Nine representatives on “Move Your Money” and “too big to fail”
There is a grassroots movement named “Move Your Money“. The idea is that folks tired of seeing Wall Street bankers pull down 7 and 8 digit bonuses after ruining the national economy can exact a small slice of accountability by moving their accounts form the “too big to fail” institutions to smaller, more local banks.
(Full disclosure: I closed my Bank of America accounts last weekend.)
Here’s a little background:
After this evening’s vote, I caught up with several House members and asked what they thought of the idea.
Jan Schakowsky (D, IL) is closing her Bank of America accounts this weekend:
Blue Dog Leonard Boswell (D, Iowa) thinks the idea is a good one:
So does Republican Bob Inglis (R, SC):
And ultra-conservative Blue Dog Dan Boren (D, OK):
Rep. Tom McClintock (R, CA) won’t be changing his banking practices, but he thinks the grassroots are on the right track:
Rep. Tim Bishop represents many of the people working at the big banks. He’s reserving judgment.
Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R, WY) says people should go where they get the best value, all things considered:
Rep. Glenn Thompson (R, PA) isn’t surprised that people are frustrated and keeps his money local:
Finally, Mike Castle, (R, DE), who is probably the happiest man in Washington tonight (he’s the Republican nominee for the Delaware Senate seat formerly occupied by Joe Biden) says that the movement probably won’t be very effective and that the “too big to fail” banks play a critical role in our economy:
[...] Stark took his camera to Capitol Hill to ask a few Congressional Representatives about the Move Your Money campaign. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), for instance, is planning on moving this [...]
Move Your Money » Blog Archive » Where are your legislators banking?
20 Jan 10 at 9:45 am
Everyone remember these representatives who work with the big banks, don’t want to comment, etc… Vote their rear ends out of office come election time! These big banks have ruined the United States and Congress knows it. The bailout was to save the rich people and foreigners’ money. Move your money to a community bank or local credit union. Stop doing business with Citi, Wells, BofA, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley. They are bonus greedy crooks.
Kevin
20 Jan 10 at 2:01 pm
Okay, show me a “small,community bank” and I will show you a parent company who owns it either directly or indirectly through loans and insurance to the “small” company. The fact is that the above-mentioned financial institutions OWN us and everything we think we own. Mike, your $80,000 student loan makes you owned by the bank. These politicians are owned as it is the financial companies (all two or three of them that don’t compete)have funded them. They don’t dare vote for any policies that go against maximizing corporate profits. They are simply not allowed to do so. Once again let me point out that this is not capitalism but rather communism, as there is no competition, but rather a monopolistic “ownership” of the USA, all its property, all the citizens, and all the so-called property of the citizens. The bailout wasn’t an idea politicians came up with to save the economy, but rather something the banks demanded from the politicians. That’s what happens in a communistic system.
Brian
20 Jan 10 at 8:41 pm
By the way, the above-mentioned banks really ARE too big to fail. If they die, so does the world economy and so does the USA (that’s right, the country would be finished). The answer is not to move our money to punish the banks. That would work in a capitalistic system. What would be more effective is if we (the government of the people) broke up the monopolistic structure. If Citi was broken, for example, into a couple hundered smaller companies, then a few of them could fail and the sky would not fall. In addition to this, the smaller companies could then compete with each other for our business (capitalism) and we could certainly expect better rates, better services, etc. A break-up, such as this, can never happen, of course, as it would involve our politicians to do the bidding of the people over the two or three corporations that own everthing, including the politicians.
Brian
20 Jan 10 at 8:49 pm
The movement is likely to gather steam the longer it goes on. It is a concrete way for individuals to work collectively, even though their actions are solitary.
The big financial players may claim that such a movement is worthless, and the the small amount of acount depositors in toto, as opposed to their bigger corporate accounts will have a negligible effect are forgetting one thing – there is strength in numbers.
This will be seen, so far as I can see, as the Death by a thousand papercuts. The bleeding is tiny, but if millions of them are all applied at the same time, you will see an effect on those too big to fail banks.
Angie in WA State
20 Jan 10 at 9:36 pm