Banking

Student Debt Slavery II: Level The Playing Field

January 7, 2018 Ellen Brown, Web of Debt Blog Educate! Banking, Public Banks, Student Debt

The lending business is heavily stacked against student borrowers. Bigger players can borrow for almost nothing, and if their investments don’t work out, they can put their corporate shells through bankruptcy and walk away. Not so with students. Their loan rates are high and if they cannot pay, their debts are not normally dischargeable in bankruptcy. Rather, the debts compound and can dog them for life, compromising not only their own futures but the economy itself. “Students should not be asked to pay more on their debt than they can afford,” said Donald Trump on the presidential campaign trail in October 2016. “And the debt should not be an albatross around their necks for the rest of their lives.”

Hawaii Becomes First U.S. State To Go Cashless For Marijuana Sales

September 17, 2017 Aaron Kesel, www.activistpost.com Create! Banking, Hawaii, Marjuana

By Aaron Kesel for Activist Post. Hawaiian state officials announced Tuesday that Hawaii will be the first state to require the sale of marijuana to be cashless, paid with a special debit card payment system next month. “Oct. 1 is our target date to try to go cashless as much as we can,” Iris Ikeda the state’s financial institutions commissioner, told reporters at a news conference. While marijuana is legal for medical use in Hawaii, the feds still consider it a Schedule I drug. This status has brought problems for many banks and credit unions, which is the reason why cannabis dispensaries have been cash-only. Instead of cash, customers will have to download and install CanPay, a mobile app that processes payment for medicinal marijuana shops using a Colorado-based credit Union, Safe Harbor Private Banking. The app is already an option for marijuana transactions in six states, including California and Colorado. Now a battle begins with credit card processing companies like Visa and Mastercard who say they won’t allow their cards to be used to buy cannabis or marijuana-related products.

Ethical, Cooperative Banking That Sustains Community

December 15, 2016 Staff, www.thenextsystem.org Create! Banking, Cooperatives

By Staff of The Next System Project - Adam Simpson: Goran, thank you for joining us today. You are the cooperative manager of the Cooperative for Ethical Financing in Croatia. Can you tell us about the process of where this idea came from and how the Cooperative was started? Goran Jeras: If you look at the origins of the idea, it has been about six years since this initiative started emerging. As all other ideas, it started as a talk over a beer. At that time, I was working in the Netherlands as a consultant, consulting with big international financial institutions, so big international banks, insurance companies, etc.

Central Bank Digital Currencies: A Revolution In Banking?

September 20, 2016 Ellen Brown, www.counterpunch.org Create! Banking, Currency, Digital, Money

By Ellen Brown for Counter Punch - Several central banks, including the Bank of England, the People’s Bank of China, the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve, are exploring the concept of issuing their own digital currencies, using the blockchain technology developed for Bitcoin. Skeptical commentators suspect that their primary goal is to eliminate cash, setting us up for negative interest rates (we pay the bank to hold our deposits rather than the reverse). But Ben Broadbent, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, puts a more positive spin on it.

David Graeber: The Power Of Finance, History Of Inequality & Legacy Of OWS

September 18, 2016 David Graeber, www.roarmag.org Educate! Banking, Debt, Finance, Occupy

By David Graeber for ROAR Magazine. So hundreds of thousands suddenly showed up. I mean, we had what — like 800 occupations at peak? Then of course came the evictions and they realize, “oh, I guess we couldn’t after all.” And after that the repression became extremely brutal and the media coverage also shifted to be just completely one-sided. But all that was really just back to normal. So the question is, why was there any sympathetic media coverage at all in those first few months? Why was there this little bubble of democracy? I think in retrospect it’s easy to see: there was a fraction of the establishment, basically the left of the Democratic Party, that thought that we were going to become their version of the Tea Party. That is, a grassroots movement that would make a lot of anti-establishment noises but ultimately play the game of raising money, running candidates again. They tried to infiltrate the media teams, set up tacit leadership structures… But eventually they figured out we were really serious. If our main complaint was that the US political system had turned into a system of legalized bribery, no, we weren’t going to join the system and try to see if we could raise enough bribes ourselves to run candidates and change that from within. Suddenly the curtain went down.

