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4 22 bak<div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">THE WORST?  COAL, TAX DODGE, DIRTY DOZEN PVT INTEL, PRISONS, NOT DEFENSE?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see BOFA2 7/17</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see bofa tag</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> html </font><b style="background-color: rgb(240, 240, 240);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> anti-EFCA</font></b></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">HQ charlotte NC</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> =</font></p><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref report</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/30/despite-splashy-net-zero-vows-big-banks-dumping-trillions-fossil-fuels">https://www.commondreams.org/news<b>/2022/03</b>/30/despite-splashy-net-zero-vows-big-banks-dumping-trillions-fossil-fuels</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><h1 class="mb-2" id="node-title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; line-height: 1.125; margin-bottom: 1rem !important;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">despite 'Splashy' Net-Zero Vows, Big Banks Dumping Trillions Into Fossil Fuels</font></span></h1><div class="block" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="headlinefield-subtitle text-lg tracking-tighter leading-tightest" style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.1px; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"With Wall Street banks leading the charge, these financial institutions are directly complicit in undermining a climate-stable future for us all."</font></div></div><div class="block" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="py-5 d-flex align-items-start" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex !important; align-items: flex-start !important; padding-top: 2.5rem !important; padding-bottom: 2.5rem !important;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p class="text-xs text-uppercase font-weight-bold mb-0" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; text-transform: uppercase !important; font-weight: 700 !important;"><span lang="en" about="/author/jake-johnson" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/author/jake-johnson" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JAKE JOHNSON</font></a></span></p><span class="text-xs" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">March 30, 2022</font></span></div></div></div><div class="block" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="headlinebody prose node__body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 800;">Flouting their public vows</span> to put themselves and their clients on a path to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, the world's 60 largest private banks have provided a total of $4.6 trillion in financing for the fossil fuel industry since the Paris Agreement entered into force in 2016.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That's according to the latest edition of <a href="https://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2022/03/Banking-on-Climate-Chaos-2022.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Banking on Climate Chaos</span></a>, an annual report that tracks the banking industry's funding of oil and gas initiatives that are <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/22/rich-nations-must-cut-oil-and-gas-2034-keep-climate-hopes-alive-report" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">threatening</a> global hopes of reining in carbon pollution and averting climate disaster.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In 2021 alone, the report finds, the world's biggest private-sector banks financed oil and gas to the tune of $742 billion. That year, the 60 banks featured in the new analysis poured $185.5 billion into the 100 companies doing the most to expand the fossil-fuel sector worldwide through offshore drilling, fracking, coal mining, liquefied natural gas infrastructure, and more</b>.  Authored by Oil Change International, the Rainforest Action Network, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and other groups and endorsed by hundreds of organizations from around the world, the report published Wednesday spotlights the marked contrast between banks' public commitments to net-zero emissions targets and their actions, which reflect a continued stake in fossil fuel development.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The worst offenders in the banking industry, according to the report, are the U.S. financial behemoths <b>JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, </b>which together accounted for 25% of all fossil fuel financing identified over the past six years.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The report highlights a number of specific projects, including the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/02/03/federal-court-deals-blow-noxious-fracked-gas-mountain-valley-pipeline" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">Mountain Valley Pipeline</a> (funded by JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America), drilling in offshore Guyana (funded by JPMorgan Chase, Citi, and Bank of America), and the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/tag/line-3" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">Line 3 Pipeline</a> (funded by TD, Scotiabank, and the Bank of Montreal), efforts that have drawn fierce resistance from Indigenous communities.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Indigenous peoples have long been leading the fight for the sacredness of the land, water, and Earth," Mea Johnson, divestment campaign coordinator with the Indigenous Environmental Network, said in a statement Wednesday. "Mother Earth has always given us what we need to thrive. We will not back down until our natural balance is restored and anyone helping fund the extractive destruction of our communities will be held accountable."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alison Kirsch, research and policy manager at the Rainforest Action Network, added that "any further expansion of fossil fuels risks locking humanity into generations of climate catastrophe, yet the top fossil clients of the world's largest banks are still being showered with tens of billions of dollars even as they actively expand drilling, mining, fracking, and other fossil fuel development unabated."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"With Wall Street banks leading the charge," Kirsch added, "these financial institutions are directly complicit in undermining a climate-stable future for us all and must immediately end their support of any further fossil fuel infrastructure expansion."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The banks' financing decisions fly in the face of their own <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/02/11/bank-america-sets-net-zero-emissions-target-without-key-details-get-there" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">pledges</a> to bring their policies into line with critical climate goals, such as achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a benchmark that 44 of the 60 banks profiled in the new report have backed.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
"But global banks have massively supported the companies doing the most to open new oil and gas fields," notes the new report. "Banks with net-zero commitments last year... financed the top 20 upstream oil and gas expansion companies, potentially helping to lock the planet into decades of climate-warming emissions."  <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">According to</a> the International Energy Agency, reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 would mean ensuring "no new oil and gas fields."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adele Shraiman, a representative for the<b> Sierra Club's Fossil-Free Finance campaign,</b> said Wednesday that the analysis "makes it clear that banks must clean up their act and stop funding the expansion of dirty fossil fuel projects like fracked gas exports, tar sands pipelines, and offshore drilling in order to align with what the science demands and what their own commitments require."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Despite their splashy climate pledges, big banks have largely continued with business-as-usual and actually increased their overall fossil fuel financing since the Paris Agreement," said Shraiman. "As we look ahead to shareholder season, we'll be keeping up the pressure on the banks and their investors to take these critical reforms seriously and stop bankrolling the fossil fuel industry's reckless expansion plans."</font></p></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dn 1120</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...John Kerry is a good example. And it's not to pick him out and say he's particularly bad or particularly awful, but here's a guy who was in government. When he was in government, he was very supportive of fossil fuel development, fracking in particular. He left office. He then got a top position at Bank of America, which is one of the largest financiers of fossil fuel development in the world. And then he comes back into government as Biden's at least first climate pick. And it's not to say that John Kerry is going to be terrible on climate, but it is to say, as one example of many, that we need to understand where these people come from. Joe Biden, on the campaign, on climate, on climate policy, his campaign very early on said it was seeking a, quote, "middle ground" on climate policy.