On Wednesday morning last week, I went to the 7-11 to buy cigarettes and a Diet Coke. I never carry cash so when I swiped my debit card, I was shocked when it said “Declined.”
Immediately, I went on line and checked out my bank statement. I had several charges that I did not make. I belong to a credit union that is very particular about the charges I make, and they noticed they were all on-line; not my normal pattern. So they shut the card down. Continue reading
Barclays Bank has today been fined a combined £290M by regulators in the USA, UK and EU for manipulating the LIBOR; an acronym which stands for “London Interbank Offered Rate”. If you think this doesn’t sound sexy, you’re right. But if you think it isn’t critically important and one of the worst scandals to be exposed from the GFC so far, you’re wrong. The LIBOR is meant to be an objectively-set interest rate. It is used as the reference rate for an estimate $350 trillion in derivatives, not to mention an unknowable number of mortgages, international loans and financing arrangements. Many GFC scandals have involved institutions and hedge funds swindling each other out of paper wealth which never really existed. This one has involved one or more banks ripping off any number of governments, businesses, pensions funds and homeowners, and the fines so far are only the precursor to civil lawsuits and further criminal investigations. Continue reading
Despite my obvious conservative leanings, I support the idea of moving your money out of the big banks. My reasons for supporting this has more to do with the fact that Americans need to support their local businesses now more than ever. The ‘too big to fail’ idea has taken this country down a slippery slope.
A non-profit campaign called Move Your Money makes it extremely easy to find a local bank or credit union to put those hard-earned dollars. Funny enough, by moving your money you will not only be sending a message to the big banks and those in government who support them, but you will actually incur less fees and get better customer service, according to JD Power and Associates. Who knew that being a capitalist could stick it to the big companies? Continue reading