The Banking Elite are Not Only Stealing Our Wealth, But They Are Also Stealing Our Mi

[e30e]

lulz @ union guy calling out banks

Let me know when the signal unions become corrupt. One of the smallest unions in the rail road, we don't have much political power but we can stop all train movements if we wanted.

Is there a reason your calling me out on having a job that moved me into a higher tax bracket, requires me support local economies, lets me pay back my student loans to sallie Mae, allows me to pay my child support and put food on the table? Because I know you know banks are crooked.

[BraveUlysses]

lulz @ union guy calling out banks

lulz @ using a non sequitur to discredit his post

[z31maniac]

lulz @ using a non sequitur to discredit his post

Hey, don't use your fancy words on me.

[mrsleeve]

Let me know when the signal unions become corrupt. One of the smallest unions in the rail road, we don't have much political power but we can stop all train movements if we wanted.

Is there a reason your calling me out on having a job that moved me into a higher tax bracket, requires me support local economies, lets me pay back my student loans to sallie Mae, allows me to pay my child support and put food on the table? Because I know you know banks are crooked.

seriously your going to try an use the railroad unions to paint a picture for lack of corruption ..................

I am all for you making a good living holding a book or not, but the rail roads not corrupt really ?????

[joshh]

lulz @ using a non sequitur to discredit his post

Hey, don't use your fancy words on me.

A word Hubbard loved....Brave must be a closet Scientologist.

seriously your going to try an use the railroad unions to paint a picture for lack of corruption ..................

I am all for you making a good living holding a book or not, but the rail roads not corrupt really ?????

He's always justified his union. He's the "must protect our job" type of union guy. That's why you're hearing what you're hearing from him.

[uofom3]

When have I said the gold standard was a good idea. I have said there should be a little more actual backing to our money, but not a flat gold standard.

I know with an economy as a large as ours Fiat is necessary. Its just that make it work the system cant be abused, like it has been

This can be said for anything.

People blame banks and financial institutions but these same people are financial morons.

Put it this way... Did the banks make people take out second/third mortgages? Did financial institutions force people to invest in leveraged funds? Did they force people to margin their accounts? The answer is no.

You know why banks make so much money? Because they are, in general, way more financially savvy than 99% of investors. Do you think your average investors even understands how the system works? No. That's not the banks fault - all of that information is out there and people are too lazy and stupid to figure it out (back to why a guy rapping in korean gets 10mm hits) Then when it goes off in their hands they scream and bitch about banking/financial sector greed. False. It's public sector idiocy

Banks may hand people a loaded financial gun at times, but people are still the ones who are stupid enough to take it and pull the trigger.

All of this talk about the gold standard/swaps/CDO's/CMO/MBS/private trading desks/etc. is secondary or tertiary to the fact that people bought into it.

But, after all of that, leverage can grow our economy. Used properly, there is nothing wrong with it.

[Farbin Kaiber]

^So, do we then blame the media for making our society want the items that are out of our financial reach that then causes us as a society to buy into products above our wealth level?

[uofom3]

^So, do we then blame the media for making our society want the items that are out of our financial reach that then causes us as a society to buy into products above our wealth level?

No, people need to blame themselves.

Society, particularly the generation of people under 40 from my experience, have a huge need to conform to a peer group or what people "think" of them. So media or not, everyone tries to be what they "think" they should be in the eyes of others. And what really slays me is people who think they are punk/counter culture/emo/whatever who think that they are bucking the system when in reality they are just conforming to the beliefs of another subset of the general population: it doesn't just apply to the E! Tv crowd.

This leads to people wanting to be seen in some cases as beng someone of wealth and power - which is all a facade. Someone making 50k a year and living like they make 150k is the prime example.

People need to look around and realize that, by-in-large the guy with the boat, sick house, wifey in the range rover in many cases has zero equity in anything and is damn near living paycheck to paycheck. But, it's all about the appearance.

People have to become comfortable with living within their means and paying themselves first and learning to manage leverage. Again, leverage is fine - if you're responsible and that is where people lose it. That's a personal choice - if you're comfortable with it then you have to also be comfortable with the consequences.

Celebrities and rock stars have always been wealthy. There has always been a class of people with a lot of money. It's just that recently people have decided to shun personal responsibility for instant gratification; which is their choice - so it's on them.

To the point of this topic - banks then just capitalize on their lack of self control. And why wouldn't they? People need to look in the mirror and realize that if they got real about their problems, they could probably attribute the majority of them to decisions they made, things they said, and actions they did or did not take.

People stop blaming others and take responsibility for themselves and these problems dramatically decrease.