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">from newbook ggl:</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0); font-weight: 700; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BANK OF AMERICA</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In terms of political clout, probably a distant second behind Goldman Sachs and maybe Citi, but notable here b/c biggest bank in US (actually world with 2.3 trillion in assets[FleetBoston, which had already acquired a number of banks bought B of A, but continued to call it Bo f A: John Brown founder, Rhode Island slave trader] ), and by buying Merrill Lynch became the biggest brokerage firm in 2009 (only to find it lost 15 billion the previous quarter, billions in executive bonuses, 87K ru, stock went from 33 dollars to less than 6.; asked for another 20 billion in bailouts when ML losses discovered; used some to lobby Congress on executive pay[ceo ken Lewis gets 34.8 million, 779 times the average teller pay], mortgage and credit card fee restrictions and consumer financial protection agency). and in two years invested 6.4 billion dollars in coal (RAN). CCA 20 million dollar loan; gouged SC unemployed. Huge lobbying (biggest of TARP recipients). 14 million in 2008.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">…</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stopped selling subprime mortgages in 2001, but sold CDO's based on them, still do). Lost 3 billion in 2007. In 2008, the industry lost half a trillion on CDO's. Got 100 billion plus in bailout, though no penalty like AIG. Repaid 45 billion in 2009. (merger mania before and after collapse, eg, Countrywide 2008, biggest lender, for 2.8 billion dollars. Sued by ten states, set up 8.4 billion dollar program (status?) plus 700 million in fines.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dec 2010 B of A joined other banks in refusing to handle Wikileaks donations.At this time it threatned to release bank info</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">B of A hired TEKSystem, amateur Facebook scrape and mainstream media ; report on Occupy and hackers.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HBGary hired to go after Anonymous because of impending threat of bank info release; Barr falsely claimed he had hacked Anonymous and that he would reveal info at upcoming conference in a newspaper article feb 5 2011; so they hacked Barr instead</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Feb 2013 B of A cache posted by Anonymous (from a misconfigured server)</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">June 2013 mortgage unit systematically lied, fraudulently denied loan modifications and paid bounty for driving customers into foreclosure (Dayen, Salon). Used HAMP program which was supposed to help four million homeowners (only about 870 k in system) to extract the maximum money possible before foreclosing. They tossed applications that had documents more than 60 days old (after sitting on file how long?), tossing out as many at 1500 in a blitz”, and falsified records sent to Treasury to cover their tracks. Employees that met quota were give bonuses, those that did not, or who questioned the ethics, were fired. Some who got denied HAMP were refi were given as B of A one, of course at a higher interest rate.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">San Diego faced 13 years for chalk vandalization july 2013</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We would probably not know of any of this if Chamber member and fellow Hunton & Williams client Bank of America was not getting worried about what Wikileaks would reveal, so HBGary’s Barr tried to hack Anonymous; they hacked him instead and made the emails public. Moreover, they uncovered a dirty tricks campaign that involved fabricating supposedly incriminating documents, releasing them, then discredit those that used them (another H&W client, US Chamber of Commerce, wanted to go after activists, including investigation of their families; Powerpoint presentation started that Glenn Greenwald would cave to pressure in order to protect his career); [in 2008 CoC gave B of A its 2008 Corporate Citizen Award, even though it had just taken its first 25 billion dollars of the bailout; may have used B of A dues to screw over working people and target moderate Democratic Senators [lincoln?]</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Summary: massively involved in financial crash, victimized the victims, bribed Congress to keep letting them do it, and pay themselves huge bonuses for wrecking the economy. Biggest investor in coal (building new plants, mountaintop removal). Hired private intelligence companies to spy on those who object. Chalk 13 years.</font></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">nomi prins 12/17 AN</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/economy/next-financial-crisis-will-be-worse-last-one">https://www.alternet.org/economy/next-financial-crisis-will-be-worse-last-one</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...O<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">n the flip side of that euphoria however, is the fact that the </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-job-growth-picks-up-flat-wages-raise-consumer-spending-worries-idUSKBN1D308L" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">median wage</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> rose just 2.4 percent and has remained effectively stagnant relative to inflation. And although the unemployment rate fell to a 17-year low of 4.1 percent, the labor force participation rate dropped to 62.7 percent, its lowest level in nearly four decades—particularly difficult for new entrants to the workforce, such as students graduating under a $1.3 trillion pile of unrepayable or very challenging </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/student-loan-bubble-investment-is-private-abs-goldman-2017-12" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">student loan debt</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. (Not to worry though: Goldman Sachs is on that, promoting a way to profit from this debt by stuffing it into other assets and selling those off to investors, a la shades of the subprime mortgage crisis.)</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those of us living in the actual world without billionaire family pedigrees possess a healthy dose of skepticism over the “Make America Great Again” sect that believes Trump has transformed America “hugely,” for record-setting markets don’t imply economic stability, nor do 40 percent corporate tax cuts translate into 40 percent wage growth. We can march forward into 2018 carrying that knowledge with us.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But first, a recap. For the U.S. financial system, 2017 was marked by five main themes: The GOP’s “You All Just Got a Lot Richer” Corporate Tax Reduction Plan; Big Banks Still Bad; The Fed’s Minor Policy Shift; Debt; and Deregulators Appointed to Positions of Regulatory Authority.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Banks Are Still Big and Bad</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Big Six banks have paid billions of dollars in settlements for a variety of frauds committed before and since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, but that didn’t keep them from tallying up new fines in 2017</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. The nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, agreed to </span><a href="https://www.corp-research.org/jpmorganchase" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">pay $53 million in fines</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> for scamming African-American and Latino mortgage borrowers with disproportionately higher rates than for white borrowers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau </span><a href="https://www.corp-research.org/citigroup" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">fined Citigroup $28.8 million</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> for not disclosing foreclosure-avoiding actions<b>. </b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Bank of America</b> <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/03/28/judge-fines-bank-america-45-million-for-heartless-treatment-mortgage-borrowers.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">got fined $45 million</a> for its foul treatment of a California couple trying to save their home.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the Big Six bank that received the most attention in 2017, as it did in 2016, was <a href="https://financialadvisoriq.com/search/search/advanced?referrer_module=companyTag&q=%22Wells+Fargo%22" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Wells Fargo</a>. The number of people affected by its fake-account creation scandal grew from 2 million reported in 2016 to about 3.5 million. That increase resulted in Wells Fargo expanding its associated <a href="https://financialadvisoriq.com/c/1824523/211663" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">class-action settlement</a> to $142 million.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wells Fargo was mired in smaller scandals, too. For instance, it charged 800,000 customers for auto insurance they didn’t need, raised mortgage rates for certain customers without properly disclosing it was going to, and made a bunch of unauthorized adjustments to people’s mortgages.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No Glass-Steagall Reinstatement, More Deregulation</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The idea of reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 featured in both the Democratic and the Republican National Committees’ platforms during the campaign season. But Trump’s treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, made it clear multiple times there would be no such push from the administration, arguing against doing so before senators including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To emphasize his disdain for regulation and oversight, Mnuchin also pushed the Financial Stability Oversight Council, over which he presides, to vote 6 to 3 to rescind American International Group’s designation as posing a potential threat to the U.S. financial system. Thus, AIG will no longer be <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-bc-us--aig-systemic-risk-20170929-story.