tagged w/ Bank of America
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The end of credit cards is coming
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Mobile payments are expected to hit $214 billion by 2015. Transactions made by scanning a mobile phone at the register are forecast to reach $22 billion -- up from "practically none" last year.
By Blake Ellis, CNN staff reporter
January 24, 2011: 11:00 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Credit cards may soon be as outdated as vinyl records. (Remember those?) And this is the year that the slow, steady march to oblivion begins.
You can already use your iPhone, Droid or BlackBerry to buy a hotdog at the ballgame, buy your Starbucks latté, or give a friend a few bucks by Bumping phones. But by the end of the year you may not even think twice about reaching for your phone to pay at the register instead of fumbling for your credit card.
"Your plastic card hasn't changed since the age of the vinyl records," said Michael Abbott, CEO of Isis, a new mobile payment network. "This is the chance to bring payments forward from the plastic age and the vinyl records age to the digital age."
While companies have been experimenting with contactless mobile payments for years, 2011 is expected to be the year the technology really takes off. That's because millions of phones capable of making contactless payments are expected to be shipped out in 2011.
As a result, this pay-by-phone market is forecast to make up $22 billion in transactions by 2015, up from "practically none" last year, according to research firm Aite Group.
0:00 /1:51Your phone is becoming your wallet
"Mobile payment is going to get really interesting and is going to see a lot of activity in 2011," said George Peabody, director of emerging technologies at Mercator Advisory Group. "We're going to start seeing more and more people leaving their homes without their wallets."
But that doesn't mean it's going to happen overnight, said Jane Cloninger, director at Edgar Dunn & Co., a consulting firm specializing in financial services and payments.
"I definitely believe that the mobile wallet will eventually replace the plastic card -- but it's going to take some time because consumer habits take a long time to change," she said. "But where before it's been a lot of discussion, we're at the point now where you're going to start seeing momentum toward it and going to see it move beyond the trials and into reality."
Companies including Visa, MasterCard, Google, Bank of America, Citi and U.S. Bank are all testing contactless mobile payments, and many expect to roll out mobile wallets this year.
"2011 is going to be a very exciting, very dynamic year when it comes to mobile payments because it's the Wild West again, with all these players positioning in various different ways to redefine the digital payments landscape," said Michael Upton, senior vice president of online and mobile banking at Bank of America, which expects to launch it own mobile wallet later this year.
Meanwhile, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon joined forces with Discover and Barclays in November to form Isis and provide a rival to Visa and MasterCard.
9 ways your $$ is going sci-fi
"It's a glorious competitive battle amongst some of the largest entities in the country," said Peabody.
The Isis mobile wallet will let consumers store multiple cards, make payments with the wave of their phone, check balances, receive coupons and use rewards points at the point of sale. But it may stretch beyond just the money in your wallet. Abbott sees the potential to include your insurance cards, driver's licenses, and other information typically found in a wallet.
"[Payment] is where we're going to start, but where it goes is wide open to the innovation of other players who want to be involved," he said.
Beth Robertson, a payments analyst at Javelin Research and Strategy, said that could mean developing ways for consumers to make contactless ATM withdrawals by simply waving a phone in front of an ATM as you would at the point of sale.
But because of just how much your smartphone now holds, it's quickly becoming your most dangerous device.
"We're increasingly living our lives on our cell phones...The problem is that we're not yet used to thinking about our wallet in terms of our phone," said Ed Goodman of Identity Theft 911. "No matter how good security on any type of mobile banking or payments, there are going to be people who are able to find a way around it -- it's really all about making sure everyone ramps up their awareness." To top of pageThe end of credit cards is coming
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Mobile payments... more
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Según los analistas de Research for Traders, los papeles del banco estadounidense podrían caer hasta alcanzar niveles cercanos a los 13,50 dólares en el corto plazo.Según los analistas de Research for Traders, los papeles del banco... more
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http://sourceforge.net
By Marius Bosch and Georgina Prodhan
JOHANNESBURG/LONDON (Reuters) - If anyone needed proof that cyber activists can create havoc in the real world, the last few weeks have provided evidence in megabytes.
Rallying behind WikiLeaks, the thousands of internet activists who made headlines in December by bringing down the websites of MasterCard and Visa have been branching out.
Operating under the banner "Anonymous", their other forms of action have included hacker defacements of websites, real-life protests such as mass leafleting, and a role in Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolution".
