Careful: Banks are watching

I agree.

Would you care to elaborate?

Sure. The U.S and Canadian Constitutions both state that only the Government may print and issue currency.

The Federal Reserve is a bank - not a Government agency

The Bank of Canada is a bank - not a Government agency

So, our governments gave away the power to print and issue currency to private banks. Which basically put them in control of everything in 1913.

The Banks tricked them into it, by creating a crisis to which they could implement their solution - The Fed.

Now, the fractional reserve banking system and Fiat monetary system is allowing these banks to print money out of debt, or basically create as much money as they want, when they want, with nothing liquid to back it up.

Eventually the system will crumble. It is designed that way. They know the system WILL crash, so they use those instances for their own gain. The next crisis may see the creation of a new currency for North America for instance.

Thats what they do.

Problem.
Reaction.
Solution.

Create the problem, to get the reaction, in order to justify the solution.

That's why they don't teach the money system is schools in North America.

Phree... and the little green aliens kidnap you at night and hold you for ransom. I have worked in banking, specifically at an executive level position for most of my lifetime, the issues are global. Credit card debt, financial wherewithal of commercial and consumer clients, etc.

Yes... lol, its this guy really...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLKKe2o9WnM&feature=related

ROTFLMAO! Brilliance Mr. Riggs, Brilliance :O)

You make some pretty grave accusations. Did you figure this out on your own or can you provide us with references?

Why don't we just ask RebelGirl, she seems to know everything...

Rebel why don't you fill us in with your "Executive knowledge" and tell us all how much a bank can loan out compared to what they're holding? Is it 7-1? 9-1? Meaning, if the bank has $1000 in their safe, they can legally loan out $7000.

Is a bank allowed to loan more money than it has? Yes! How much more? Where does it come from?

Furthermore, why don't you explain what the phrase printed on the dollar means...

"This note is legal tender for all debts public and private".

Here is a good little movie about money. It has a lot of pretty colors in it, to keep some of you interested.

Thanks Tedd, I am working on the article at your request. I will try to have it to you by the weekend.

M

Well she has worked at a bank most of her life, so I would think she would have a good concept of what she is talking about.

Yet she hasn't answered the questions I asked two days ago.

As far as knowing "everything" I think that is a bit of an far reach.

Yeah. Thanks. I was being sarcastic.

Since you apparently speak for RebelGirl, maybe you would like to correct my statements, or at least point out where I am wrong?

Since she is unwilling or unable to do so.

I am in kindergarden on the financial side of things

Yes...most are. Thats the way the want it! For if people actually knew how the system works, there would be riots in the streets.

Another good movie to watch is "America: From Freedom to Fascism".

Ron Paul also has some good videos on youtube that explain the monetary system, including one where he confronts Bernake.

Tedd and Phree... note my comment about an article. I was asked to write one, so I am, I didn't feel the need to answer in two places.

I don't have to write the article, but I am not going to do double work on what I consider a very boring topic.

Sorry for the delay. I thought my comment covered it.

OK thanks, just ordered it off their web site, on sale for $1 ! I did not know that was a Aaron Russo film, he was a good guy.

Thats too bad. I could have saved you the dollar!!

The full movie is here for free.

Tedd and Phree... note my comment about an article. I was asked to write one, so I am, I didn't feel the need to answer in two places.

I think you can answer my few questions here..now. You owe me that at least, since you decided to insult my intelligence by labeling me as some kind of alien conspiracy nut.

Please answer, it shouldn't take you more then 2 minutes.

Great something else to make me paranoid this morning. I hate the banks.

That's why, excepting Bill Pay for the mortgage, car, and utilities, I withdraw cash from the ATM to make the bulk of my purchases. It's none of the government's nor the bank's business where or how I spend my money.

Tedd,

In insurance company lingo "not really" means "occasionally, yes, but not on a routine basis".

Being a banker my entire life, including working on internal SAR committees and on the Patriot Act and BSA compliance, I can tell you anything you would like to know...

About as interesting as you talking in code, but then you already know everything there is to know about me :O)

Hmmmm yeah right on the code, or knowing everything there is to know? All you have to do is ask, but then that tricky thing called email is involved and we both know how well that tends to work...

I will get right on that tomorrow... I am sure Jon will love that, I think he had security detail in his previous life, so maybe you could swap war stories...

But there is always yahoo mail, it works just fine :O)

Being a banker my entire life, including working on internal SAR committees and on the Patriot Act and BSA compliance, I can tell you anything you would like to know...

