Banks

Will Banks Gain Will Workers Lose In Detroit Bankruptcy?

July 29, 2014 Diane Bukowski, www.voiceofdetroit.net Organize! Bankruptcy, Banks, Detroit, Inequality

Despite celebrations in the skyscrapers of Wall Street and the U.S. regarding Detroit bankruptcy active and retired employee votes announced July 21, allegedly in favor of huge pension and health care cuts, the sordid story is not over yet.Detroit remains far from a resolution of its state-imposed bankruptcy. Major banks and bondholders have rejected the plan, insisting that they be PAID IN FULL. According to figures released by Kurtzman Carson Consultants (KCC) of El Segundo, CA, Detroit police and fire workers and retirees voted to approve the 4th Amended Plan of Adjustment (POA) by 82 percent, general workers and retirees by 73 percent, and holders of Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) by 88 percent. (See chart above.) Meanwhile, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, claiming to represent the City of Detroit, filed a FIFTH AMENDED PLAN OF ADJUSTMENT July 25 subsequent to the vote, with no plans for a re-vote. (See link below story.)

Testimony By Kristen A. Hamel, Detroit Resident And Homeowner

July 18, 2014 Cancel Detroit's Debt To The Banks, www.detroitdebtmoratorium.org Educate! Banks, Debt, Detroit, Water

In recent weeks, Detroiters have been experiencing the inhuman austerity agenda of Gov. Rick Snyder and Emergency Dictator Kevyn Orr. Thousands of families have had their water cut off, and tens of thousands more face imminent shutoffs if a mere $150 is owed. The situation is so outrageous that a United Nations commission has condemned Detroit’s water shutoffs as a violation of international human rights. Freedom Friday marches starting at the water department building have been going on for weeks because no one should have to face forced deprivation of water, the most basic necessity of life and health. The Detroit Free Press reported Orr’s office calling the water shutoffs “a necessary part of Detroit’s restructuring.” The real agenda is to make the water department more attractive for privatization to union busters like Veolia Corp., known worldwide for its crimes against humanity, especially against the Palestinian people. While the poorest Detroiters have their water cut off for owing $150, JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Loop Financial and Morgan Stanley were paid $537 million in termination fees on interest rate swaps out of $1 billion in bonds issued from 2010 to 2013, bonds that were earmarked to fund repairs of the water infrastructure system, not line the pockets of these four banks.

Launch Of BRICS Bank, Alternative To IMF

July 13, 2014 Staff, www.globalfaultlines.org Create! Banks, Finance and the Economy

The BRICS Development Bank is expected to be officially launched on 15 July 2014, at the next BRICS summit in Brazil. The BRICS Development Bank is a proposed development bank run by the five BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) as a potential alternative to the US controlled institutions of the Bretton Woods system–World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The establishment of this development bank was first agreed by the leaders of the BRICS countries at the 5th BRICS summit held in Durban, South Africa, in July 2009. The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are expected to sign a treaty to launch the bank in the forthcoming BRICS summit in the northern Brazilian city of Fortaleza.

U.S. Council of Mayors Endorse Postal Banking

July 2, 2014 Matt Stannard, www.bankact.org Create! Banks, Finance, Mayors, Postal Banking, Postal Service

At its June 20-23, 2014 annual meeting, the US Conference of Mayors (USCM) adopted a pair of resolutions endorsing postal banking, co-signed by eight mayors from six states. Their goal is to bring $1 trillion of job-creating economic stimulus primarily to low-income neighborhoods, over the next decade, at zero cost to taxpayers. Post office-based financial services will generate sales tax revenues of as much as $3 billion a year, benefiting cities of the more than 200 mayors attending the USCM meeting, according to BankACT, a nonprofit advocacy group. In one resolution, the USCM calls upon the United States Postal Service (USPS) to offer basic financial services, such as small payday loans and reloadable money cards. Payday lenders and other financial predators target low-income working families and retirees at exorbitant cost, totaling nearly $100 billion a year, noted BankACT president Marc Armstrong. “By offering inexpensive financial services,” he said, “the USPS can help drive out financial predators, restoring billions of dollars to low-income neighborhoods at no cost to taxpayers.” The other USCM resolution urges the Postal Service to bring back once-popular postal savings accounts and use the deposits to help fund a national infrastructure bank. This specialized bank will reduce the high cost of financing public construction projects — a boon to local governments, Armstrong added, that can generate thousands of jobs.