Anonymous activists attacked and shut down several government websites before the ouster of former President Zine al Abedine Ben Ali. They have also targeted governments they see as enemies of free speech. Last month the website of Zimbabwe's finance ministry was hacked and the homepage replaced by a message from Anonymous.
A report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) this week said such attacks on computer systems are unlikely to cause a global shock on their own, though could do if launched in the midst of a natural disaster such as a large solar flare that wipes out satellites and other key communications hardware.
But this misses the point. Global chaos is not Anonymous' aim. As the WikiLeaks and Tunisia cases show, the group targets specific institutions and its attacks are designed to temporarily delay more than destroy. Think of them not as acts of cyber war but as high-profile guerrilla strikes.
1> CATALYSTS
A look inside some of the main online forums suggests that those behind the WikiLeak-inspired attacks are patient, coordinate almost organically, and remain wary of outsiders. That all means that their next moves remain unpredictable.
In the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels -- chat rooms where up to 3,000 participants at a time can discuss strategy and plot attacks -- reporters are treated with suspicion. Over the past few weeks, though, a few Anons -- as activists refer to themselves online -- agreed to talk to Reuters.
There is anecdotal evidence that Anonymous is growing stronger. Several Anons told Reuters the arrest of Assange and the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against Visa and Mastercard -- in which company websites were bombarded with so many requests they crashed -- inspired them to join the group.
"Saw it on a news article, joined the IRC, and things went on from there. 4 months ago," one Anon nicknamed "tflow" told Reuters in a private message on the IRC channel.
"I was angry at the arrest of Assange and how the credit card companies shut down WikiLeaks' accounts. Been here since," said another, going by the name of Noms9001, referring to the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Britain.
"I'm not a rebel, I can say that. For me, it's been an issue of governments and corporations attempting to control what we say and hear online."
One said they had been involved with Anonymous since the group's Project Chanology protests against the Church of Scientology in 2008. Another blamed a failed late December attack on Bank of America on a splinter group of Anonymous, and said an expected drop by WikiLeaks of documents related to the bank could provide an opportunity for a renewed effort to bring down its site.
2> MONITORING
Targets are chosen by consensus and can be attacked by as many as 10,000 computers simultaneously. Communication is mainly through IRC but supporters also use micro-blogging site Twitter and video-sharing site YouTube to release information.
The activists claim to come from all over -- Europe, the United States, China and elsewhere in Asia -- and share an almost paranoid concern with covering the tracks left by the software they use.
During the attacks on Tunisian government websites over the past couple of weeks, activists warned Tunisian citizens in the OpTunisia IRC channel against joining an assault on local internet hosting organisation ATI.
"If you are Tunisian, do not participate in the DDoS attack. Chances are that you will get traced and arrested. Unless you have means to conceal your IP and know what you are doing, do NOT attack," warned one activist.
"Do NOT give out any personal information on this IRC network. This is a public chat and you can be sure that it is monitored," the activist added.
There's a good reason for the caution. Two Dutch teenagers were arrested in December in connection with cyber attacks by WikiLeaks supporters. Both have been released and are awaiting trial.
And the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation raided a Texas server-hosting company last month looking for evidence that Anonymous had used its servers to launch attacks on PayPal, according to an affidavit obtained by The Smoking Gun website.
Some activists hope their sheer numbers will prevent authorities from trying to trace them. "Imagine tracking 9,000 plus computers across the planet for an arrest," Calgarc said in the IRC channel in reply to a question on how an attacker can hide his tracks.
3> FIRE YOUR CANNON
All you need to wage cyber war is a fast-paced internet forum packed with hundreds of determined activists and a simple piece of software called a Low Orbit Ion Cannon. Activists download the LOIC -- initially developed to help internet security experts test website vulnerability to DDoS attacks -- and start firing packets of data at the targeted website.
If enough people join in, a DDoS attack prevents the overloaded server from responding to legitimate requests and slows the website to a crawl or shuts it down totally.
Attackers can even listen to a dedicated internet radio station, Radiopayback, during attacks.
A quarter of a million copies of the LOIC software have been downloaded from sourceforge.net so far, more than half of them since November when Web hosting and banking organisations began withdrawing support from WikiLeaks.
One in five downloads since the start of November was in the United States, with a few hundred in Tunisia, and a handful in bandwidth-deprived Zimbabwe.
Users of the software can be traced. A study by Dutch researchers found last year that the tool did not mask the host computer's internet protocol (IP) address.