Well, why don't you cough it up and give us some good inside info, then? please? Or is that only for Tedd in email ... ???

What do you want to know?? I will give you anything I do know and if I don't know I will find out and report back :O)

RebelGirl, if you could write an article on this topic telling us all the inside info that we innocent American people should know about, then that would be a great way to get the word out to many more than just me. Or Tedd! So it really has nothing to do with "what I want to know about." Help us get smarter here, please!

LOL, I will have to work on it, although you could give me a range of questions, as its a pretty big topic to tackle.

Well, let's just say, you will have better luck in it getting written if you give me some areas of concer, question.

It would be like me asking you to write everything you know about Technology...

I am glad you have so much faith in me to cover it all though.

RebelGirl, just write an article telling us the stuff "they" don't want us to know about. Everything else we probably already know about. Simple.

That is a good point sushicat... People don't really have a choice, you can't do much without a bank account. Cash is becoming less and less common for payment, unless you are in the illegal drug market or dealing with small change to buy a candy bar or tip the valet.

You have to have a checking account in this world.

BUT, What if everyone pulled their money out of the bank (not enough money there actually) and started using cash all the time? The banks would not be making money off of your money anymore and they would be out of biz, and therefore out of my own biz. Oh well. Thanks for spying on me and reporting my financial activity to the gov't, @!$%#s.

Sorry Tedd but that's simply not true. There are any number of federal oversight agencies that regulate banks, s & ls and credit unions. Credit union oversight falls within the purview of the NCUA. And indeed accounts of $100,000.00 or less are federally insured by the FDIC just as are accounts in other similar institutions. Further, credit unions are subject to the same requests and reporting standards vis-a-vis suspected money laundering, etc. as are other financial institutions per their regulations.

You're not falling in with the black helicopter crowd are you? ;>0

Tedd, you are correct, they do have different practices... although there is some overlap, they have less stringent lending practices and tax laws, which is why they are able to pay higher interest rates and dividends to their customers...per your banker friend Mel.

...probably from the same MSN Money stories Navyvet mentioned in #5 - also did some checking after the Spitzer scandal. I have admired his public service and was interested in how the evidence for the scandal was obtained and released. This info is not proprietary in any way. Just a general interest in protecting US civil liberties.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/FinancialPrivacy/WhyYourBankThinksYoureATerrorist.aspx

It's also in this Newsweek article seeded by wmolaw. Spitzer got snagged by the fine print of the Patriot Act.

sign on online petition to stop this: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/repealbankspying/

OMG its not bank spying its GOVERNMENT SPYING... they passed the law, call your congressman.

In something not particularly germane to this thread but of interest is the fact that some establishments here in DC, following a similar trend in NYC, are now accepting payment in Euros particularly if the proprietors are planning a trip across the pond as stockpiling them given current trends is a useful hedge. Nothing illegal about it unless one also gives change in European currency.

Ayn Rand was an overrated provacateur of no proximate literary or philosophical worth whose own demand of slavish adherence was something of a cult. Her legacy lives on though with college sophomores and some of the more feverish swamps of the libertarian right.

ok, i'll maybe even give you some of that with Ayn Rand, but she was right about the difference between socialism and totalitarianism--its just a matter of time.

I love her books anyway. Not her philosophy just her fiction.

She called Alan Greenspan, one of her followers for a time, "The Undertaker".

Tedd, correct me if I'm wrong, but on another thread didn't you say that you're one of the Riggs's of Riggs Bank here in DC, now swallowed up by PNC after Joe Albritton ran it into the ground?

Can I talk it up a bit for that ol' renegade, John Stuart Mill? "A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither." John Stuart Mill
Oh, those neocons would just call him a party-pooper PLUS a collaborator.

This detailed monitoring can be used to your advantage too. For example, I buy Magnum XL condoms with my debit card, then report the card lost/stolen. When I go in to the bank to request a new card, I pick the hottest teller and ask her to review my account for suspicious activity, but confirm that no purchases were fraudulent. It's usually good for 1 date per branch location ;)

And here I thought Doug Butabi was a fictional character.

Credit Vixen: Doug, swipe the card.

Doug: Swipe it? OK i'll swipe it. Is that nice? Does that feel good? Cuz i could swipe it aaaallll night.

sirmonkey ... seriously, you expect us to believe you actually do that? Report your card stolen just so you can get a date? Dude, that's pretty pathetic and desperate, and more like something I would see in a movie than something someone would actually do. Also, in the real world it wouldn't work, because the alleged purchase of Magnum condoms wouldn't show up as "Magnum Condoms" on your statement ... it would show up as "Walgreen drug CNX3456YTT Syracuse NY" or some such. The low level teller at the bank wouldn't have that information. Trust me, I've been the victim of credit card fraud before, and the teller couldn't tell me WHAT was purchased, just how much and where.

it would show up as "Walgreen drug CNX3456YTT Syracuse NY"

I know. With a joke one must often let go of technical details. You should instead point that obvious fact out to those that express anxiety rather than those that express humor.

