I suppose it would be a vote of -NO CONFIDENCE- were the TBTF banks to find themselves with no depositors, or even a shrinking depositor base.

But will anyone take notice?

Banks don't really depend on depositors for cash anymore. Most of the -CASH- the banks have now -comes from the federal government.

So, if you want to get their attention, either the government or the banks, perhaps everyone ought to just stop making their mortgages payments to these banks too. Jingle mail is making a lot sense right now.

THEORETICALLY, you should be able to buy a nice house -pretty cheap- given the economic times.

At least you should be able to buy a nice house pretty cheap right now, that is -if the Fed hadn't spent over a trillion dollars slopping up the housing foreclosures so you cannot buy a nice house -pretty cheap right now.

Explain to me again, how this works to MY advantage?

Too Big To Fail is Too Big To Exist! Since Washington isn't going to do anything to shrink them down, I guess it's up to We the People. Just gotta watch out for the blowback....

I've been a local credit union member for years, there ain't no going back!

Two thumbs up. (Both right and left hands.)

This is a ridiculous post. Arianna Huffington is also part of this circus (the media branch). Too bad if you believe that by moving your finances to local banks or credit unions people are going to retake some sort of control. Put in this way, Big Banks are ahead of the game and shouldn't be a surprise to learn that Huffington is paid by these giant corporations to run such campaign.

By posting this nonsense, your credibility is becoming questionable Mr. Washington.

I moved my accounts out of Banksters of America anyway. 10 bucks a month service charge to "manage" an electronic account. Nothing happens in it, so I'm paying for what, their electricity to monitor it?

Say they have 2 million private accounts like mine, and they charge us all ten bucks a month. That is a substantial amount of nearly free revenue minus minor expenses.

I agree we are peons and it will not make a lot of difference, but I'll keep my ten bucks in the FREE credit union account. Gotta start somewhere.

Ellen Brown had some thoughts on this topic.

Escape From Pottersville: The North Dakota Model For Capitalizing Community Banks
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/pottersville.php

Quote:

Pulling our money out of Wall Street and putting it into our local community banks is an idea with definite popular appeal. Unfortunately, however, this move alone won't be sufficient to strengthen the small banks. Community banks lack capital – money that belongs to the bank -- and the deposits of customers don’t count as capital. Rather, they represent liabilities of the bank, since the money has to be available for the depositors on demand. Bank “capital” is the money paid in by investors plus accumulated retained earnings. It is the net worth of the bank, or assets minus liabilities. Lending ability is limited by a bank’s assets, not its deposits; and today, investors willing to build up the asset base of small community banks are scarce, due to the banks’ increasing propensity to go bankrupt.

The above poster is incorrect: banks LEND OUT deposits. The maximum loans outstanding is determined by their captial requirements (reserves) and it is a multiple. A bank with no deposits is dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking

This has to become an election issue in 2010 in order to be effective. The policy of the the federal government is that the big banks cannot fail, regardless of cost to the taxpayer. Congress needs to see the mass migration of retail deposits as a harbinger of a mass migration of votes -- away from the incumbents.

In response to the previous comments at 4:00pm and 9;05pm:

4:00PM): Without evidence, you're not making a strong case either way. I agree most major media outlets cannot be trusted with the information they provide, but this movement away from the big anks started long before Arianna jumped on and pushed it as a Huffington idea.

9:05PM): I don't have much confidence in Ellen Brown's understanding of the system, having looked a bit more into who she is. I agree with her somewhat on the central and state-run banks as a means to circumvent the Federal Reserve; I would prefer an expansion of treasury powers instead, but I'm also realistic.

Banks are only required to have a certain percentage of all deposits (called reserves) at any given time, and minimum reserves are usually set by states and federal government. It is through this collection of deposits which enables banks to lend large sums of money out. Essentially, interest earned on loans is what pays the bills and the salaries.

The problem is the Too Big To Fail banks merged investment banking with depository functions. This was prevented under the Glass-Steagall act, which was repealled by Clinton and the Republican Congress in 1999. This merger lead to a very, very risky business model that (not surprisingly if you looked at 1929) collapsed on itself hard when the bubbles of 2001 and 2007 burst. TBTF banks were playing slots in Vegas with your savings account, because they were only required to keep a small percentage of reserves.

Don't forget to cancel you big bank credit cards when you move your money. It's is big bucks for the big banks 50 billion in late fees and charges alone. Plus when I switched the montly $25 interest on monthly transaction went to 0. We don't need them , ditch them now.

I went one step further. I pulled all my money out of the bank in cash. To make 1% on a money market while the banks make 12-30% is criminal. There used to be usury laws againt that. That was before the banks bought our congress and president. I don't want to see them hurt. I want to see them croak.