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">paying penance for its role</a> at the epicenter of the last financial crisis by filing regular risk reports anymore. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen also supported the move.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">8/17</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The fact is that banks do not have strong policies in place to ensure this downward trend accelerates. The only sector that has even halfway-decent policy safeguards is coal mining, in which many U.S. and European banks have made commitments to move away from the sector. Thanks to a six year long campaign by activists across the country, Bank of America was the first bank to adopt a policy to reduce its funding for coal mining—and </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">though Bank of America’s overall extreme fossil fuel investment has increased over the past three years, their coal mining numbers have dropped. Remarkably, Bank of America was the number one funder of coal mining just five years ago.</span></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">my writeup from New book:</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0); font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BANK OF AMERICA</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In terms of political clout, probably a distant second behind Goldman Sachs and maybe Citi, but notable here b/c biggest bank in US (actually world with 2.3 trillion in assets[FleetBoston, which had already acquired a number of banks bought B of A, but continued to call it Bo f A: John Brown founder, Rhode Island slave trader] ), and by buying Merril Lynch became the biggest brokerage firm in 2009 (only to find it lost 15 billion the previous quarter, billions in executive bonuses, 87K ru, stock went from 33 dollars to less than 6.; asked for another 20 billion in bailouts when ML losses discovered; used some to lobby Congress on executive pay[ceo ken Lewis gets 34.8 million, 779 times the average teller pay], mortgage and credit card fee restrictions and consumer financial protection agency). and in two years invested 6.4 billion dollars in coal (RAN). CCA 20 million dollar loan; gouged SC unemployed. Huge lobbying (biggest of TARP recipients). 14 million in 2008.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">…</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stopped selling subprime mortgages in 2001, but sold CDO's based on them, still do). Lost 3 billion in 2007. In 2008, the industry lost half a trillion on CDO's. Got 100 billion plus in bailout, though no penalty like AIG. Repaid 45 billion in 2009. (merger mania before and after collapse, eg, Countrywide 2008, biggest lender, for 2.8 billion dollars. Sued by ten states, set up 8.4 billion dollar program (status?) plus 700 million in fines.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dec 2010 B of A joined other banks in refusing to handle Wikileaks donations.At this time it threatned to release bank info</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">B of A hired TEKSystem, amateur Facebook scrape and mainstream media ; report on Occupy and hackers.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HBGary hired to go after Anonymous because of impending threat of bank info release; Barr falsely claimed he had hacked Anonymous and that he would reveal info at upcoming conference in a newspaper article feb 5 2011; so they hacked Barr instead</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Feb 2013 B of A cache posted by Anonymous (from a misconfigured server)</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">June 2013 mortgage unit systematically lied, fraudulently denied loan modifications and paid bounty for driving customers into foreclosure (Dayen, Salon). Used HAMP program which was supposed to help four million homeowners (only about 870 k in system) to extract the maximum money possible before foreclosing. They tossed applications that had documents more than 60 days old (after sitting on file how long?), tossing out as many at 1500 in a blitz”, and falsified records sent to Treasury to cover their tracks. Employees that met quota were give bonuses, those that did not, or who questioned the ethics, were fired. Some who got denied HAMP were refi were given as B of A one, of course at a higher interest rate.</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">San Diego faced 13 years for chalk vandalization july 2013</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We would probably not know of any of this if Chamber member and fellow Hunton & Williams client Bank of America was not getting worried about what Wikileaks would reveal, so HBGary’s Barr tried to hack Anonymous; they hacked him instead and made the emails public. Moreover, they uncovered a dirty tricks campaign that involved fabricating supposedly incriminating documents, releasing them, then discredit those that used them (another H&W client, US Chamber of Commerce, wanted to go after activists, including investigation of their families; Powerpoint presentation started that Glenn Greenwald would cave to pressure in order to protect his career); [in 2008 CoC gave B of A its 2008 Corporate Citizen Award, even though it had just taken its first 25 billion dollars of the bailout; may have used B of A dues to screw over working people and target moderate Democratic Senators [lincoln?]</font></span></p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b37a66d0-98d7-faee-0b34-d149ede672a6"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Summary: massively involved in financial crash, victimized the victims, bribed Congress to keep letting them do it, and pay themselves huge bonuses for wrecking the economy. Biggest investor in coal (building new plants, mountaintop removal). Hired private intelligence companies to spy on those who object. Chalk 13 years.</font></span></span></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><div class="print-content"><div id="node-1012645" class="node node-story view-mode-print clearfix" about="/economy/bank-america-and-other-megabanks-say-they-want-make-nice-poor-people-dont-buy-it" typeof="sioc:Item foaf:Document" style="position: relative;"><div class="byline economy"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="field field-name-field-sources field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><a href="http://alternet.org/">AlterNet</a> <span class="print-footnote">[1]</span></span></span></span> / <em>By</em> <em><a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/lynn-stuart-parramore">Lynn Stuart Parramore</a> <span class="print-footnote">[2]</span></em></font></div><div class="story_comments"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div class="headline"><h1 property="dc:title" datatype="" class="node-title"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Bank of America and Other Megabanks Say They Want to Make Nice With Poor People: Don't Buy It</font></h1></div><div class="the_body body_economy clearfix"><div class="clear"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></div><div class="story_tools_bottom"><div class="text-size"><div class="story_tools_email"><div class="story_tools_print"><div class="story_tools_share"><div style="clear: left;"><div class="story-date"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><em><span class="field field-name-field-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2014-07-24T06:48:00-07:00">July 24, 2014</span></span></span></span> </em> |  </font></div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">How do we hate thee, Bank of America? Let us count the ways.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">We hate thee for thy mortgage misdeeds, foreclosure frauds and grotesque fees. For unnecessarily kicking people out of their homes, extorting money from military families through predatory loan rates, and treating thy customers like garbage.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">For basically being too-big-to-fail/too-big-to-jail blight on the economy and society thou hast proven to be, time and again.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Bank of America has earned itself the worst <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/06/25/its-official-bank-of-america-has-the-worst-reputat.aspx">reputation</a> <span class="print-footnote">[3]</span> of any big lender in the U.S., and that is no small feat. The megabank has incurred so many legal costs for its various frauds and abuses, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/bank-america-takes-billion-litigation-hit-24579066">to the tune of billions</a> <span class="print-footnote">[4]</span>, its profits have seen a dip. Whatever is a big bank to do?</font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Under increasing pressure from regulators and widely despised by the public, Bank of America now wants us to believe that it will make nice with poor people. In a recent <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/offering-small-fees-banks-cater-to-low-income-customers/?php=true&type=blogs&r=0">report</a> <span class="print-footnote">[5]</span>in the <em>New York Times</em>, we learn that BofA and other giant banks are trying to l<b>aunder their public images by talking about offering low-fee services to people who have been left out of the banking system</b>. BofA has launched a banking account it claims is intended to prevent troubled customers from running up fees for overdrawing their balances.</font></span></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">That’s very interesting, because so far, its accounts have been designed to do the opposite, which is why a lot of poor people don’t have bank accounts in the first place.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BofA’s public campaign showing us its touchy-feely side involves asking low-income people to create collages representing their emotions about money. One image shows a woman who appears to be naked wearing nothing but words like “power,” “want” and “desire” scrawled across her skin.