Spent a lot of time on the implode meter when the crisis hit- when Greenpoint appeared a Wholesal Alt A lender I worked for at one time showed up- owned by A big credit card company at the time- I knew things were very bad- they had good underwriters I knew who brokers hated because they kept at least to guidelines.

Gen, maybe ML put itself in a position of vulnerability with a TBTF to see if they would act this way and Wells has taken the bait. I don't know, I'm just speculating.

Hopefully ML DOES have some $$$ laying around in another bank that it can use for the next few months.

Part of the problem is you have to keep moving your money around as the smaller local banks keep getting gobbled up by the big boys. Before too long, there will only be 4-5 banks left - the chosen few - allowed to live because of .gov support.

I'm glad to see banks taking some precautions against fraud. Holding big$ checks for a few days while they verify is a good thing in my eyes.

A call to the issuing bank along with a call to the name on the check should be mandatory before any funds are released.

I have a debit card that I use as a credit card. The instant a charge is made, the bank emails my phone with the details. I've stopped fraud dead in it's track several times. All banks should be required to instantly contact the account owner when a transaction takes place.

...even though this would kill the fortune they make on all those chargebacks they push when (a month later) a card owner claims fraud on a 100 different charges they had no idea were occuring until the card was maxed out...

~~~~~~~~~~

"Credit Suisse predicts that oil could hit $50 per barrel"

Ok, time to go long oil?

A few months back, the consensus was $5 gas by summer...I bet on DUG...!

Our state DNR gives gas price forecasts (why, I don't know) but they are a fantastic contrarian indicator...I mean these people are wrong 90% of the time...great money maker for me...when they pop up on the evening news every so often, I bet against them right away.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-could-....

The tragedy of Norman Rousseau is one that plays out quite often. He is as much a victim of the Predatory State as your typical "busted for a bag of dope and had your whole life ruined for it" victim, or the "had your children taken by CPS for no reason" victim. I understand the mentality that drives this. After all, it does not make me feel good knowing there are all these filthy scum who make their living off of preying on people. That's what literally half of the government is built upon. So many people quite literally feeding off of other people. It's not anything like what the founding fathers intended. And of course corporations have the potential to be even worse than governments.

Right now, given our level of civilization, most people who can no longer stand the injustices of life in today's world simply decide to opt out of it without "adding" to the already considerable injustice. That is a choice they make. They could very easily choose to respond in kind, to be driven by vengeance and malice... to put a name and a face on this faceless monolithic force of evil.

What motivates the predator to stop if the victims simply kill themselves? In a world where even the victim's own closest family does nothing to exact justice? When the predator is so elusive, abstract, and ambiguous that there is no actual person who can be held to account? When the laws have been so corrupted that obvious crimes are not actually crimes? Is it any more unjust or immoral if the victims, rather than suiciding, become predators themselves? One day, people like Rousseau are going to make the choice to become the predator rather than ending their life as an innocent victim. Any thoughts of justice will get lost in the process. This will happen in a very nonlinear fashion.

Just ask yourself this question: What will you do when it is your turn to be robbed of your own liberty, and your own countrymen couldnt care less because Dancing with the Fricking Stars and Facebooking about Dancing with the Fricking Stars is all that matters to anyone anymore?

I don't understand why they would be doing business with Wells Fraudgo either. Maybe its some sort of Stockholm syndrome. I had WFB for 25 years and FINALLY got my act together and moved to a healthy solvent community bank. I have had absolutely no problems with account manipulation games and bogus fees. I am so much happier with the community bank, that I cannot believe I put up with the anti-consumer abuse of Wells Fraudgo for 25 years. Must have had rocks in my head.

Or maybe people think it is "convenient" to have a TBTF bank because they are on every corner or if you travel a lot internationally. But is there anything convenient about giving implicit support to drug-money laundering, corporate welfare with taxpayer funds, fraudclosuregate, the MERS scheme, account manipulation schemes, etc., etc.?

You all know what goes on with the Too Fraudulant To Fail. Suck it up, put up with the "inconvenience" of switching banks - its only about a month that is "inconvenient," then all the pain of the past abuse goes away and you are supporting a local community healthy bank and not some zombie insolvent bankster.