You're starting to get a little creepy with the following me around here on the vine. Please find a new friend.

While it was evident that you weren't being factual, it wasn't entirely evident that you were joking. Usually, one indicates a joke online with "j/k" or "[/sarcasm]"

Those that express anxiety? The tellers don't have access to that information. The government and big wigs at the bank could very easily find out what those purchases were.

You're starting to get a little creepy with the following me around here on the vine. Please find a new friend.

Excuse me? My comment tracker is alerting me that people have commented in threads in which I have already commented ... that's what the comment tracker does. You are the one commenting in threads in which I have previously commented, so if one is following the other, you are the follower. So, if you want me to stop commenting on your comments, simply stop commenting in threads in which I have already posted a comment. That should solve all your problems. Trust me, I don't want to read any more of your ridiculous comments than I have to. I would ignore you, but it messes up the comment tracker in a very annoying way.

;) is present twice in the post! Why must you persist in this? You're crossing over from creepy to downright annoying.

;) is a wink. Wink != Joke.

Oh, no, I'm annoying you? Consider it reciprocal. The fact that you find it creepy that I use my comment tracker is ridiculous and pathetic. The first comments I read on newsvine today were your replies to my comments in threads you had previously not been in. Comments in which you were requesting that I expand on my thoughts when I had already said all I cared to say. I respectfully declined.

You're the creepy one. Writing creepy, creepazoid stories about picking up bank tellers in the creepiest possible way, and then expanding on your story by suggesting ways to get the low-paid bank tellers to foot the bill for your date. If that's not creepy, then Miriam-Webster needs to change their definition.

Why must I persist? Why must you persist? I'm sitting here watching TV with my laptop and I'm just going to keep replying to anything that pops up on Newsvine. If you don't like it, ignore me.

;)

I don't use "ignore". I read stuff, even stuff I don't like. Even stuff that makes me uncomfortable.

It would be handy for you to expand on your thoughts in some places. I'm not clear what you're up to in this subtopic here. What is you point, my friend? ;)

If you found my post to be creepy, you could have stated so. Instead you attack an obvious joke on the basis of not being factual. You are insistent that ;) is not appropriate for a joke. I obviously disagree. Move on, please.

It would be handy for you to expand on your thoughts in some places.

In many cases, my comments are merely a reiteration of things I have stated in other threads. Sometimes I just feel like laying out the basics, other times I feel like writing a long screed. Which I choose is entirely based upon my own discretion.

I'm not clear what you're up to in this subtopic here. What is you point, my friend?

Why, I'm not up to a thing. I'm merely replying to your points and counterpoints. What on earth are you up to? Your friend? I don't think so. I am not your friend, and you are not mine. You aren't even an acquaintance, as we are not acquainted, nor do I care to be. I have not even added you as a Newsvine friend. So, we are not friends, even in the most generic usage of the word.

;)

unless someone was a little off.

Exactly. Unless they were a little off. Or ... perhaps more than a little.

;)

Exactly, I don't need them knowing how much baking soda and ephedrine and duracells I go through in an average week ... wait ... I mean ... no, scratch all that. Nevermind.

I am working on an art project that involves having a multitude of little timers or clocks. I got some pretty strange responses when I called up wholesale companies looking for a hundred digital timers.

I don't freak out about this stuff, but what does give me a little worry sometime is not the overt stuff. It is the, "So, you read the Dawkins book about Atheism and the biography of Mao in the same year. You are a danger to our society, and we don't want you teaching our young men and women."

It seems like every time I tune into one of the conservative talking heads, there is some attack on academia, intellectualism, universities. There kind of like Nazis.

SEED - Sat Mar 22, 2008 3:59 AM PDT

#17.4 - Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:29 AM PDT

Took a while, but we got there! Two days is not a speed record, but there should be a bonus for the "reach" factor. Yet a demerit for the cliche factor ;)

Sirmonkey... I hope it was an attempt to be funny, not truly using all the "banned words"

:O)

To much Bleach :L)

If I understood he was saying someone drug in the usually politics into this thread, but I think it was an attempt at humor.