Barrett Lyon, a security expert who specialises in protecting companies against denial of service attacks, said the LOIC program is fairly rudimentary but effective if used by thousands of people. "It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. It's not as focused as it could have been. If they got their software together in a more sophisticated kind of way, this kind of thing could have gotten easier with more violence."
Lyon said depending on the time of day there were 500-10,000 computers involved in the attacks.
"10,000 people have quite a bit of fire power," he added.
4> CREDIBLE COUNTERFORCE
TO GO TO NEXT PAGE CLICK BELOW :
http://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-54257020110119?ca=rdt
http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2011/1/6/tunisia-cyber-special-anonymous-takes-down-the-government.htmlhttp://sourceforge.net
By Marius Bosch and Georgina Prodhan
JOHANNESBURG/LONDON... more
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Please support Wikileaks by donating.
Click here: http://213.251.145.96/support.html
Please sign the petition: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks...
If you would like to become even more involved, then there may be a "support Wikileaks protest" near you.
Click here for details: http://wlcentral.org/events-protests
Here is a list of Wikileaks mirror sites:
http://wikileaks.ch/mirrors.html
After Effects template for opening by Kenzei via Video Hive.
The statistics of how many have died as a result of the war on terror is an estimate taken from http://www.unknownnews.net
It is hard to pin pinpoint just how many have died due to the fact that this information isn't released. estimates have the toll somewhere between
800,000 and 1,200,000
Requests under freedom of information act denied by Obama Administration should read 49% - for more info
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/16...
Another point to make is that the clip of Obama talking about different terrorists was an except taken from an interview with Bill O'Reilly where he was explaining the difference between terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, i thought it was relevant as so much of the terminology in the media is focused around labelling wikileaks and it's people terrorists.
The song "Your the Voice" was by Coldplay featuring John Farnham - song was originally by John Farnham.
The clip was taken from a concert in Sydney "Sound Relief" where many bands came together to support people who were devastated by the Black Saturday fires. - of whom Coldplay were amongst them.
PLEASE POST THIS AROUND.
CheersPlease support Wikileaks by donating.
Click here: http://213.251.145.96/support.html... more
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Frantic internal review of secrecy procedures? Check.
Legal advice on the ramifications of full disclosure? Check.
Demonstrable — but hopelessly futile — attempt to limit public criticism by buying up potentially embarrassing URLs? Check.
Anyone care to guess how successful Bank of America’s medieval fortress defense structure is going to be against an information age attack?
As the New York Times reported yesterday, the WikiLeaks threat to “take down” an unidentified major bank has the leadership at B of A quaking in their collective boots. Fearing the disclosure of an executive’s hard drive allegedly revealing what Assange & Co have termed an “ecosystem of corruption,” the largest bank in the country has swung into crisis PR action — but with the agility and technological savvy of Dark Ages Europe. And if WikiLeaks really does have Bank of America in its sights, simple pity may garner the giant the first positive coverage it’s had since 2007.
What exactly is the bank doing so wrong? Put simply, it’s fortifying its defenses against…the truth. There are no claims here of falsification, shoddy reporting, or misattribution. In fact, the heart of the story seems to be that even Bank of America assumes that it is the unethical corporation that WikiLeaks has yet to name. And rather than responding with the digital equivalent of a sunshine policy and a round of mea culpas, the financial behemoth is hunkering down to defend, well, something or other. Reputation it ain’t.
Imagine a celebrity deathmatch with fighters from different millenia; in one corner, embattled lords in clanging armor oversee the construction of a massive stone wall while oil-filled cauldrons heat over raging fires. And in the other corner sits Information, impassive, unchallenged, and impervious to arrows. The bell clangs to signal the start of Round 1, and the only activity is the sound of slopping mortar on rock and the screams of another would-be defector being tossed from the parapet. For the fortress to win, it has to be under a crusader-style attack. For Information to win, all it has to do it sit there. Frankly, it’s not much of a fight.
And that, in fact, is the intelligent point that Bank of America and other future leak targets will have to realize in order to live long and prosper. Whatever you may think of how Assange procures his leaks, he’s really as much a harbinger of change as an assailant, and his message is that defensiveness is an antiquated battle tactic. (Really, what nasty online chatter does the purchase of bankofamericasucks.com prevent?) For forward-looking companies, the first step of great crisis management may be to open the doors rather than lock the gates.
http://www.customerthink.com/blog/crisis_pr_online_wikileaks_10_bank_of_america_0Frantic internal review of secrecy procedures? Check.