Why?

My local credit union has NATIONAL ATM and BRANCH access. It's one of thousands that do.

What excuse is next?

If ML was running laundering drug money they would have been fine.

National branch access, eh? That would solve most of my concerns. If you don't mind me asking, who do you bank with?

Hard not to be completely disgusted with the complacent sheep of this nation that willingly lay down to be raped, sheared, and worse but when informed people give banker scum business they can easily avoid... ??? Truely ****ed

Same here, Gen.

We can get money anywhere on Earth and NOT pay an extra ATM fee, through our CU.

No excuses.

Ram, Eglin Federal Credit Union. A huge number of credit unions have partnered to allow the use of nearly all credit union branches nationally. ATM access has been possible on-network for a long time as well.

Look into what is called "CUSC"; any credit union with the swirl symbol on the door can be accessed by any member of any credit union that is part of the federation.

Eglin Federal wrote..

With shared branching, credit unions from all over the country share facilities to give members thousands of convenient locations to perform transactions just as if they were in their home credit union. Whether you are at work, home, or your favorite travel destination, your credit union is always nearby.

Anywhere you see the swirl you can conduct a range of transactions, such as:
Deposits
Withdrawals
Loan Payments
Make transfers between accounts
And more!
To take advantage of this service, when you enter a shared branch you only need to bring:
Your home credit union's name
Your account number
Valid government-issued photo identification, i.e., State Driver’s license, US Passport
Go to Shared Branching website

Okay, I feel like an idiot. I had no idea about the shared branching arrangement. Thanks for giving me the kick to finally take action Karl. Anybody know any good NYC-area credit unions to join offhand? If not, I can investigate.

Quote:

So let me see if I get this right.

ML-Implode, which is one of the sites around the net that has chronicled the various screwball acts of lenders and the real estate business in general over the last many years was banking with one of the firms that not only was involved in making many of these loans itself, but which absorbed Wachovia -- a firm that was selling CDS on its own deals -- as well?

This is some sort of a joke, right?

Kind of reminds me of the likes of Nigel Farage. Different? Is it really? Only in the sense that it's even worse in his case. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/....

Now, if he were even the least bit constructive . . .

. . . but all he does is bite the hand that feeds him (and how it feeds him!)

Sorry about that slightly OT commentary, but since the corollary was so strong . . . it "is some sort of a joke, right?"

If you are still banking with Wells Fargo, have a gander at this website. If you have high blood pressure, take your medicine before reading.

http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com....

The banks just might be Freddy Kruger. Simon Hobbs was using the term beaten down when describing banks in Europe. Then he showed the bounce in bank stocks in Greece and other under water countries.

I am about to blow a fuse listening to this. Are there any of these Greek bans not under water? The group has to have a negative net worth of $100 billion or more in a country that has no means to bail out. How are they worth anything?

Are we looking at a group that is above ordinary law? Unicredit is the successor of Creditanstalt (sp?). What the hell is a bank that supposedly went broke in 1931 and caused the depression to get much worse still around? We are looking at firms that mimic horror flicks. Frankenstein monsters, Dracula, Freddy Kruger, Terminator, you name it.

There are all these studies on the Great Depression. There is all this nonsense economics. You can go on and on, but there is a short answer to what caused the Great Depression and the current economic problems THE BANKS CAUSED BOTH OF THEM. THOSE THAT ARE EDUCATED, READ THIS ONE AGAIN. THE BANKS CAUSED BOTH OF THEM. They also caused the boom that preceded, which is why they keep getting blown by the politicians, thus reinflated.

I hear a lot of Wells getting a clean bill of health. I think a bank that sat out in California, making HELOC loans to anyone with a pulse and originating massive mortgage paper has to be in the dumps. Then again, I am reading stories they have reinflated the California market, so maybe **** turned to gold again.

I believe Americans would be better off losing much of their money in these institutions through liquidation than to continue to allow them to steal it in various bailouts and inflations. There shouldn't be anything left of these institutions other than nameplates in antique stores 30 years from now. You could buy one and put it on your **** house at the farm.

I walked out of a local merchant over their BofA STICKER on their credit card machine a few months back. The proprietor was there and I asked why they were doing business with those crooks. The answer was "convenience."