Keystone XL Protesters Enter TD Bank

July 2, 2014 DC Indymedia, www.dcindymedia.org Resist! Banks, D.C., Protest, Tar Sands, Washington, Washington D.C.

On the 28th of June, protesters from Climate First! entered two branches of TD Bank demanding they sever their ties to TransCanada, builder of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. At the first branch, protesters were able to get to the counter and attempted without success to hold a discussion with the Saturday day manager. He probably had to write a detailed report on the protest. Afterwards activists rolled out yellow "caution" tape outside and gave out fliers to passers by Activists then went to a second branch of "Tar Dollar" Bank, the one at 15th and P sts where there was a concrete barrel lockdown in March 2013. They got into the ATM vestibule between the inner and outer doors (site of the 2013 lockdown) but a fast-moving bank employee managed to lock the inner doors. This was followed by a second round of yellow tape and fliers. This time around, a cop insisted on removing the yellow tape, claiming it could not be on either public or private property.

People’s Justice: Where Does Our Authority And Power Derive?

June 29, 2014 Micah White, www.occupywallst.org Strategize! Badiou, Banks, Justice, Occupy, Philosophy

Nothing is more offensive to our innate sense of justice than the continuing freedom of known financial criminals - financier fraudsters who used money as a weapon to commit well-documented crimes, stealing homes and jobs and life-savings from our parents, our friends, our comrades and neighbors. Blankfein et al are jetting around free as birds... and getting richer each fiscal quarter. Meanwhile we fear our piling up bills, pull our hair and wonder aloud, "Why haven't the guilty bankers been arrested? Why has not a single corporate megabank been put on trial? Why is Goldman Sachs still alive?" only to be reminded that our current system is unwilling, unable and unequipped to dispense justice on mega-banks. If the regulators and the police and the courts and the President won't bring justice, then we the people must, right? But how? By what right do "we, the people" have to take the law into our own hands? By what authority can we go out and handcuff the CEOs, put Chase on trial and pass a fair sentence? How do we step outside the established law and use vigilante justice while still being confident that what we are doing is righteous and just?

Argentina President Blasts US Bank ‘Extortion’

June 19, 2014 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org Educate! Argentina, Banks, Debt, Finance, Supreme Court

Argentina will not submit to Wall Street's "extortion" of their debt, said President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in a national address Tuesday night. De Kirchner's comments came after it was announced that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the South American country despite their argument that obliging predator banks would "encourage creditor free-for-alls" and "intensify and prolong the suffering of the poor in countries undergoing sovereign debt crisis." On Wednesday, following news that the Supreme Court would uphold two lower court rulings which demanded that Argentina pay $1.3 billion in debt holdouts to "vulture" funds before repaying their other restructured debts, Standard & Poor lowered the country’s rating to CCC-. According to the credit rating bureau and reported by Bloomberg News, this is the lowest rating for any nation that’s currently assessed by the company and is nine levels below "investment grade."

Newark Approves Eminent Domain To Fight Foreclosures

June 2, 2014 Mandelman Matters, www.mandelman.ml-implode.com Create! Banks, Foreclosures, Newark

Newark’s new mayor, Ras Baraka, introduced the resolution and the Newark Municipal Council, which passed it unanimously, according to a press release issued today by New Jersey Communities United (unitednj.org), which describes itself as a progressive grassroots community organization committed to building power for low and moderate income people, predominantly in Newark. According to the release… “Newark Council Unanimously Approves Resolution Supporting Local Principal Reduction Program for Families Facing Foreclosure Mayor-Elect Ras Baraka Leading Fight Against Foreclosure Crisis in Newark” The program would allow homeowners trapped in certain type of mortgage, known as a Private Label Security or PLS Loans, to voluntarily participate in a program where the City purchases these mortgages from investors and repackages them at terms homeowners can afford. For most of the estimated 1,200 homeowners with these types of loans in Newark, the policy would save them from losing their homes to foreclosure.

Don’t Take our Post Office Away: Saving the US Postal Service with Jim Sauber

August 28, 2013 Podcast Banks, Finance, Infrastructure, Jobs, Post Office, Privatization, Voting

Economist Jim Sauber who serves as Chief of Staff to the President of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC)

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