Legal advice on the... more
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A higher stock market is of little comfort to the millions who don't have jobs, are facing foreclosure, fraudulent or otherwise, or have no health coverage.
January 3, 2011 |
There are two potential ways to measure the economic performance of a political leader. One is by the profitability, stock prices and executive bonuses of a nation’s corporations. The other is by the financial condition of the majority of its population. Since he came to power, President Obama and his economic team have propped up the former and failed miserably to aid the latter. (For the record, ever since the first paragraph of Obama’s pre-primary website economics plan put free markets before people, this is where we were going, but it still hurts to get there.)
The S&P 500 index is up 50% since Obama took office. But unemployment remains higher than it was when he entered the White House, home foreclosures continue to mount to the detriment of borrowers and entire neighborhoods, health insurance companies responded to his health care “reform” bill by raising premiums, and the financial system’s largest banks continue to prosper in the wake of a multi-trillion dollar bailout with no strings attached to share their subsidizations with the rest of American citizens. To top it all off, as he approaches the midpoint of his first, and likely last, term, Obama bowed to the pressure of the Republican Party and extended tax cuts for the richest Americans in order to be able to also extend them for everyone else more sorely in need. There’s only so long you can blame another administration for your actions.
Obama’s economic policies have either been continuations of his predecessor’s, as in the case of taxes and bank bailouts, or bills so watered down to appease corporations, notably banks and insurance companies, that they are ineffective. In the process, he continues to alienate his supporters—individual voters, not the companies that funded his candidacy—leaving their economy in shambles. Here’s the recap.
Taxes
Just in time for Christmas, we got Obama’s big tax-cut compromise. Obama’s reverse Robin Hood deal with the Republicans disproportionally takes from the poor to give to the rich. The plan adds another $1 trillion to the record United States deficit, $700 billion of which would be the cost of extending tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent of the country, the rest going toward jobless benefits—necessary to help those victims of the wider economic problems, but not complemented with a job-creation program.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, American millionaires would get 22 percent (or $200 billion over two years) of the benefits of the deal, while the bottom 20 percent of American workers would get less than one-half of one percent. According to David Cay Johnston, the 45 million households that make less than $20,000 a year will be slapped with a tax increase of $150 to $200.
Even though the majority of his own Democratic Party supported extending cuts only to Americans making less than $250,000 a year (on TV anyway, apparently not at their seats once the compromise was inked, notables with balls like Sen. Bernie Sanders aside), Republican “all-or-nothing” pressure was met by Obama’s capitulation. He could have bargained harder—say by suggesting that tax cuts not be extended for people making more than a million dollars, rather than punting the tax cut issue into the 2012 presidential election period.
What Obama effectively did was adopt George W. Bush’s tax policy in total rather than come up with a better deal, even though the Bush tax cuts increased the net worth of the wealthiest Americans while the wages of the rest of Americans (the ones that had jobs) stagnated or decreased per hour worked. The Republicans obviously considered the deal a victory, to hell with any Republican voters in the bottom 98 percent of the country. Wall Street thought it was better than expected. Jamie Dimon was all but salivating. Even though the majority of Americans wanted to end tax breaks for the wealthiest, plus extend unemployment benefits, Obama couldn’t pull it off.
To go to the next page:
http://www.alternet.org/news/149394/obama's_economic_report_card:_a%2B_for_helping_the_wealthy_--_failing_the_rest_of_us/A higher stock market is of little comfort to the millions who don't have jobs,... more
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AnonOps Communications~ We are the fighters for Global Freedom and Freedom of the Internet.AnonOps Communications~ We are the fighters for Global Freedom and Freedom of the... more
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By Susie Madrak
Nope, despite what Iowa Attorney General (AG) Tom Miller promised in this video, we're not seeing any criminal prosecutions of these thieves. But at least these state AGs are more likely to force some real reforms into the foreclosure process:
The 50 state attorneys general probing U.S. foreclosure practices will first settle with the five largest loan servicers, including Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said.
No settlements have been reached yet, Miller said in a telephone interview today. The other three are Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Ally Financial Inc., said Miller, the leader of the 50-state investigation. The five have 59 percent of the market, Miller said.
“What we’re looking at is five separate agreements with the five largest servicers,” Miller said. “We’re still a ways away” from reaching agreements, he said. “We’re working very hard to figure out what should be in the settlement.”
