Terminalcoffee discussion

One of the big headlines today was on how the big banks are once again giving huge bonuses to their executives. This, after getting bailed out with taxpayer money, but not lending that money to get the economy going again.

I've never liked big banks, they tend to charge fees for things as simple as using your checking account. Lame! And now, I'm not alone in thinking community banks and credit unions are better choices...

Huffington Post targets big banks
A blog post urges clients of BofA and others to move deposits to community banks and credit unions to protest what the blog calls a return to risky practices by the big banks.


By E. Scott Reckard
January 1, 2010

There can be few institutions more despised as 2010 begins than big U.S. banks, but what can the average person do about it?

The answer, according to author and Huffington Post website co-founder Arianna Huffington: Withdraw your money.

In a widely read blog post this week, Huffington and former Senate Banking Committee chief economist Rob Johnson try to stir up a popular revolt by encouraging bank customers to yank their deposits from Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, Chase and Citibank and move them to community banks and credit unions.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi...

Thoughts? Outrage? And, where do you keep YOUR money?

I would never keep money under the mattress, that's the first place thieves would look. We put our money in Mason jars and bury 'em around the property. Like squirrels, only we draw a map. Squirrels don't draw maps because it is hard to hold a pencil without an opposable thumb plus where would a squirrel get a pencil anyway? But yeah. Like squirrels.

I have relatives on my wife's side involved in banks/big business. I can't say I understand the culture but I've come to appreciate how wide the cultural gap can be, from what I can tell, for example, between people who get bonuses and people who don't. These relatives will say things like "But if we don't give huge bonuses we won't draw top leadership." And I'll say "Ok, help me understand. Are these top leaders the same ones who lost the banks a gajillion dollars? And with the economy as it is can't we get them, with the mercenary market conditions, for cheaper? And shouldn't there be a moral imperative to take less money, I mean, maybe just a million or two less, don't want to kill ya, since so many people are struggling economically?" And they look at me like I'm nuts. They're probably on a message board somewhere right now writing about me the same way I'm writing about them. But there's a weird reptilian "get what you can and feel like you deserve it" way of thinking that I've glimpsed in my brief and not entirely clear windows in that world, I think; I wonder if that's my incomplete understanding of what the news means when they talk about "main street" vs. "wall street".

Bonuses are lovely, of course. But they really should be tied to real income. Like in a law firm, the bonus is literally tied to bills that WERE PAID. Like with actual money. NOT on bills that might be paid 30 years in the future. That's a big difference.

The banks were also apparently signing new contracts agreeing to bonuses ahead of time, regardless of performance.

I've got two accounts, one at a local bank and one at what was a local bank when it started but is now a giant bank. I want to fully switch, but I haven't. I should.

I like my credit union. They know me by name, and they keep good track of my money.

Okay, so they only have two branches, and they don't have ATMs, but that keeps me from using my debit card too much.

I like my Big Bank. I have a banker assigned to me who knows my name and where I live and where I lived before that. It's not really all that impersonal. My credit union people know me.