Well, there's a local bank here in town that's literally across the street from that merchant and is an ACTUAL LOCAL BANK -- and it does merchant accounts and business banking. I told them that since I came into their store SPECIFICALLY to keep my money in the local economy as THEY decided to send it to a bunch of crooks that robbed America I'd be happy to come back and buy from them as soon as they stopped enabling all that is wrong in this country and its financial system, and that one place they could do that was the bank LITERALLY ACROSS THE STREET from their location, which had to be AT LEAST as "convenient" as BofA.

The owner was slack-jawed as I left over $100 worth of product on the counter and walked out.

Karl,
YOU HAVE HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD!

I have received umpteen emails about how *horrible* the treatment this blogger is receiving from Wells Fargo. I have hit reply and said, "If this blogger was stupid and lazy enough to continuing banking with the criminals, he deserves what he gets."

Jesus, how ****ing stupid.

Does anybody know how to find a CU in a local area? I have my money in a regional bank that is supposed to be ok (got out of BOA a long time ago), but I want to get some in a CU somewhere here in my area and I want to open up some savings accounts for my kids. Can't find the Karl Denninger CU. The only info. I have so far is these websites for research.

http://www.ncua.gov/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.depositaccounts.com/banks/rev....

http://www.bauerfinancial.com/home.html

http://www.weissratings.com/ This one is free but you have to sign up.

Any other ideas on what to do?

I'm all for chastising people who make 'deals with the devil', but this is perfectly in line with something that has been troubling me for some time...

I long ago (circa 2000) moved my personal funds to a credit union, but I have not found a good solution for my business. When I approached my credit union about a business account they said they don't do that. They were happy to allow me to cash checks if I provided a DBA document from the city, etc, but that was about the extent of it.

Does anyone have any banking recommendations for a C/S-corp?

And on a different note: Aren't we pretty much in tickerconn 1 territory at this point? It sure feels like it...

Wow. That Frost National Bank is fer shizzle. Now THAT'S a bank. No wonder Whalen likes them.

For those seeking to find a CU: http://www.ncua.gov/NCUAMapping/Pages/NC....

You can also research your prospective CU's balance sheet.

We use a CU here in Michigan that has a relatively sound balance sheet. Remember, as a CU member, you are also a SHAREHOLDER, and therefore, entitled to see the full balance sheet whenever you ask.

I did have to go out of Michigan to find a sound traditional bank. Although since finding Cumberland County Bank (TN), I have found that Citizens Bank (NOT the national bank with the same name) here in Michigan also has a sound balance sheet.

You can research banks here: http://www.bankrate.com/rates/safe-sound....

You're right. No excuse. Time to move banks...

WTF! I'm so sick of the ****ing excuses people have for continuing to do business with banks they know are committing fraud. **** you people! You're the reason nothing ever changes. When we're all living in cardboard boxes I hope someone takes your TBTF bank card and shoves it up your ass!

People are so damn lazy they can't even take the time to change banks in order to promote change. I hope they lose every ****ing penny!

I have lost all faith in my fellow citizens. Good luck to those who actually practice what they preach and ALL the rest can kiss my ass! I’m tired of this **** and there’s no end in sight.

Prepare for total collapse!

I started off with an account at Southtrust at age 14. Southtrust got eaten by Wachovia. Then Wachovia got eaten by Wells Fargo. I opened up an account with a local bank about 8 months ago and slowly moved my direct deposits over and just chipped away at my Wells Fargo account until it was at $20, then I went in and closed it. They freaked out when I came in to close a 21 year old account, tried numerous times to give me deals to stay and one guy was alarmed like "oh God not another closed account". A couple weeks after closing it all down I got a bill for $25 from Wells Fargo, even though they said I was free and clear when I walked out the door. Turns out when Douche Fargo took over Wachovia, they rolled my $200 overdraft protection into a "personal line of credit" instead of continuing it as a simple overdraft. Of course that personal line of credit has a $25 dollar annual maintenance fee and the overdraft doesn't. Nickel and diming asses, can't wait til they are out of business.

Ducarius -

From their POV, you specifically "authorized" that conversion by not closing the account when they sent you the small print notification about account term changes following the takeover.

IANAL, but I can't see how that is legally binding. Unfortunately, they've got your money and it would cost you a small fortune to try to get it back.