Just this week, Rebuild the Dream (an organization that I helped to found) launched a Move Your Money website, where people are pledging to close their accounts at Wall Street banks in protest of their outrageous behavior before, during, and after our nation's financial crash. I am stunned to report that as of this morning at 9am Pacific, people have pledged to close 69,127 accounts at big banks, and the number keeps climbing.
Tomorrow is a big day. Saturday, November 5 is a huge "Move Your Money" day. Tens of thousands of people all over the country will leave the big banks and move their money to community banks and credit unions -- where people remember things like customer service and loyalty.
For the past decade, our economy has been hijacked by Wall Street banks. Banks that knowingly made bad loans to homeowners and sold them as "can't miss" investments. Banks that took our tax money to bail themselves out, while handing out billions in bonuses to their executives. Banks that have so far escaped accountability for their role in our nation's economic crash.
If you use a big bank, like so many of us, now's the time to make a change.
We need to stop feeding what we are fighting. Let's fund banks that will fund our American dreams, not our American nightmares.
Within our own wallets, we have the power to hold Wall Street banks accountable. We can move our money to community banks and credit unions, institutions that are responsive and accountable. to the communities we live in. Community banks know that they depend on the well-being of local residents and the local economy. Credit unions know that they thrive only if their account holders thrive. In other words, they put people before profit. Wall Street banks have it backward, sacrificing people's life savings and homes just so they can prop up their stock price.
We already know that the big banks are paying attention. Just this week, after public outcry over proposed monthly debit card fees, the big banks backed off. This is good news. Now let's make sure they know they need to do a lot more than just give us back our $5.
Already, tens of thousands have pledged to move their money this weekend. I'm proud to count myself among that number -- I'm in the process of moving our family's money out of a zombie mega-bank and into a community bank. The more people that join in the exodus from Wall Street banks, the louder the message that the banks will pay for the damage they've caused to our economy.
Does it sound hard to switch banks? It's true, it's not always simple. Sometimes, the hardest part is getting started. Here are some resources to make it easier.
- To find a local bank to switch to, you can search for a community bank or credit union in your area here.
- Read a complete guide to closing your account from our friends at the New Bottom Line.
- When you decide to Move Your Money, don't forget to tell the world. Stand up and be counted!
- And if you're inspired and want to do more, the New Bottom Line is organizing people nationwide to start campaigns to get institutions like churches, municipal governments, and universities to move their money out of the big Wall Street banks. You can find out more and get involved locally here.
Follow Van Jones on Twitter: www.twitter.com/VanJones68
tm
Do you think you can come up with something like that ? We could have a nation wide Tax protest for as long as it takes for them to end the wars,and fix the economy.They get paid when they do their fricken JOB
One note, many thousands more than you note here are moving their money.
We owe a lot of this to the bad behavior recently played out in the news by BOA and other bankers with loud, rude mouths. Watching a Bank Manager literally hold 2 women hostage, locking them inside her bank until the police could arrive to escort them out of the bank just because they wanted to publicly close their accounts, well let's just say that was a pretty incredible thing for her to do. Even if her leadership instructed her to do so, it was nuts, at best. It says a lot about what Bank Owners think of a citizen's ownership of their own money. Clearly they don't believe the citizen has any rights at all, once the money is inside their bank.
Americans have had enough. We lost a lot of rights and privacy, as a result of GWB's and KRove's "governing" of our nation, but some things can be done to reclaim some of our rights.
I hope people read Bill Moyer's key note speech, recently read at the PublicCitizen 40th Anniversary forum.
http://www.citizen.org/40th-anniversary-gala/
It is a brilliantly insightful review of what the likes of Karl Rove and others have done to our nation. We all could use these insights to keep our attentions on the right places.
WE can make change happen.
The pittance you get on your savings account is not worth the hassles and problems you have with one of the big banks. Credit unions are the way to go if you can.
Years ago in UT I tried to get a home equity loan from the bank and was refused, even though the property was paid off and my credit score was terrific. Ended up at a credit union, got the loan, transferred both checking and savings accounts to the credit union. Personalized service, professional, courteous and willing to help. Can't beat that.
I wouldn't feel sorry for - example - a coffee chain that lost business because it spit in the product every so often. OH, NO - think of the emplyees that would be out of work if we stopped getting our coffee there!
Taking your money out of the BANKS TO BIG TO FAIL just means they will get more of our TAX DOLLARS!
You are treating symptoms not the disease!
A Primer: http://www.ehow.com/about_5413083_history-bank-deregulation.html
Some excerpts:
The Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994 (IBBEA) swept away all state barriers to interstate banking. It allowed financial institutions to locate branches in other states and to purchase or merge with banks headquartered in other states.
This allowed BANKS TO BECOME TO BIG TO FAIL!
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), also referred to as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, repealed part of Glass-Steagall, tearing down the walls between banking, insurance and investments. Companies could now merge, partner and operate freely within each other's industries. The act also made it possible for the financial industry to group mortgage and other portfolios, selling them as investments.
This allowed the BANKS TO BIG TO FAIL to rob our pensions and 401K's after taking our homes!
Want to really hurt BANKS TO BIG TO FAIL?
Repeal both Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994 & The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act!
The flip side is all the jobs it would create! Remember all the lay offs as the different banks merged?
Keep up the needed work, Van.