Just Like Healthcare Needs A Public Option, So Does Banking

August 26, 2016 Zach Cartwright, www.publicbankinginstitute.org Create! Banking, Public Opinion

By Zach Cartwright for Public Banking Institute - The recent kerfuffle over private health insurance companies refusing to accommodate those with plans acquired through the Affordable Care Act exchanges has exposed a glaring issue -- why don't we have a public option to compete with private health insurance profiteers? The same could be said for banking, as well. When health insurance giant Aetna pulled out of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges, ACA opponents calling for its repeal celebrated the measure as proof that President Barack Obama's signature health care legislation was too cumbersome and too expensive for insurers to accommodate.

Ireland Jails Three Top Bankers Over 2008 Meltdown

July 31, 2016 Conor Humphries and Mark Heinrich, www.reuters.com Create! 2008 crash, Accountability, Banking, Criminal Justice, Ireland

By Conor Humphries and Mark Heinrich for Reuters. Three senior Irish bankers were jailed on Friday for up to three-and-a-half years for conspiring to defraud investors in the most prominent prosecution arising from the 2008 banking crisis that crippled the country's economy. The trio will be among the first senior bankers globally to be jailed for their role in the collapse of a bank during the crisis. The lack of convictions until now has angered Irish taxpayers, who had to stump up 64 billion euros - almost 40 percent of annual economic output - after a property collapse forced the biggest state bank rescue in the euro zone. The crash thrust Ireland into a three-year sovereign bailout in 2010 and the finance ministry said last month that it could take another 15 years to recover the funds pumped into the banks still operating.

Jail The Bankers And Take Back Control Over Money

February 8, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Create! Banking, Banking and Finance, Big Banks, Modern Money Theory

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. Bill Black of the newly formed Bank Whistleblowers United is interviewed about the plan they have put forward to instill the rule of law on Wall Street and end fraud with the hope of mitigating the effects of the next financial crisis. The plan they put forward could be taken by a president within 60 days without congressional action. It would instill the rule of law on Wall Street and end fraud with the hope of mitigating the effects of the next financial crisis. We also spoke with Randall Wray, an expert in financial instability and macroeconomics, about alternatives to the current financial system that would bring greater stability. His focus is on Modern Money Theory which believes government spending on essentials like infrastructure, transition to clean energy, tuition-free college education and repaying the debts of students, among other things. It believes in shrinking the role of the Federal Reserve...

TPP & SOTU: The Facts vs. Obama

January 12, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.FlushTheTPP.org Educate! Banking, China, Climate Change, Democracy, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Food Safety, Globalization, Human Rights, Internet Freedom, NAFTA, TPP, Trade Deficit, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Flush The TPP. President Obama will make his push for the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) a major part of the State of the Union as this is a major goal of his final year in office. This is an opportunity for a widespread discussion of the TPP and what impacts it will have on the economy, workers, the environment and more. Just yesterday the World Bank published a comprehensive analysis of the TPP and concluded that by 2030 the TPP will have a miniscule 0.4% impact on US trade. The economic impact for the United States is minimal but the impact on workers, the environment, food safety, traditional energy and the overall balance between corporate power and government is dramatic. The president’s claims about the TPP should be examined closely and measured against the facts of what the TPP will actually do and the impact similar trade agreements have had. We know from past comments by the president and the US Trade Representative that their sales pitch for the TPP is not always consistent with the facts.

IMF’s Rogues Gallery. Crooks, Rapists And Swindlers

January 5, 2016 Staff, www.petras.lahaine.org Educate! Bankers, Banking, Finance and the Economy, IMF

By Staff of James Petras Website - The IMF is the leading international monetary agency whose public purpose is to maintain the stability of the global financial system through loans linked to proposals designed to enhance economic recovery and growth. In fact, the IMF has been under the control of the US and Western European states and its policies have been designed to further the expansion, domination and profits of their leading multi-national corporations and financial institutions.

Reinventing Banking: From Russia To Iceland To Ecuador

December 14, 2015 Ellen Brown, www.maxkeiser.com Create! Banking, Development, Money

By Ellen Brown for Max Keiser - Global developments in finance and geopolitics are prompting a rethinking of the structure of banking and of the nature of money itself. Among other interesting news items: In Russia, vulnerability to Western sanctions has led to proposals for a banking system that is not only independent of the West but is based on different design principles. In Iceland, the booms and busts culminating in the banking crisis of 2008-09 have prompted lawmakers to consider a plan to remove the power to create money from private banks...