[e30e]

seriously your going to try an use the railroad unions to paint a picture for lack of corruption ..................

I am all for you making a good living holding a book or not, but the rail roads not corrupt really ?????

The rail road unions now make business decisions for companies they work for now?

[Fusion]

No, people need to blame themselves.

Yes, but this is why we have terms like scam and fraud. Noone is required to be highly educated on a subject when making decisions, though it is better, you can't know everything. That's why we rely on (and pay for in the price)
the entity offering us something to honestly educate us at point of sale.
Ie. you want to buy a gold necklace, have an estimated idea of what they go for, but don't have the time to become a gold appraisal specialist. If I offer you a gold necklace, that I know isn't gold, knowing you're uneducated on the subject, I'm commiting fraud. I also know that if this comes to light, I will face consequences.

So no, not being educated isn't a crime, but people have become too faithful in what is told (taught) to them by the banks, manufacturers etc., that they don't feel the need for further education.
Government's role is to make sure they aren't producing fraudulant products and being honest in their sales practics. Govt. totally failed at this and then gave money to those who created the fraudulant scheme. That's even more fukd up than the fraud itself.

It's like getting the fake necklace back from you, not being charged, and getting my travel expenses reemboursed by the govt.

[uofom3]

Yes, but this is why we have terms like scam and fraud. Noone is required to be highly educated on a subject when making decisions, though it is better, you can't know everything. That's why we rely on (and pay for in the price)
the entity offering us something to honestly educate us at point of sale.
Ie. you want to buy a gold necklace, have an estimated idea of what they go for, but don't have the time to become a gold appraisal specialist. If I offer you a gold necklace, that I know isn't gold, knowing you're uneducated on the subject, I'm commiting fraud. I also know that if this comes to light, I will face consequences.

So no, not being educated isn't a crime, but people have become too faithful in what is told (taught) to them by the banks, manufacturers etc., that they don't feel the need for further education.
Government's role is to make sure they aren't producing fraudulant products and being honest in their sales practics. Govt. totally failed at this and then gave money to those who created the fraudulant scheme. That's even more fukd up than the fraud itself.

It's like getting the fake necklace back from you, not being charged, and getting my travel expenses reemboursed by the govt.

What fraud are you talking about?

What screwed the American consumer with the financial crisis more than anything? leverage. What wiped out people during the tech bubble? Leverage.

People in the tech bubbles leveraged their portfolios thinking "it's a new era - it will never go down!" Whoops.

People leveraged their homes and took out second and third mortgages (HELOCs) to buy everything from home renovations to boats to vacations thinking "my house will only appreciate in value" during the housing boom. Couple that with the fact that many people were getting into homes they could barely afford/couldn't afford and when the values plumeted with the economy and people lost jobs it's game over.

Banks did not force anyone to do this - it's a personal choice and a psychological flaw in investors - greed makes you do stupid things.

Granted, there are some greasy mortgage/stock brokers out there but the rules that were in place at the time were set up by the Government you speak of. Furthermore, businesses tend to only do things when there is a market for them. Banks realized home prices were rising quickly and people were taking out second mortgages and suddenly a demand was created - banks just saw this and capitalized on it. If people lived by the ruled that they did of believe in leverage and bought things they could afford or be responsible with their debt this would not have been the issue it was for many people.

And that's the fault of the individuals who signed the paperwork.

Finally, think of it this way. A drug dealer goes into business because he realizes that there are junkies (a market) for their product and the margin is good. So, they start slangin, people get addicted, and then they own them. Did the drug dealer make the junky get hood on heroin? No, the junky decided to do it. The dealer is just capitalizing on it.

Leverage/debt is a drug for the America family no less than the heroin is a drug for the junky. Many American people got hooked, hit a rough patch, and are still dealing with the hangover years later. But the banks, nor the dealer are to blame - they wouldn't be in business if there wasn't demand for their product.

[sumoashe]

I do agree with most of the above. But there was actual fraud done by the banks to cause these issues. Yes people did over leverage themselves but that is not what caused the issue. You have to look more into what actually happened. And most of it was caused by fraudulent banking practices. Whether in the form of robo-signed documents, manipulated interest rates, and banks simply not doing the du-diligence that is stated in law to push threw loans and mortgages they knew from the get go would fail. They new for a fact that this was going to happen but said nothing. Simply getting all the cash they could before it did blow up. The simple answer for the crash was greed. There is no question that these banks committed fraud, theres more than enough proof of this. What is the main issue is that these ceo's are not being sent to prison for their crimes. You cant have confidence in banks or the gov when rich people get away with crimes that you or I would end up in prison for a long ass time.