And y'all just thought of this NOW??? When i see a campaign endorsed by MSM whores like TIME, Reuters, HuffPo etc who are the perps' best clients? Well it makes me wonder what the too big to fail crowd has up their sleeves next (besides the very same endorsers of the 'campaign').

How much did HuffPo just land from one of these 'alternative' funders? 25 million, last I read.

If a bank( or any other industry) is "Too Big To Fail" then doesn't that mean the rest of us must be "too small to succeed"?


RTQ

Jct: What a joke. Arianna Huffington and Rob Johnson's campaign for people to move their money from the giant "too big to fail" banks to local community banks and credit unions is much like switching drivers when the machine breaks down. They expect something different from the same lousy design, just smaller?

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see,” Theodore Roethke.


CAPITALISM IS A SYSTEM THROUGH WHICH WEALTH IS TRANSFERED (STOLEN) FROM THOSE WHO CREATE IT TO THOSE WHO ARE ALREADY WEALTHY, WHILE THOSE WHO CREATE IT ARE KEPT UNAWARE OF THE THEFT.

"All wealth is created by work." - Adam Smith.

Tom Dennen, author of 'Grand Theft, Planet or Heidi's Free Bar & Grill'.

"Apocalypse" is a Greek word meaning "the lifting of the veil between you and God," (or Knowledge of Reality).

The Internet is the vehicle through which the Apocalypse is now leaking knowledge, and the leaks are hopefully out of control

It's becoming clear to many more people every day how the 'matrix' - the system - works, and how the Internet is the leaky bucket out of which the truth is flying.

Since the early goldsmiths discovered fractional banking, made money out of thin air and introduced predatory lending, they have been thrown out of every courntry they set up in, after which those countries returned to resource-based economies and went through several decades of economic recovery.

Until the sixteenth century, in Holland.

Then and there, when the goldsmiths were discovered plying their usurious debt / lending system, the already wealthy government and merchant classes simply joined them in the first full "collusion among corporatocracy, authoritarian government, and controlled media and education." (Global Research).

Add bankers to that conspiracy and you have the recipe for the last three hundred years of fascist fiscal theft through market manipulation by 'The Establishment', The 'Elite', the 'Illuminati' or the "Rothschild Family', take your pick, but once government was in on the scam, the wealth we created by work was harvested every fifty years or so.

Holland was, I believe, the site of the first experiment in money market manipulation by this collusion of classes.

'Tulip Mania' is regarded as seriously silly season stuff among some debunkers, but which today is also a generic for an 'out-of-control' Bull Market.

The thing is, it was for keeps.

'Tulip Mania' is a controlled boom situation; controlled by those who run the Great Wealth Shift every generation, starting with the South Sea Bubble crash in 1720.

This set of conclusions is largely gathered from a monetary history according to James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg: Every fifty years or so since the South Sea Crash, financial markets have peaked - and exactly nine years later, crashed - followed by a depression during which, bracketed by expensive wars, vast amounts of properties have been foreclosed and the 'masters' transfered huge amounts of the wealth accumulated by the working class - "all wealth is created by work" (Adam Smith) - who were left to starve.

Just like today.

THE SHIFT IN WORLD ECONOMIC PREDOMINANCE

"All long-term credit cycles end with asset crashes in the markets of the leading economy. Measuring from crash to crash the dates of the modern credit cycles are as follows:"(starting with the South Sea Bubble)

Span Duration

1720 - 1772 52 years
1772 - 1825 53 years
1825 - 1873 48 years
1873 - 1929 56 years
1929 - 1990 61 years

"The crashes and resulting depressions appear to be less intense and traumatic when the end of the cycle does not coincide with a shift in world economic predominance." - The Great Reckoning, James Dale Davidson & William Rees-Mogg, 1993.

Recent benchmarksj are Common Cause:

1907 Financial Panic
1913 The privately-owned American Federal Reserve (FED) System Created
1929 The Great Depression - Nice work, FED
1933 Theodore Roosevelt's Executive Order 6102 outlaws owning gold
1934 Gold Reserve Act freezes gold at $35 per ounce
1971 United States abandons gold standard
1974 U.S. citizens allowed to own gold
2009 Gold exceeds $1100 per ounce

a fad...I will keep my money with Chase..yes they suck and yes they are awful..but they are solid.

For what its worth, we also think this is a good idea.

www.dinksfinance.com

Thanks

James

I moved my 'pitence' to a community bank, closed my AmEx, Chase and key bank accounts. I told my son to do the same and advise anyone who will listen to follow suit. I have little faith it will change the theives into anything honest but at least they wont have my 2cents in THEIR vault anymore.

really George??...Chase is SOLID?!? They are a SOLID organization of theives, but hey not all of us are blessed with common sense.

Yeah, what Tom Dennen said!!!

This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing websites that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free.


global