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Other banks like JPMorgan, are following suit with lower-cost prepaid debit cards, checking accounts and whatnot. As the <em>Times</em> points out, it’s a bit difficult to start cheering:</font></p><blockquote><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"It is hard not to be skeptical, particularly because the banks, most recently in the subprime housing crisis, have traditionally wrung vast profits from some of these same customers, who paid steep rates for loans and high fees on basic checking accounts.”</font></p></blockquote><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">You can say that again.</font></p><p><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">So here’s the real deal. Under the scrutiny of regulators, these banks have gotten cautious, so they’re trotting out a couple of products that are somewhat less rapacious than their normal fare (nonsensical fees still apply, they’re just lower). We’re guessing that the minute the regulators turn the other way, many of these targeted low-income customers will find themselves hit by some unexpected fee hikes that will send them right back where they came from, the land of the unbanked.</font></b></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">That’s how things roll in the oliogopoly that is the American banking system, where customers have the illusion of choice, but in reality face an industry dominated by a few gigantic players who decide how much abuse they can get away with at any given time. Bank of America is sort of like the lead dog in a small pack of rabid animals constantly scouring the landscape for prey. Whatever it signals, the rest will do, and the most vulnerable customers will be ripped, chewed and spit out.  </font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/opinion/the-post-office-banks-on-the-poor.html">According to Mehrsa Baradaran</a> <span class="print-footnote">[6]</span>, an assistant law professor at the University of Georgia, more than one out of four Americans either don’t have a bank account or do have one, but primarily rely on unscrupulous check-cashing storefronts, payday lenders, title lenders, or pawnshops to survive. In her view, the best option for them would be to do their banking through the U.S. postal system. Elizabeth Warren, and many other progressives, have gotten on board with this idea.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Sounds kind of odd, until you consider that the post office comes with several advantages and an infrastructure that makes it uniquely suited to this role. For example, it has branches in many low-income neighborhoods that were long ago abandoned by private banks. Also, people have a sense of familiarity and comfort with the postal service that they will never have with the likes of BofA or JPMorgan. Post offices already offer financial services like money orders, and postal banks could add things like savings accounts, debit cards and even simple loans, without relying on a profit model that takes advantage of people.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This is not a new idea. Baradaran notes that in 1910, President William Howard Taft created a government-backed postal savings system for recent immigrants and the poor, which lasted until 1967. Unfortunately, times changed as private banks got bigger and more powerful, and the poor were pretty much thrown to the financial wolves:</font></p><blockquote><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“By the 1990s, there were essentially two forms of banking: regulated and insured mainstream banks to serve the needs of the wealthy and middle class, and a Wild West of unregulated payday lenders and check-cashing joints that answer the needs of the poor — at a price.”</font></p></blockquote><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In a world in which cash is increasingly becoming obsolete, the poor urgently need financial services. But believing that giant banks operating in oligopolistic conditions and thinking of little beyond profit maximization are the answer is nothing more than a fairy tale. One that ends badly for those who can least afford to lose.</font></p></div><div id="report-typos"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div class="tags"><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/bank-america" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">bank of america</a> <span class="print-footnote">[8]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/bank-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">bank</a> <span class="print-footnote">[9]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/banking-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">banking</a> <span class="print-footnote">[10]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/business-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">business</a> <span class="print-footnote">[11]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/dow-jones-industrial-average" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Dow Jones Industrial Average</a> <span class="print-footnote">[12]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/electronic-commerce" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Electronic commerce</a> <span class="print-footnote">[13]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/finance-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">finance</a> <span class="print-footnote">[14]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/financial-economics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Financial economics</a> <span class="print-footnote">[15]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/georgia-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">georgia</a> <span class="print-footnote">[16]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/investment-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">investment</a> <span class="print-footnote">[17]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/jpmorgan-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">jpmorgan</a> <span class="print-footnote">[18]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/mehrsa-baradaran" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Mehrsa Baradaran</a> <span class="print-footnote">[19]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/payday-loan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">payday loan</a> <span class="print-footnote">[20]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/payment-systems" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Payment systems</a> <span class="print-footnote">[21]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/person-career" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Person Career</a> <span class="print-footnote">[22]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/person-location" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Person Location</a> <span class="print-footnote">[23]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/president-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">president</a> <span class="print-footnote">[24]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/primary-dealers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Primary dealers</a> <span class="print-footnote">[25]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/quotation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Quotation</a> <span class="print-footnote">[26]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/transactional-account" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Transactional account</a> <span class="print-footnote">[27]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/united-states" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">united states</a> <span class="print-footnote">[28]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/university-georgia" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">university of georgia</a> <span class="print-footnote">[29]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/william-howard-taft" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">William Howard Taft</a> <span class="print-footnote">[30]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/assistant-law-professor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">assistant law professor</a> <span class="print-footnote">[31]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/bank-account" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">bank account</a> <span class="print-footnote">[32]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/bank-accounts" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">bank accounts</a> <span class="print-footnote">[33]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/banks" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">banks</a> <span class="print-footnote">[34]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/big-bank" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">big bank</a> <span class="print-footnote">[35]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/big-lender" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">big lender</a> <span class="print-footnote">[36]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/financial-services-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">financial services</a> <span class="print-footnote">[37]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/low-fee-services" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">low-fee services</a> <span class="print-footnote">[38]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/payday-lenders-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">payday lenders</a> <span class="print-footnote">[39]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/new-york-times-1" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">the new york times</a> <span class="print-footnote">[40]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/times-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">The Times</a> <span