Security pays out include Old Age Retirement Benefits (the monthly check), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and SSI. All out of the Trust Fund. A surplus left over each year besides. Amazing! A terrific program Franklin Roosevelt put in place!

 

One problem exists. There should be a hell of a balance in the Social Security Trust Fund. Revenues annually are more than what is expended. There is no money in the Trust Fund, however. The Government has taken it all. Continues to do so. And  never pays a penny back.

 

In the early 1990s, President Bill Clinton and Speaker Newt Gingrich needed to balance the budget. They came up with the genius plan to invade the Social Security Trust Fund. Most of the dollars represented surplus funds. Why leave all those dollars sitting around unused. 

 

Clinton and Gingrich decided they would "borrow" the surplus monies. In return, the United States would give the Trust Fund what were termed  "special service non-marketable U.S. Government  bonds."

 

What were these bonds? Nothing. They were non-marketable. They could not be used as collateral for a bank loan. No sane person would buy them. The bonds were nothing more than IOUs.

 

Good for use as toilet paper in an out house.

 

A scam.

 

It was thought that if and when things turned adverse for Social Security, the Government would redeem these bonds. In effect, pay back Social Security. After all, the commitment of the United States and Congress is to meet the country's obligations.

 

The Government's ability to pay depends on its power to tax and/or borrow. Congress reflects neither past nor present desire to pay. The Government refrains from even discussing these IOUs and their payment.

 

Where did all this surplus money go? How did certain Presidents and Congress spend the money. Basically, in three areas.

 

First, to make up for the reduced taxes on the rich. Thank you Bush 2. Second, two unpaid wars. Thank you again Bush 2. Obama receives some credit also for not yet successfully ending the wars. Finally, other government programs that needed to be funded and for which there might not be sufficient funding without invading the Social Security Trust Fund.

 

The process again is simple. Surplus Trust funds are borrowed by the United States. An IOU is given to purportedly secure repayment. The money goes into the nation's general fund to help pay for the tax cuts, wars, etc.

 

Certain economic experts have suggested a simple 30 year program to repay the IOUs would correct the problem and pay off the $2.7 trillion still growing debt.

 

The real problem is no one cares about paying back. The Government took our monies and spent it like a bunch of college guys out on a night on the town.

 

Social Security and Medicare should not be touched in any fashion. Other than to perhaps increase benefits. Another plan might be for the Government to stop immediately removing funds from the Trust Fund. The surpluses would build up rapidly.

 

This sad scenario makes one wonder whether the Government even cares about the 99 per cent. It appears to me that all our elected officials are concerned with are their images and friends. Not for anything or anyone else.

 

Make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

 

It seems to be working.