All 50 U.S. states are investigating whether banks and loan servicers used false documents and signatures to justify hundreds of thousands of foreclosures. The probe, announced Oct. 13, came after JPMorgan and Ally Financial’s GMAC mortgage unit said they would stop repossessions in 23 states where courts supervise home seizures, and Bank of America, the largest U.S. lender, froze foreclosures nationwide.
[...] The group isn’t pursuing a criminal investigation, Miller said. “Our focus is to reform the servicing process and that’s inherently civil, not criminal,” he said.
In an interview last week, Miller said the group might consider matters including whether servicers are charging borrowers appropriate fees.
“We hear stories far too often of it taking months before servicers get back to people, or they lose documents and that they don’t modify a loan when it makes sense,” Miller said last week.
The 50-state group “offers one of the most promising avenues to increasing loan modification and servicer accountability that we have seen so far,” said Paul Leonard, California director for the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending in Durham, North Carolina.
He said the group would act more independently than Congress or federal regulators because of the influence of industry lobbyists in Washington.
To go to article:
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/state-ags-sign-agreements-largest-firBy Susie Madrak
Nope, despite what Iowa Attorney General (AG) Tom Miller promised... more
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[ ] E-mail from one top executive to another that includes derisive nickname for shareholders. (+150)
[ ] E-mail from one top executive to another that includes derisive nickname for former Treasury secretary Hank Paulson. (+0.5)
[ ] Mention of Countrywide’s predatory lending practices. (+1,000)
[ ] Document that expresses reservations about acquisition of Merrill Lynch. (+1)
[ ] Use of phrase “fuck no” in context of potential acquisition of Lehman Brothers. (+2)[ ] E-mail from one top executive to another that includes derisive nickname for... more
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Bank of America has agreed to pay US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about $2.6bn (£1.7bn) to settle claims it sold them bad home loans.
link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12108655Bank of America has agreed to pay US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about... more
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eva2
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Yesterday Amazon Web Services sent out a promotional email titled "Amazon Web Services Year in Review." Understandably, the email didn't mention one of the biggest AWS stories of the year: the company's decision to remove the WikiLeaks website from its servers.
Dave Winer noticed something else of note in the email: a paragraph about how the U.S. Federal Government is one of AWS's customers, with over 20 federal agencies taking advantage of the company's services. And, according to the announcement, that number is growing. Winer suggests this is the reason that Amazon.com closed WikiLeaks' account. "It makes perfect sense that the US government is a big customer of Amazon's web services. It also makes perfect sense that Amazon wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardize that business," Winer wrote. "There might not have even been a phone call, it might not have been necessary."
Winer also noted that after the U.S. Army announced it would be purchasing iPhone or Android devices for all its troops, Apple dropped a WikiLeaks app from the App Store.
Winer's explanation is purely speculative, and some might call it a conspiracy theory. But it points to a big issue for free speech in the cloud: what happens if one, smaller customer criticizes a bigger customer? In the Web 1.0 era, if you got kicked off a Web host you just found another. Today, the number of providers like AWS are small. As AWS's promotion material points out, cloud computing gives smaller outfits the ability to take advantage of high-performance computing.
Put WikiLeaks aside for a moment. What happens if a small journalistic outfit starts using a cloud provider to do some serious data journalism, but in the process offends one of its hosts' large customers. Maybe they're right-wing journalists criticizing the Obama administration or maybe it's a group of liberal muckrakers uncovering hidden truths about a major financial institution. It doesn't matter. What matters is that they have access to the resources they need to learn what they need to learn and publish what they need to publish.
And it's not just a free speech issue: freedom of commerce could be in jeopardy as well. What happens if a small company wants to compete with Netflix? Will AWS find a "terms of service" violation to slap it with? Considering the rumors that Amazon.com is considering competing with Netflix itself, this could become a problem quickly.
I've focused on AWS in this article, but these concerns apply to any provider. Practically all of the "2011 cloud computing predictions" type articles I've read this year mention consolidation as a major trend for 2011. If everyone's right, we'll likely see fewer Infrastructure-as-a-Service companies in the next few years. Are data centers becoming the new "means of production"?