class="print-footnote">[41]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/title-lenders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">title lenders</a> <span class="print-footnote">[42]</span></font></div></div></div></div><div class="comment_button"><div class="print-footer" style="text-align: center;"><hr class="print-hr" style="text-align: left; border: 0px; height: 1px; width: 1551px; background-color: rgb(158, 158, 158);" /><div class="print-source_url" style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><strong>Source URL:</strong> <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/bank-america-and-other-megabanks-say-they-want-make-nice-poor-people-dont-buy-it">http://www.alternet.org/economy/bank-america-and-other-megabanks-say-they-want-make-nice-poor-people-dont-buy-it</a></font></div><div class="print-links"><p /><div style="text-align: left;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Links:</font></strong></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">[1] http://alternet.org</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;">[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/lynn-stuart-parramore</div><div style="text-align: left;">[3] http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/06/25/its-official-bank-of-america-has-the-worst-reputat.aspx</div><div style="text-align: left;">[4] http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/bank-america-takes-billion-litigation-hit-24579066</div><div style="text-align: left;">[5] http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/offering-small-fees-banks-cater-to-low-income-customers/?php=true&type=blogs&r=0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/opinion/the-post-office-banks-on-the-poor.html</div><div style="text-align: left;">[7] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Bank of America and Other Megabanks Say They Want to Make Nice With Poor People: Don't Buy It</div><div style="text-align: left;">[8] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bank-america</div><div style="text-align: left;">[9] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bank-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[10] http://www.alternet.org/tags/banking-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[11] http://www.alternet.org/tags/business-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[12] http://www.alternet.org/tags/dow-jones-industrial-average</div><div style="text-align: left;">[13] http://www.alternet.org/tags/electronic-commerce</div><div style="text-align: left;">[14] http://www.alternet.org/tags/finance-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[15] http://www.alternet.org/tags/financial-economics</div><div style="text-align: left;">[16] http://www.alternet.org/tags/georgia-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[17] http://www.alternet.org/tags/investment-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[18] http://www.alternet.org/tags/jpmorgan-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[19] http://www.alternet.org/tags/mehrsa-baradaran</div><div style="text-align: left;">[20] http://www.alternet.org/tags/payday-loan</div><div style="text-align: left;">[21] http://www.alternet.org/tags/payment-systems</div><div style="text-align: left;">[22] http://www.alternet.org/tags/person-career</div><div style="text-align: left;">[23] http://www.alternet.org/tags/person-location</div><div style="text-align: left;">[24] http://www.alternet.org/tags/president-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[25] http://www.alternet.org/tags/primary-dealers</div><div style="text-align: left;">[26] http://www.alternet.org/tags/quotation</div><div style="text-align: left;">[27] http://www.alternet.org/tags/transactional-account</div><div style="text-align: left;">[28] http://www.alternet.org/tags/united-states</div><div style="text-align: left;">[29] http://www.alternet.org/tags/university-georgia</div><div style="text-align: left;">[30] http://www.alternet.org/tags/william-howard-taft</div><div style="text-align: left;">[31] http://www.alternet.org/tags/assistant-law-professor</div><div style="text-align: left;">[32] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bank-account</div><div style="text-align: left;">[33] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bank-accounts</div><div style="text-align: left;">[34] http://www.alternet.org/tags/banks</div><div style="text-align: left;">[35] http://www.alternet.org/tags/big-bank</div><div style="text-align: left;">[36] http://www.alternet.org/tags/big-lender</div><div style="text-align: left;">[37] http://www.alternet.org/tags/financial-services-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[38] http://www.alternet.org/tags/low-fee-services</div><div style="text-align: left;">[39] http://www.alternet.org/tags/payday-lenders-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[40] http://www.alternet.org/tags/new-york-times-1</div><div style="text-align: left;">[41] http://www.alternet.org/tags/times-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[42] http://www.alternet.org/tags/title-lenders</div><div style="text-align: left;">[43] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B</div></div><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/345-justice/19571-massive-fraud-at-center-of-trial-against-bofa-over-us-mortgages"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/345-justice/19571-massive-fraud-at-center-of-trial-against-bofa-over-us-mortgages</font></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> =</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fail-20120314">http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fail-20120314</a></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> 3/13 rs</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">At least Bank of America got its name right. The ultimate Too Big to Fail bank really is America, a hypergluttonous ward of the state whose limitless fraud and criminal conspiracies we'll all be paying for until the end of time. Did you hear about the plot to rig global interest rates? The $137 million fine for bilking needy schools and cities? The ingenious plan to suck multiple fees out of the unemployment checks of jobless workers? Take your eyes off them for 10 seconds and guaranteed, they'll be into some shit again: This bank is like the world's worst-behaved teenager, taking your car and running over kittens and fire hydrants on the way to Vegas for the weekend, maxing out your credit cards in the three days you spend at your aunt's funeral. They're out of control, yet they'll never do time or go out of business, because the government remains creepily committed to their survival, like overindulgent parents who refuse to believe their 40-year-old live-at-home son could possibly be responsible for those dead hookers in the backyard.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It's been four years since the government, in the name of preventing a depression, saved this megabank from ruin by pumping $45 billion of taxpayer money into its arm. Since then, the Obama administration has looked the other way as the bank committed an astonishing variety of crimes – some elaborate and brilliant in their conception, some so crude that they'd be beneath your average street thug. Bank of America has systematically ripped off almost everyone with whom it has a significant business relationship, cheating investors, insurers, depositors, homeowners, shareholders, pensioners and taxpayers. It brought tens of thousands of Americans to foreclosure court using bogus, "robo-signed" evidence – a type of mass perjury that it helped pioneer. It hawked worthless mortgages to dozens of unions and state pension funds, draining them of hundreds of millions in value. And when it wasn't ripping off workers and pensioners, it was helping to push insurance giants like AMBAC into bankruptcy by fraudulently inducing them to spend hundreds of millions insuring those same worthless mortgages.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But despite being the very definition of an unaccountable corporate villain, Bank of America is now bigger and more dangerous than ever. It controls more than 12 percent of America's bank deposits (skirting a federal law designed to prohibit any firm from controlling more than 10 percent), as well as 17 percent of all American home mortgages. By looking the other way and rewarding the bank's bad behavior with a massive government bailout, we actually allowed a huge financial company to not just grow so big that its collapse would imperil the whole economy, but to get away with any and all crimes it might commit. Too Big to Fail is one thing; it's also far too corrupt to survive....</font></p><p /><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Read more: <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fail-20120314#ixzz2peBSFf4e" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fail-20120314#ixzz2peBSFf4e</a> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Follow us: <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bbJxak64Kr4kEzacwqm_6l&u=rollingstone" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">@rollingstone on Twitter</a> | <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bbJxak64Kr4kEzacwqm_6l&u=RollingStone" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">RollingStone on Facebook</a></div></span></font><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://link.huffingtonpost.com/4cb49b68b61807701fa21cad12wvo.ptr/Uea9HsJScUAvjmYuA8656"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">Bank Of America's Earnings Jump 70 Percent On Cost-Cutting</font></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Anonymous</span></b> has done it again. The loosely associated hacking collective, which has hacked everything from GoDaddy to religious organizations to government websites, the Pentagon and more, <b>has released 16 gigabytes of data, code and software related to Bank of America,</b> Bloomberg, Thomson<b> Reuters </b>and others, <b>claiming that Bank of America had employed security firms to “spy and collect information on private citizens.”