Friday, March 29, 2024

THE JOURNAL OF STEFFANIE RIVERS: THE BANKERS ARE ROBBERS!

Steffanie Rivers
Steffanie Rivers

*Nowdays it seems people have to spend more time trying to hold on to the cash assets they’ve managed to acquire than they do trying to earn it. If it’s not the cell phone company, it’s the cable company, the credit card company or some other utility company padding your bill to get more money from you than you’re supposed to pay.

Every month I check my itemized bills to keep track of all charges. I keep all bank deposit receipts until I see the money credited to my account. When there’s a withdrawal I don’t recognize, I investigate. When my pay stub doesn’t add up to what I think it should be, I call and ask questions until it’s resolved. Whether it’s fifty dollars or a hundred dollars, I worked for my money. And I want it all.

Now it turns out you can’t even trust the bank to hold on to your money and pay the few cents of interest you’re due. Wells Fargo had $22 billion in profits – the fifth most profitable company – in the United States in 2015. It had to pay a $185 million fine for illegally moving money in and out of customer accounts to trigger millions of dollars in bank fees and commissions without customers’ knowledge. ‘Churning’ is the financial term for it. If you’ve ever played the board game, Monopoly, it’s like having to pay that $200 fee everytime you make it around the board and pass go. But in this game, the banker took the money out of your account and didn’t bother to tell you about it.

I guess it’s not enough that banks are allowed to loan up to 90 cents of every dollar we deposit, then bankers charge 20 percent interest on every dollar it loans creating a stream of income from our money. All we get in return is two percent interest – at best. The bank keeps the 18 percent spread, which adds up to millions of dollars in profits. And lets not forget about bounced check fees, under-funded account fees, ATM fees and all the other fees they’ve managed to create.

I’ve had a checking account with Wells Fargo Bank ever since it took over my account from Wachovia back in 2011. Management was quick to send out apology letters to customers acknowledging the fraud after they got caught, of course. But this latest news is more confirmation that white collar criminals are the biggest thieves of all. The bankers are robbers!

A few weeks go I finally got around to buying “The Creature From Jekyll Island.” This book explains how and why the Federal Reserve Bank was created. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t for the benefit of we, the people. By the time I read page 70 of this 5o0 page book I felt as if I had swallowed the red pill. If you want a detailed explanation about how the national debt got to be in the trillions, the real reason the cost of living keeps going up and why the banking system is the biggest shell game in the world, read The Creature From Jekyll Island. Or you can keep doing what you’ve been doing and keep getting what you’ve been getting.

Steffanie is a freelance journalist living in the Dallas, Texas metroplex. Email her at [email protected] to send comments, questions or for speaking inquiries.

 

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