Like net neutrality, it's a problem that seems difficult to solve without legislation. But I'm all ears: how else could this issue be solved, or is it really an issue at all?
http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/12/amazon-web-services-wikileaks.phpYesterday Amazon Web Services sent out a promotional email titled "Amazon Web... more
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Most of you recognize the seedy signs promising easy money with no credit check that dot the landscape of many towns. Often referred to as “payday loans,” or paycheck advance, these businesses are designed to provide short-term loans to cover a person’s expenses until next pay day. Unfortunately, these lending institutions target low income families that are often unable to receive a traditional line of credit. Payday loans businesses are often set up in low income sections of towns and cities and charge exorbitant interest rates and other fees. Thirteen states have made payday loans illegal. A report issued in September by community group National People’s Action and watchdog group Public Accountability Initiative found that payday lenders are the one group that isn’t having any difficulty securing financing. The nation’s largest banks are helping to finance this sleazy industry that does nothing except take advantage of those that cannot afford to be taken advantage of.
Thanks to billions of dollars of financing from giant banks, the payday loan industry is booming and poised for expansion — even as consumer groups and government officials aim to rein in the high-cost loan products, says the study. “While small businesses and individuals have struggled to get affordable loans in the wake of the taxpayer bailouts, payday lenders have received new and amended credit agreements from Wall Street,” says the report. “Instead of wading further into the business of predatory payday lending, big banks need to stop financing these lenders and instead lend to businesses and individuals that create wealth, rather than destroy it.”
The study noted that payday loan companies depend heavily on credit agreements and other financing vehicles from banks such as Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corporation. These same large banks that received tax-payer funded TARP money then turned around and loaned out the same money to working families at 500% interest. We wonder why the recession isn’t going away. “Ultimately, the big banks that borrow at near-zero interest rates from the Federal Reserve are not far removed from the payday companies that lend money at 500%,” the report says.
Payday loans defend their practice. Steven Schlein, a spokesman for payday lenders group Community Financial Services Association, criticized the report for painting “a misleading and distorted” picture of the relationship between banks and payday lenders. “Payday loans companies are in fact good creditors because their customers are good creditors,” he said, adding that 95% of payday loans are repaid. “Payday loans are a valuable service to millions of American consumers that have short-term financial needs.”
Related Posts:
Bank of America, a Major Player in The Downfall of The Economy Bank of America is a major player in the downfall of the economy and the massive foreclosure crisis. A ...
http://www.africanaonline.com/2010/12/payday-loans-funded-by-bank-of-america-and-wells-fargo-2/Most of you recognize the seedy signs promising easy money with no credit check that... more
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NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida ///
FORT MYERS: An Estero man was arrested after he frantically tried to disperse over $87,000 put into his account due to a bank error, according to deputies.
Investigators say 49-year-old Michael Scott, of Estero River Circle, made a $900 deposit at a Bank of America branch on October 24th.
But the teller credited the account in the amount of $90,000.
The bank didn't realize something was wrong until 48 hours later, according to deputies.
They say Scott started moving the money, which was put into an account used for his hurricane screening business, came on October 27th.
Deputies say he took $60,000 out of the account and made out two cashier's checks to himself.
Scott allegedly opened two Suntrust accounts that day, putting $50,000 in one and $10,000 in another.
Investigators say over the next few days he opened more SunTrust accounts and spread the money from the original accounts into the new ones in different amounts over the next week.
The arrest report shows a number of other transactions, including transfers in and out of Bank of America accounts, checks, ATM withdrawals and retail purchases, all made on October 27th.
Also that day, deputies say Scott withdrew $21,500 from the account, splitting that between a $12,500 cashier's check to his ex-wife and a $9,000 cashier's check to his landlord.
Scott's ex-wife, Birgit Baer Scott, told investigators Scott owed her child support money, and she didn't think he stole the money because, "Bank of America charges so many fees."
By the time the bank discovered the error on the 27th, they told deputies they'd lost $87,438.59.
Scott reportedly wouldn't return calls or letters from the bank about the error, so bank officials went to the sheriff's office.
He was arrested Monday afternoon at a convenience store at Corkscrew Road and Three Oaks Parkway on charges of Grand Theft.
http://ow.ly/3uNxnNBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida ///
FORT... more
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AlterNet http://ow.ly/3u5kr
By Joshua Holland
December 22, 2010 |
Wall Street has worked hard to keep its inner workings from seeing the light of day. But one of the worst offenders in the financial crisis may be about to face the kind of public disrobing that government regulators, the corporate media and transparency activists are incapable of performing. If the rumors that have been swirling around in recent months prove true, Bank of America's dirty secrets may soon be exposed for the world to see, courtesy of the whistle-blower site Wikileaks.