</b></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">One Anonymous subgroup, identifying itself as Par:AnoIA (aka Anonymous Intelligence Agency), issued a press release on Wednesday to discuss some of the details of the release.</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“The source of this release has confirmed that the data was not acquired by a hack but because it was stored on a misconfigured server and basically open for grabs,” Par:AnoIA said. “Looking at the data it becomes clear that<b> Bank of America, TEKSystems and others (see origins of reports) gathered information on Anonymous and other activists' movement on various social media platforms and public Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels.”</b></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The Anonymous collective said the data was actually retrieved from an open, insecure server in Tel Aviv, Israel, </b>but also managed to obtain a full version of ClearForest’s text analyzing software called “OneCalais,” which was stored and openly accessible on the same server.</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Anonymous Hacked By Bizarre Trolling Collective Rustle League</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Among the leaked documents, Anonymous discovered that TEKSystems had compiled reports last year about hackers and so-called “cyber threats,” as well as online activity surrounding the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Occupy Wall Street</span> movement.<b> Anonymous dismissed all of this research as “sloppy, random and valueless.”</b></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“Apparently a keyword list was used to match for items of interest on IRC, Twitter and other social media,” Par:AnoIA said. “While the list has over 10.000 [sic] entries only 1,125 keywords seem to be genuine, the rest are simply Wikipedia references.”</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In addition to the overwhelming amount of “research” about Bank of America’s antagonists, the<b> Anonymous group also discovered an extra 4.8 gigabytes of “detailed career and salary information of hundreds of thousands of executives and employees from various corporations all around the world.” </b>Anonymous noted that the folder was named “Bloomberg,” while the entries were tagged with “reuterscompanycontent,” which could mean<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Bloomberg LP and/or Thomson Reuters could have been involved or targeted as well.</span></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“What it was doing on the Israeli server is up to anyone’s guess,” Anonymous added.</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But above all, Anonymous hopes to use this data dump to spotlight these misguided efforts to hamper online activism, but also show how corporations like Bank of America are paying for these operations to take place.</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“We release the received files in full to raise awareness to this issue and to send a signal to corporations and Governments that this is unacceptable,” the Anonymous press release concluded</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Anonymous recently hacked the Federal Reserve on Feb. 6, and threatened to publish private personal information about a number of<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Goldman Sachs</span> employees on Valentine’s Day, but did not.</font></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/bank-america-hacked-anonymous-hackers-leak-secrets-about-executives-salaries-spy-activities-1107947#"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">http://www.ibtimes.com/bank-america-hacked-anonymous-hackers-leak-secrets-about-executives-salaries-spy-activities-1107947#</font></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><div class="storyBlogByline" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; top: -5px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="time" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">December 18, 2010, 10:05 AM</font></span></div><h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 13px 0px 20px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bank of America to Block Donations to WikiLeaks</font></span></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Bank of America Corp. has joined several other financial institutions in refusing to handle payments for WikiLeaks,</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"> the latest blow to the secret-releasing organization's efforts to continue operating under pressure from governments and the corporate world.</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -2.24px; line-height: 27.84px; word-spacing: -1.28px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">The Charlotte-based bank's move adds to similar actions by Mastercard Inc. and PayPal Inc. Though previous moves have prompted reprisals by hackers, Bank of America's site is as well-protected as they come</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, security experts say.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><div style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">Its site was problem-free through midafternoon Saturday.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">"This decision is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments," the bank said in a statement Saturday. The move was first reported by The Charlotte Observer.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left; letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: none; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer;"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20025403-503543.html" class="linkIcon read" style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: none; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Latest Updates on WikiLeaks</a></div><div style="text-align: left; letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: none; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer;"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/2718-202_162-984.html" class="linkIcon read" style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: none; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">CBSNews.com Special Report: WikiLeaks</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">Earlier this month, Internet "hacktivists" operating under the label "Operation Payback" claimed responsibility in a Twitter message for causing technical problems at the MasterCard website after it ended its relationship with WikiLeaks. PayPal saw its website subject to an attack that slowed it down but did not significantly affect payments.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">Bank of America's website offers access to customer accounts through its home page, but it could be a tough nut for hackers to crack, security experts say.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">No financial institution can "fully keep the bad guys out," said Rich Mogull, an analyst and CEO with the security research firm Securosis. But he added that customers shouldn't worry about WikiLeaks supporters plundering their accounts, because the bank has plenty of practice in warding off hackers. Also, </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">previous attacks in support of WikiLeaks haven't targeted customer accounts.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">"Bank of America, I can guarantee you, is one of the top targets in the world," Mogull said.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">He also said the company probably confronts denial-of-service attacks regularly, too, and likely has strong defenses. "I'm not going to guarantee it's enough," he said. "It always depends on how big the attack is."</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">In such attacks, computers are harnessed — sometimes surreptitiously — to jam target sites with mountains of requests for data, knocking them out of commission.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">Reached by phone, Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri declined further comment to The Associated Press on Saturday.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">WikiLeaks says it's preparing a release of information on banks, which could include documents it says it has on Bank of America.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">WikiLeaks responded to Bank of America's announcement with a Twitter message urging supporters to stop doing business with the bank.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">"We ask that all people who love freedom close out their accounts at Bank of America," WikiLeaks said in its posting Saturday. It also called on businesses to switch funds from the bank.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">WikiLeaks has received increasing global attention for its leaks of sensitive government data as 2010 has gone on. In recent weeks, it has released parts of a cache of more than 250,000 secret U.S. State Department diplomatic cables from around the world.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">The site has come under pressure from several directions besides the financial. Attorney General Eric Holder has said repeatedly a criminal investigation of WikiLeaks' release of the cables is under way.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">Against this backdrop, Julian Assange, the 39-year-old globetrotting Australian who is the driving force behind WikiLeaks, is battling extradition from England to Sweden on charges of rape and molestation. He was released on bail in London on Thursday.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">Speaking Saturday outside a supporter's mansion in eastern England, Assange called the case in Sweden a "travesty." He also claimed he and others working for WikiLeaks face significant risks.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">"There is a threat to my life. There is a threat to my staff. There are significant risks facing us," he said, without offering details of the purported threats.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">In an interview with CNBC on Friday, Assange said his organization plans to soon release information about banks, and he told Forbes magazine last month that the data would show "unethical practices."</span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -1.12px; line-height: 13.92px; word-spacing: -0.64px;">