LOL

Tedd, that Guam airport thingie is a whole story in itself. You gotta draw it out into a story, make us see their faces, the tarmac, the heat, you starting to sweat. What went thru your mind at each part of the story. Come on! Do it! Write it down! In case you can't tell, these are orders (that is, if you can't get going already.)

Sorry. I should have been more specific, but I was trying to be terse and avoid a distraction! Certainly, I goofed royally in that regard! Just talking about how quickly or slowly one reaches the "Conservatives are Nazis" cliche:

It seems like every time I tune into one of the conservative talking heads, there is some attack on academia, intellectualism, universities. There kind of like Nazis.

I "did time" @ UC Berkeley, so it became a sport for me to count how many times a day things were identified as Nazi encroachments. Campus police, admission policy changes, Reagan, Bush, Livermore Labs researchers, Bank of America, me, etc. etc. etc.

True. Yet what I saw early on there (that seemed "unique" at the time), was very shortly prevalent elsewhere (actually I was also hanging at Stanford a bit, back then, which was not identical to Berkeley, but had some surprising similarities too).

It is surprising to me, actually. My experience there was incredibly tame compared to what is prevalent nowadays elsewhere, and reaching kids at younger ages.

Sorry to be so cliche. I guess I could go the other way and say Maoist, as well, in all fairness. I am not a paranoid goob, nor do I think I have the power to change any of this @!$%#. I also do not think that I am important enough to be harassed or jailed or oppressed. I also think that we enjoy so much freedom that if there were some attempt to control us to the degree the Nazi's did, there would be a bloodbath.

On the otherhand, we have a constant media stream of misinformation via AM radio and Fox news. We have a massive amount of people who are incarcerated, and since private industry now runs prisons, there is a need to increase those numbers. Everything seems to be reduced to a slogan, and there seems to be an assualt on analytical thinking. Sorry to be cliche again, but this is what happened when Hitler took power. This is how he took power. I am certain that the likes of Carl Rove and every other strategist and marketing expert have read the Hitler playbook or at least stolen a page or two.

I repeat. I think all this is in place to pump the market. To get us to buy @!$%#... But, I also think with things like they are and the systems of checks and balances eroded, there is potential for a pretty ugly stretch in our history. There is certainly ample precedent. But, hey, sorry to be cliche. If you want to boil a frog, heat the water slowly. If it gets too hot too quick, he'll jump out.

PS. While I do support restrictions like cooling off periods and background checks, I fully back second admendment rights because of the above scenario. The founding fathers, despite being a bunch of pot smoking, slave owning, filandering agnostics, were a pretty astute bunch.

Yes. I am liberal and I like guns, fishing, and yardwork. Christ I have become Hank Hill, and I am voting for Obama, have voted for Obama. I am an artist, and I would love to go to a NASCAR race. Go figure, I am human.

Sorry to go off on a tangent, just wanted to share a morning affirmation.

Tedd... I second that request!

King of the Hill... cartoon show like Family Guy, lives in Texas of course :O)

You are on a roll with me... I love that! Brilliance I tell you, shear brilliance :O) Thanks for making me laugh every hour on the hour.

#17.16: Sorry to go off on a tangent, just wanted to share a morning affirmation.

So conservative == nazi. I assume you'll get plenty of affirmation for that sentiment on the vine!

#17.16: Sorry to be so cliche.

At least you are self aware, and aware that you are contributing little, besides more "misinformation" which you apparently lament.

The affirmation is i=human.

Some conservatives are Nazis. Some Nazis are conservatives. Not all but some. Dig?

Some liberals are Stalinists. Some Stalanists are liberals. Not all but some. Getting the picture now?

It's really just the age old debate about our (our=human) fatal obsession with totalitarianism.

See quote from MinnieAppolis for more information.

If you review what I have said thus far you will see tactics=Nazi. Now the ones using these tactics of which I speak happen to be Republican. Certainly, to my knowledge Mitt never outed any CIA operatives. So, I don't consider him a Nazi. He may be. I don't know. I don't think Carl Rove wears swastikas, but I do think that he uses tactics that the Nazis pioneered. Anyway, I hope that you understand now what I have said.

Hitler (evil bastard that he was) used the media brilliantly. Sloganism was a big part of his propaganda machine. Read about the "Degenerate Art" Exhibition, and you will see for yourself how the Nazi-party used anti-intellectualism to garner power. I certainly see Tucker and others @!$%#in' about those liberal universities bad-mouthing American (instead of promoting an experience that challenged his values and misconceptions and made him who he is). I certainly see Fox having so-called experts analyzing the degree to which Hillary's left shoulder slumps when she says the word tax.