The banks prefer not to give out information, even when required to do so by law. Consider their potentially illegal response to a campaign by the service employees union, SEIU called, “Where's the Note?” that helps homeowners request a copy of their mortgage-holder's proof that it actually holds the note on their properties. According to SEIU – and confirmed anecdotally by others – borrowers who take advantage of SEIU's system have faced retaliation in the form of lower credit ratings: they send in the request, and see their credit scores fall. It's a likely violation of the Fair Lending Act, and as Roosevelt Institute fellow Mike Konczal noted, it's a serious threat:
In the middle of a foreclosure fraud crisis where people aren’t sure who owns their mortgage, a simple ask of “can you show me the contract I signed with you, just to make sure it is there if there is a dispute” is being used to threaten someone’s credit score.... Since credit scores impact everything else in your life, from being able to turn on your lights and electricity to renting an apartment to purchasing things, this is a serious threat, one of the more grievous ones a private company can deliver.
David Dayen at Firedoglake adds that the heavy-handed response to SEIU's campaign “is part of a broader trend, where the servicers and big banks, having been exposed by the foreclosure fraud crisis, are now lashing out at their critics.”
The St. Petersburg Times reported that one company, Nationwide Title clearing, has taken to using legal bullying tactics to stifle its critics. The company filed an injunction against Sarasota lawyer Christopher Forrest “to remove videotaped depositions he had posted of three Nationwide Title employees describing an assembly-line process of signing mortgage-related documents.” The ACLU of Florida filed an emergency appeal of the injunction, calling it a "gag order" and a restraint of free speech.
The company then sued Matthew Weidner, a St. Petersburg lawyer who defends homeowners against wrongful foreclosures, for defamation and libel after he reposted the videos and added some commentary.
Barbara Petersen, the president of Florida's First Amendment Foundation, told the Times that Weidner had played a pivotal role in exposing serious issues in the foreclosure process, “including court hearings from which the public was barred.” "I've been working with Matt on trying to open the foreclosure process and we've made great strides that have a lot to do with his activism," she said. "He's bringing a great deal of national attention to what's going on in Florida."
Nationwide Title claimed that Weidner defamed the company by including the widely used term “robo-signers” in his posts. The charge will be hard to prove, but as Naked Capitalism's Yves Smith noted, the act of suing a lawyer with a small practice “throws a wrench in their operation” as “it takes time to deal with litigation, and often money, plus the stress is also a considerable distraction.” She adds: “Of course, the hope is no doubt that this sort of risk will also deter other lawyers and critics.”
~AlterNet http://ow.ly/3u5kr
By Joshua Holland
December 22, 2010 |
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Since they have cut off WikiLeaks, Bank of America is nervously anticipating becoming one of its targets. Julian Assange already announced that he had some documents on the company he knows they don’t want people to see.
He told the Times of London that he had information on a large American bank and this information would likely lead to the dismissal of top management. Even though he didn’t clearly state the American bank was Bank of America, there is much speculation that Bank of America is indeed Assange's next target.
The Financial Times reports that the executives at Bank of America are so worried about the criticism heading their way that they have registered hundreds of website names that make fun of the company.
Some of the three hundred addresses they bought are BrianMoynihanSucks.com, BrianMoynihanBlows and BrianTMoynihanSucks.com. Moynihan is the bank’s CEO.
http://www.tothecenter.com/news.php?readmore=14556Since they have cut off WikiLeaks, Bank of America is nervously anticipating becoming... more
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Crimes committed by the big banks helped crash our economy -- and Wikileaks is saying that a whistle-blower has sent them enough evidence to take down Bank of America. So now the big banks are fighting back by trying to get the government to muzzle future whistle-blowers.
They want rules to force whistle-blowers to go to their bosses before going to the government -- giving employers the perfect chance to shut them up! Even the Securities and Exchange Commission admits that its proposed rules could "discourage" whistleblowers.
Will you help us protect financial reform, by telling the SEC to implement strong, pro-whistle-blower rules right away?
PETITION TO THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION: More whistle-blowing about corporate crimes could have made the foreclosure crisis and economic meltdown less severe.
Whistle-blowers should never be forced or engouraged to take their concerns to their potentially corrupt bosses first: Those who go directly to the government deserve the strongest rewards and protections allowed by law.