</span></div><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 0.87em; word-spacing: -0.04em;">Assange told Computerworld magazine in 2009 that his organization had a trove of files on Bank of America. "At the moment, for example, we are sitting on 5GB from Bank of America, one of the executive's hard drives. Now how do we present that? It's a difficult problem," he was quoted as telling the magazine. </span></div></span></h1><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><div class="meta share-expanded" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 14.4px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p class="date" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 1px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MON JUL 01, 2013 AT 01:40 PM PDT</font></p><h2 style="text-align: left; margin: 0px auto 4px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.1; font-weight: normal; width: 460px;"><a id="titleHref" href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/01/1220409/-Ding-San-Diego-Chalker-Acquitted-and-Idiot-Prosecutor-Condemned-by-Mayor" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">Ding! San Diego Chalker Acquitted and Idiot Prosecutor Condemned by Mayor! Update - Ballad of JO!</font></a></h2><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><p class="author" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; display: inline-block;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="text-align: left; margin: 8px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; display: block; text-indent: -9999px; overflow: hidden; float: left; height: 15px; width: 15px; background-image: url("http://images.dailykos.com/i/main/by.gif"); background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">by</span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/user/jpmassar" style="text-align: left; margin: 4px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; text-decoration-line: none; float: left;">jpmassar</a><a class="type-user do-hotlist do-updateContent size-tiny off altTooltip ajaxON" alt="Follow this author" href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/01/1220409/-Ding-San-Diego-Chalker-Acquitted-and-Idiot-Prosecutor-Condemned-by-Mayor?detail=email#?friend_id=155698&is_stream=1" style="text-align: left; margin: 4px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; line-height: 1.4; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-indent: -9999px; overflow: hidden; height: 10px; width: 9px; float: left; background-image: url("http://images.dailykos.com/i/main/icon-favorite-10.gif"); background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Follow</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p></div><div class="article-body" style="margin: 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 14.4px; overflow: hidden; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="intro" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.10news.com/news/verdict-in-san-diego-chalk-vandalism-case-070113" style="line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Common sense and sanity prevailed</a><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> - perhaps unexpectedly - in San Diego today.  Now Bank of America can go back to defrauding America the old fashioned way, instead of demanding that the courts do their dirty work for them.</span></font></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> </span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><blockquote style="margin: 1.2em 0px; padding: 20px; line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(246, 243, 236); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 225); border-top: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 225);"><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman">A 40-year-old man was acquitted Monday of 13 misdemeanor vandalism charges that stemmed from protest messages written in chalk in front of three Bank of America branches in San Diego.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font face="Times New Roman">Jeffrey David Olson's attorney argued during the trial -- which garnered national attention -- that his client was engaging in a legal protest and was not maliciously defacing of property.</font></p></blockquote><font face="Times New Roman" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 1.4;">The case made headlines and got lots of attention here on Daily Kos and in other blogs because of the ridiculousness of the possible penalty in contrast to the alleged "crime" of writing messages in easily removable chalk.</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; margin: 1.2em 0px; padding: 20px; line-height: 1.4; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 225); border-top: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 225); background-color: rgb(246, 243, 236);"><font face="Times New Roman">Olson could have faced up to 13 years behind bars if convicted of all counts. Jurors began deliberating Friday.</font></blockquote><font face="Times New Roman" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 1.4;">Apparently the jury decided that Olsen wasn't being malicious, whereas the statute says that the action must be so, and that makes good sense:</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><blockquote style="margin: 1.2em 0px; padding: 20px; line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(246, 243, 236); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 225); border-top: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 225);"><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman">Defense attorney Tom Tosdal argued that vandalism law required jurors to find something was "maliciously defaced."</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font face="Times New Roman">"His purpose was not malicious. His purpose was to inform," Tosdal said of his client.</font></p></blockquote><font face="Times New Roman" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 1.4;">And here's the sweet part...</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; margin: 1.2em 0px; padding: 20px; line-height: 1.4; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 225); border-top: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 225); background-color: rgb(246, 243, 236);"><font face="Times New Roman">The prosecution of Olson brought condemnation of the City Attorney's Office from Mayor Bob Filner, who called it a waste of time.</font></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman">Unlike certain mayors who will not be named in Oakland and New York City, perhaps there is at least one sane one in these United States who doesn't think his or her City should be prosecuting peaceful protesters.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Update: Ballad of Jeff Olsen</b><span style="line-height: 1.4;">:</span></div><font face="Times New Roman" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> </span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><p style="text-align: left; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxBoBEEVfF4" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.youtube.com/...</font></a></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font face="Times New Roman">Can't get it to embed, even after adding the htt</font></p></div></div><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><div class="byline story" style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="field field-name-field-sources field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.salon.com/">Salon</a> <span class="print-footnote">[1]</span></span></span></span> / <em>By</em> <em><a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/david-dayen">David Dayen</a> <span class="print-footnote">[2]</span></em></font></div><div class="story_comments" style="text-align: left;"><span class="small"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><img src="/8e520a13-0fe9-58d1-b56b-0e7b014357a8.png"/></font></a></td><td width="100%" style="padding: 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Real_Economy_Project" title="Real Economy Project" class="mw-redirect">Real Economy Project</a> needs your help filling this section out. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Portal:Real_Economy_Project/What_you_can_do" title="Portal:Real Economy Project/What you can do">Here's how</a>.</font></td></tr></tbody></table><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span class="mw-headline"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Contact</font></span></h2><p /><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4">Bank of America 100 N. Tryon Street</font></div><font face="Times New Roman" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Charlotte, NC 28255</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4"> </font></div><p /><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4">Phone: 704-386-5681</font></div><font face="Times New Roman" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><p /><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4">Fax: 704-386-6699</font></div><font face="Times New Roman" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Web address: <a href="http://www.bankofamerica.com/" class="external free" title="http://www.bankofamerica.