HSBC Whistleblower Sentenced To 5 Years In Prison

November 29, 2015 Andrew Emett, www.nationofchange.org Resist! Banking, Finance and the Economy, Whistleblowers

By Andrew Emett for Nation of Change. A former HSBC employee was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for aggravated industrial espionage. Although HSBC claims the whistleblower initially stole the information for his own personal financial gain, his revelations exposed international fraud, tax evasion, and money-laundering scams involving thousands of corrupt businessmen and arms dealers. While developing a client management database for HSBC’s Swiss private bank in 2004, Hervé Falciani was handed access to extremely sensitive and incriminating data. According to the private bank accounts, HSBC was allowing criminal organizations to launder their blood money while turning a blind eye to affluent clients committing tax evasion. Instead of ignoring the data, Falciani brought his laptop into work and downloaded the details of approximately 130,000 HSBC accounts. On December 11, 2014, the Swiss government indicted Falciani for violating the country’s bank secrecy laws and committing industrial espionage. Instead of extraditing Falciani or filing charges against him, the French government opened a criminal investigation into HSBC. Refusing to appear in Swiss court, Falciani dismissed the legal proceedings against him as a “parody of justice.” Convicted in absentia, Falciani was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for committing the largest leak in banking history.

Ed Snowden Of Banking Refuses To Attend Swiss Trial

November 1, 2015 Staff, www.afp.com Resist! Banking, Switzerland

By Staff for AFP - Hervé Falciani, a 43-year-old French-Italian national, leaked a cache of documents allegedly indicating that HSB C's Geneva private banking arm helped more than 120,000 clients to hide €180.6 billion ($205.4 billion) from tax authorities. While he is widely viewed as a whistleblower and hailed as a hero in countries where his leaked information is helping to net tax cheats, the Swiss authorities remain intent on prosecuting him. "I am not going," Falciani told reporters in Divonne-les-Bains, France, just a stone's throw from the border with Switzerland where he is facing charges of data theft, industrial espionage, and violating the country's long-cherished banking secrecy laws. "In Switzerland, the conditions for a fair and balanced trial are not there, in my opinion," he said. Falciani failed to show for his trial in the southern Swiss city of Bellinzona earlier this month, and his case was adjourned until November 2nd. As a French national living in France, he cannot be extradited to Switzerland.

Killing Off Community Banks: Consequence Of Dodd-Frank?

October 24, 2015 Ellen Brown, www.truthdig.com Educate! Banking

By Ellen Brown for Truth Dig - At over 2,300 pages, the Dodd Frank Act is the longest and most complicated bill ever passed by the US legislature. It was supposed to end “too big to fail” and “bailouts,” and to “promote financial stability.” But Dodd-Frank’s “orderly liquidation authority” has replaced bailouts with bail-ins, meaning that in the event of insolvency, big banks are to recapitalize themselves with the savings of their creditors and depositors. The banks deemed too big are more than 30% bigger than before the Act was passed in 2010, and 80% bigger than before the banking crisis of 2008. The six largest US financial institutions now have assets of some $10 trillion, amounting to almost 60% of GDP; and they control nearly 50% of all bank deposits.

Tens Of Thousands Protest For 8th Day Over Bank Corruption

September 14, 2015 Brianna Lee, www.ibtimes.com Resist! Banking, Europe, Moldova

By Brianna Lee in International Business Times - An estimated 20,000 protesters gathered in Moldova’s capital of Chisinau for the eighth consecutive day Sunday to rally for an investigation into a fraud scheme that wiped $1.5 billion from three national banks. Protesters say the scandal, which amounted to around one-eighth of the country’s gross domestic product, has damaged living standards. Hundreds of demonstrators have remained camped out in Chisinau’s central plaza since the protests organized by civic group Dignity and Truth began on Sept. 6. Many say they will stay until their demands are met. In addition to a bank probe, protesters are calling for the resignation of President Nicolae Timofti and early parliamentary elections in March as anger over endemic corruption in the impoverished former Soviet country hits its boiling point.

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