Now I am no historian, but I know these things to be true. And, the things I hear in the media are similar to those... I'm tired of explaining. If you don't get where I coming from, you haven't been around me enough. I think you're just trying to pick fights anyway. So, go ahead and pull something else I have written out of context so we argue about this bull@!$%# instead of addressing the issues in the article.

#17.16: On the otherhand, we have a constant media stream of misinformation via AM radio and Fox news. We have a massive amount of people who are incarcerated, and since private industry now runs prisons, there is a need to increase those numbers. Everything seems to be reduced to a slogan, and there seems to be an assualt on analytical thinking. Sorry to be cliche again, but this is what happened when Hitler took power. This is how he took power. I am certain that the likes of Carl Rove and every other strategist and marketing expert have read the Hitler playbook or at least stolen a page or two.

Indeed "Yes we can, yes we can, si se puede"... "H. O. P. E." "Change" ;)

I think you've "jumped the shark" trying to claim that slogans are Hitleresque. Yes, I understand Nazis used (arguably innovated) PR tactics. This is accurate history. Your "analysis" is not.

Thanks, Ted.
I am already there.

Shawn,

This is common among all companies, at account opening and on a yearly basis you have the ability to opt out via the privacy notice. Contact your bank and ask them to take you off this list.

Most credit card companies, insurance companies, grocery stores, etc., have this practice. Banks are requried to give you the option to opt out of information sharing.

Ah.... well then I must do so, when I go to get a bank account. My wife has one... I just pay cash

Oth, you are allowed to OPT out at any time, call customer service and they will take you off the sharing list, it is renewable every year.

Mel

Just think of it as a bank discount, my fees would just offset the bank... then your $500 deposit would end up being like $50 :O)

I have tried, unsuccessfully, to opt out from an insurance (quack ;) company sharing my information. I don't know what info they have but I do know that insurance companies have access to a great amount of personal data.

The Privacy Notice - their guidelines for sharing info on me - was sent to me with the regular billing. It included the stated opportunity for me to opt out of having them share my data. After following procedures described to opt out I received another form that was to be filled in and returned. I returned that form and later followed up with a call to confirm my option to opt out had been processed. I was told that I would need to opt out each time I made a payment because their system treated each payment as a renewal, that they think the sharing is beneficial to their customers, that it is time consuming and cumbersome to confirm privacy, that privacy would apply to some of my data because of the need to exchange for regular business purposes but might exclude data transfers to certain non-affiliates... and so on to my exhaustion.

I didn't know what data they had or if they actually resisted sharing my info. The experience left me thinking the requirement to extend the opt-out opportunity was a sort of feel good measure but that the data mine was too deep for an ordinary consumer to plumb.

I also have a question for RebelGirl :o)

How are the SARs generated? Is it the same type of processing that leads credit card companies to find suspicious activity on accounts?

Most banks have a committee, we have software that has thresholds and triggers, they are brought before the committee and if they are severe enough, or questionable enough, then the SAR's are filed without anyone else's knowledge, i.e. the customer, or the lender on the account. Kiting is also another reason for a SAR to be filed.

SAR's are not that common, but red flags are followed up on.

Reb,

If I buy something from Mumbai India and have it delivered to my house is that a red flag?

Brenda... depends on that something, but India is not on the watch list. Here is a good resource

http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/sdn/

Tedd... really you could get someone here, maybe even free, if you were just a little NICER...

The court can subpoena anything... trust me I used to have that job in the bank too :O)

Some have recommended pooling & swapping the cards so as to "confuse" the data mining that is done with them. It is an interesting link in that when used, it can span "cash" and "credit" purchases, can't it.

Personally, I just use the things and willfully give up my "privacy". I think I've saved about $28.82 so far. Not a bad trade for my personal liberties ;)

Yeah because you surely don't return Text Messages :O)

NOT ME?? I don't have a patio at night in my camera silly! Maybe its that other girl...

LOL ok you will have to send it back to me :O)

Up writing a poem, one that hasn't left me for days...finally done and now I am off to bed. I am sure I will think its crap in the morning, I am sure all that read it will agree it is crap too...but by then I will be thinking more clearly, its just been one of those days.

Hope all is well with you Mr. Riggs... as always it has been my pleasure sharing this fun day with you. Goodnight, dear sir.

Thanks... still not perfect, but some things just need to be said.

Have a great day.

M

Minnie.... you hit the nail on the head... give that woman a beer Tedd she guessed it!!!!