Please add your name to the right!
http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/whistleblowers/?akid=54.317261.flWZeI&rd=1&source=e1&t=1Crimes committed by the big banks helped crash our economy -- and Wikileaks is saying... more
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Bank of America has stopped handling payments for whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, joining several other major financial institutions.
link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12028084Bank of America has stopped handling payments for whistle-blowing website Wikileaks,... more
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As Bank of America discriminates against Wikileaks, the news-busting website has fired back warning customers that Bank of America isn’t “safe.”
WikiLeaks claims it’s preparing a launch of information on banks, which will include documents it says it has on Bank of America.
As many Americans are still festering with anger over the bank bailouts, any information that shows more corruption between Big Business and Big Government could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Wikileaks did not steal the so-called classified information.
The real questions Americans should be asking: Why did a private have access to this information, if it was so important? Why was there an environment where a private could download a classified file without knowledge higher in the chain of command? Should Hillary Clinton resign as Secretary of State? And finally: Has our foreign policy gone wild?
http://fb.me/PKlykpsgAs Bank of America discriminates against Wikileaks, the news-busting website has fired... more
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The crusading founder of Xe (formerly Blackwater) is selling the company and stepping down from leadership duties to ensure future defense contracts.
According to the New York Times, Erik Prince has secured a deal with a group of investors to keep Blackwater, or Xe (or whatever name the mercenary group is calling itself today) working into the 21st century for the American people.
Prince’s life and the creation of Blackwater was investigated thoroughly by Jeremy Scahill in his explosive book “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.” In 2009, Scahill reported that civil lawsuits had been filed against Blackwater by two former employees. John Doe #1 gave sworn testimony about Blackwater misdeeds, adding that he feared retaliation for doing so and that one or two persons who gave information against Prince and Blackwater “have been killed in suspicious circumstances.” He added that Blackwater management had threatened him with “death and violence.”
John Doe #2, a former Marine, swore in an affidavit that he worked for Prince and Blackwater for four years, and in that time worked for a web of companies created by Prince to obscure and hide “wrongdoing, fraud and other crimes.” According to John Doe #2, Blackwater engaged in money laundering and tax evasion through a company called Greystone.
John Doe #2 added in his sworn testimony, ”Mr. Prince is motivated to engage in misconduct by two factors: First, he views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe… Second, Mr. Prince is motivated by greed.”
That two former employees have come forward with these allegations is telling. Perhaps they have an axe to grind after a perceived wrong done to them by Prince and Blackwater. But, the two are not benefitting monetarily from the allegations nor are they becoming famous for battling Prince.
Yet, despite these allegations and past wrongdoings by the Prince’s mercenary group (defense contractors), investors still see potential profitability in Xe.
According to the New York Times, those involved in the deal include Jason DeYonker of Forté Capital Advisors (a friend of Prince and former financial advisor to the family), Manhattan Growth Partners and Bank of America, which helped finance the transaction. Apparently Bank of America doesn’t mind some additional bad press before WikiLeaks drops financial documents into the public sphere.
What is amazing about this deal is that even considering the shady dealings and questions of excessive force in Xe’s past, Prince’s company is valued at about $200 million.
Apparently Xe wants to rework its business into an organization that trains foreign as well as U.S. forces. That Obama’s State Department would even consider this arrangement is insulting to just about everyone in the world. It does not seem likely that Prince will just simply disappear from the mercenary business.
Someone like Erik Prince, a true believer, doesn’t just walk off into the sunset with blood-stained dollar bills spilling out of his pocket. He will be involved in Xe on some level with the help of investors and Bank of America.
So much for Obama’s commitment to ethics in banking and investment.
More Stories:
Russia Wants Julian Assange to be Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
Mark Zuckerberg Pledges Billions to Charity
Visa Down, Facebook Next?
Glenn Beck: ‘Assange May be The Man of The Millenium’
Charles Manson Texting From PrisonThe crusading founder of Xe (formerly Blackwater) is selling the company and stepping... more
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WikiLeaks head Julian Assange is the water cooler topic this week for dropping 250,000 secret State Dept. documents on an unsuspecting populace. There are numerous pieces citing the most damaging documents and lots of embarrassing sniping like thinking Hamid Karzai is an incompetent pootiehead - a "revelation" that could hardly be called a secret.WikiLeaks head Julian Assange is the water cooler topic this week for dropping 250,000... more
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