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.bankofamerica.com</a></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a name="Articles.26_sources" id="Articles.26_sources"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></a></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span class="mw-headline"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Articles & sources</font></span></h2><p style="text-align: left;"><a name="SourceWatch_articles" id="SourceWatch_articles"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></a></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span class="mw-headline"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SourceWatch articles</font></span></h3><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Animal_testing" title="Animal testing"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">Animal testing</font></a></li><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bank" title="Bank"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">Bank</font></a></li><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coal" title="Coal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">Coal</font></a></li><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Countrywide_Financial_Corporation" title="Countrywide Financial Corporation"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">Countrywide Financial Corporation</font></a></li><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Global_Warming" title="Global Warming" class="mw-redirect"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">Global Warming</font></a></li><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=March_of_Dimes" title="March of Dimes"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">March of Dimes</font></a></li><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program" title="Troubled Asset Relief Program"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">Troubled Asset Relief Program</font></a></li><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Written_testimony_of_Bank_of_America_Corp._to_Financial_Crisis_Inquiry_Commission" title="Written testimony of Bank of America Corp. to Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">Written testimony of Bank of America Corp. to Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission</font></a></li><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Millennium_Bulk_Terminals" title="Millennium Bulk Terminals"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">Millennium Bulk Terminals</font></a></li></ul><p style="text-align: left;"><a name="References" id="References"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></a></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span class="mw-headline"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">References</font></span></h3><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/3/22/too_crooked_to_fail_matt_taibbi"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">http://www.democracynow.org/2012/3/22/too_crooked_to_fail_matt_taibbi</font></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A group of consumer advocates is <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-bankofamerica-breakuptre80o0np-20120125,0,2430551.story">pressing the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Financial Stability Oversight Council</a> to use the power the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law granted them.</font></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"Bank of America currently poses a grave threat to U.S. financial stability by any reasonable definition of that phrase," the 24-page petition said.</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It said Bank of America, the nation's second-largest bank, is too large and complex, and that its financial condition could deteriorate rapidly at any moment, potentially causing the market to lose confidence in the bank.</font></p><p /><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4">"An ensuing run on the bank could cause a devastating financial crisis," the petition said.</font></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">That was precisely why this provision, Section 121, was included in Dodd-Frank, containing systemic risk provisions that allow federal regulators to order a "too big to fail" institution that posts a “grave threat” to basically shrink, to divest and to curtail its financial activities. The primary challenge is going to be getting these regulators to do this particular job, since the law also makes this action discretionary on their part.</font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">===</font></p><div id="blog_author_info" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 0px; border: 0px;"><div class="blog_author_name" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><div class="blog_author_date" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; border: 0px; float: left; width: 340px;"><div class="float_left fixed_width_author" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; float: left; width: 290px;"><div class="blog_posted_date" style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 7px; border: 0px; clear: both; font-weight: bold;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Posted: June 12, 2009 02:04 PM</font></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div></div></div><div id="blog_title" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><h1 style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-whitney/us-chamber-of-commerce-3s_b_214884.html" title="Permalink" id="title_permalink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; line-height: 22px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">U.S. Chamber of Commerce <3s Bank of America</font></a></h1><div style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; border: 0px;"><div style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 16px; float: right; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Yesterday the U.S. Chamber of Commerce saw fit to stand up for Bank of America's disgraced ex-Chairman and current CEO Ken Lewis. Lewis<a href="http://www.seiu.org/2009/06/10-questions-to-ask-bank-of-america-ceo-ken-lewis-at-house-testimony-on-disastrous-merrill-lynch-pur.php" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">testified to the House Oversight Committee</a> about the bank's purchase and subsequent bleeding of Merrill Lynch.</font></b></p><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It's no secret that Ken Lewis set his sights on expanding Bank of America's reach as far as it can go - BofA bought Merrill Lynch despite the firm losing $35 billion in the previous two years. The House committee held the hearing to investigate the acquisition, which allegedly led to Bank of America needing another $20 billion bailout at the end of 2008.</font></b></p><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">So despite the obvious public image problems of Bank of America, and Ken Lewis's feet being halfway out the door of BofA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce decided to stick up for both Lewis and BofA. The Chamber <a href="http://www.chamberpost.com/2009/06/another-warning-against-corporate-campaigns.html" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">writes</a>:</font></p><blockquote style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 15px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(240, 240, 240);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Exploring the facts should shed light on the actions of all parties at a critical juncture in the history of our capital markets, and demonstrate that despite circumstances regarding the deal's execution, had BofA not purchased Merrill Lynch, instability in the financial system at the time could have been far worse.</font></blockquote><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ah yes. "Circumstances regarding the deal's execution." That's probably Chamber-speak for "failing to disclose $12 billion in losses." You know, no biggie. That's chump change over at the Chamber.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This isn't the first time the U.S. Chamber has stuck up for its buddies at Bank of America. At the end of last year, while the economy collapsed and BofA took on its first $25 billion bailout, the U.S. Chamber saw fit to honor Bank of America with its <a href="http://www.uschamber.com/press/releases/2008/september/080908_bclcawards.htm" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">"2008 Corporate Citizenship Award."</a> Because nothing says "Corporate Citizenship" like milking taxpayers for unprecedented billions.</font></b></p><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Of course, there's also the little matter of failing to say whether or not the U.S. Chamber is using Bank of America's bailout money to fight working families. <a href="http://twurl.nl/60gqvq" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Politico reports</a>:</font></p><blockquote style="list-style: none; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 15px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(240, 240, 240);"><p style="text-align: left;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Adam Green over at OpenLeft pushes the Chamber of Commerce to say that <b>they're still accepting dues from bailed-out companies.</b></font></p><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The goal is to make the case that the Chamber is using taxpayer dollars to help fund their anti-EFCA campaign (of which they have launched new ads targeting moderate Democratic senators).</font></b></p><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Chamber's Brad Peck says they're not using bail-out money for the campaign.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">I've asked how exactly they know that to be the case.</font></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></p><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Crickets from the Chamber since then.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">So, U.S. Chamber of Commerce: are you using Bank of America's bailout, or any other bailout for that matter, to fund the fight for your legislative priorities?</font></p><p style="text-align: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">We'll wait patiently for a response. In the meantime, we'll keep up the fight to hold Bank of America - and the U.S. Chamber - accountable to the American taxpayers.</font></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>