Pity the 1%! Billionaires Bemoan Criticism by ‘Imbeciles’
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It’s tough these days being a member of the top 1 percent, what with all the complaints about the widening income gap and tax breaks for billionaires, not to mention the demands of the 99 percent for a little accountability. “It feels lonely…,” said John A. Allison IV, former CEO of BB&T, one of the nation’s top 10 banks, to Bloomberg News.
Or, as billionaire Tom Golisano, founder of Paychex Inc., so delicately put it, according to Bloomberg:
“If I hear a politician use the term ‘paying your fair share’ one more time, I’m going to vomit,” said Golisano, who turned 70 last month, celebrating the birthday with girlfriend Monica Seles, the former tennis star who won nine Grand Slam singles titles.
Even Jamie Dimond, the J.P. Morgan Chase CEO who took home a cool $23 million last year, and John Paulson, the billionaire hedge fund manager, have publicly bemoaned their targeting by Occupy Wall Street and other detractors.
So what’s a lonely, nauseous billionaire to do? Organize!
Enter the so-called Job Creators Alliance (JCA), a sort of one-stop messaging operation, complete with a speakers bureau and media booking operation for those underappreciated fat cats. The group’s 17 featured business leaders say they aim to “shape the national agenda,” according to the JCA website. Read the rest of this entry »
Bank of America’s Unconscionable Debit Card Fee Grab
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The Big Banks still don’t get it. Bank of America recently announced that it will start charging its customers $5 per month to use their debit cards. Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are considering similar fees on their customers.
For many workers, debit cards have replaced credit cards as a more affordable way to make purchases with their money. Unlike credit cards that carry high interest rates on their balances, debit card transactions transfer money directly from customers’ bank accounts like writing a check.
The Big Banks claim that these new fees are necessary because the Federal Reserve cut the amount that banks can charge merchants each time their customers swipe a debit card. These so-called “swipe fees” are passed on to customers in the form of higher prices. Read the rest of this entry »
House Republican Agenda: Make Big Banks More Profitable
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When the Republicans take over the U.S. House in January, one of the first things on their agenda is payback to those who helped get them in office: Wall Street.
And they’ve already announced one way they plan to do that.
The financial reform legislation that President Obama signed into law in July gave regulators a significant tool to rein in gambling by big Wall Street banks. The “Volcker Rule,” named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker who proposed it, is aimed at preventing Big Banks from speculating on securities or other complex financial products (a.k.a. “proprietary trading”) and putting strict limits on their ability to bet on hedge funds and private equity funds.
N.Y. Coalition Tells Big Banks Do More to Stop Foreclosures
A coalition of New York City unions and community groups, joined by city Comptroller John Liu, told some of the biggest banks that received hundreds of billions in taxpayer bailouts that it’s time to help out New York homeowners facing foreclosure.
In letters to JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, PNC, Wachovia and U.S. Bank, the group says the banks are not doing enough to modify mortgages to help homeowners stay in their homes.
Wall Street Reform Actions Go Nationwide
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When Wells Fargo shareholders gather for the big bank’s annual shareholders meeting today in San Francisco, they’ll have a lot of company—about 1,000 workers and community and religious activists. They plan to tell Wells Fargo CEOs it’s time to start paying for the jobs they destroyed and that working people “will not be your ATM.”
The San Francisco march and rally is part of a huge week of mobilization for Wall Street reform spearheaded by the AFL-CIO, Working America and community allies, including a Thursday march and rally on Wall Street that is expected to draw 10,000 marchers and nearly as many “virtual marchers.” Click here for more information on the virtual march.
Wall Street’s Lobbying On Financial Reform Can’t Duck 2010 PayWatch Spotlight
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Be sure to be here tomorrow when the 2010 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch shines its spotlight on Wall Street’s Big Six: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo/Wachovia.
The six banks, which received billions of dollars from the Treasury Department’s Troubled Assets Relief Program, now are spending millions of dollars to lobby on financial reform in Congress.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will host a live webcast at noon EDT tomorrow to review the new data and outline plans to enact real financial regulatory reform and make Wall Street pay for job creation through a financial speculation tax. Click here for more information on the webcast.
2010 PayWatch Spotlights Wall Street’s Effort to Block Financial Reform
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Think you’re angry now about CEO bonuses, bailouts and the wheeling and dealing of Big Banks on Wall Street?
Just wait until Tuesday, April 13. The AFL-CIO 2010 Executive PayWatch launches that day, and it will spotlight Wall Street’s Big Six: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo/Wachovia. Each stuck its hands out for the billions of dollars of corporate welfare under the Treasury Department’s Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP)—and now is using our taxpayer money to pay multimillion-dollar bonuses and, even worse, to lobby against financial reform in Congress to ensure they can continue to get away with economic murder.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will highlight a live webcast at noon EST the same day to review the new data and outline plans to enact real financial regulatory reform and make Wall Street pay for job creation through a financial speculation tax.
Wall Street: You Broke It, Now Fix It
Priscilla Luviano, communications coordinator for the Orange County Labor Federation, reports on how angry activists took on Big Banks at a recent Make Wall Street Pay rally.
“You caused the recession, fix it,” shouted Carl Ritola, delegate for the Orange County Labor Federation from Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 582. More than 100 angry working men and women marched outside Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase buildings in Santa Ana, Calif., to demand Big Banks do their fair share to restore the economy. In an editorial by Executive Director Tefere Gebre of the Orange County Labor Federation, Gebre noted how Wall Street took
$700 billion in taxpayer bailouts and went right back to business as usual. They choked up credit, handed about $145 billion in pay and bonuses to their executives who tanked our economy and hired an army of lobbyists to fight financial reform.
Top-Hatted ‘Bankers’ Peddle for Taxpayer Cash in D.C., and More Good Jobs Actions
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On Monday, in Cleveland, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told a crowd of union activists outside a Morgan Stanley office:
“We’re here at Morgan Stanley to make one thing clear. We need good jobs now. And we are going to make Wall Street pay.”
Meanwhile, in another of the AFL-CIO’s 200 “Good Jobs Now, Make Wall Street Pay” actions taking place through the end of this week, top-hatted “bankers” panhandled for even more bonus bonanzas on a sidewalk in front of a Washington, D.C., Bank of America branch.
The rallies and marches are demanding the Big Six Wall Street banks—Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia-Wells Fargo—take the following actions:
- Pay their fair share to restore the jobs their actions destroyed.
- Stop their multimillion-dollar lobbying blitz to kill financial reform.
- Start lending to communities, small businesses and others starved for credit.
A Thousand Philly Marchers Tell BofA: It’s Time to Pay
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More than 1,000 Pennsylvania union members, laid-off workers and community allies rallied outside a downtown Philadelphia Bank of America office, hundreds streamed through the bank lobby along with a delegation carrying a $145 billion check. Shouting, “No jobs, no future,” they demanded BofA endorse the check and help finance creation of the 11 million jobs Wall Street gambled away.
After all: Wall Street’s Big Six—Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia-Wells Fargo—received $145 billion taxpayer bailout funds.
Kelle Sallard, an unemployed Verizon worker and member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) from Verizon, told the crowd she lost her medical benefits but doesn’t qualify for free health care.
While the CEO of Verizon makes $18 million and gets lifetime free health care, I lost my job at Verizon, lost my benefits and make too much on unemployment to qualify for free health care. How is that fair?
