I don't know how many of you have been following the Occupy Movement, which originated on Wall St, but it is growing huge. A group of people have organized a facebook event in relation to the movement called, "Bank Transfer Day." It already has about 50,000 people on it. It is calling for all people that bank with national banks to remove all funds and transfer them to a credit union on November 5th. They are trying to collapse the banking system here. I'm not posting this for debate, rather more of a warning for my health conscious comrades.

If the money remains in the system, simply being transferred from one bank to another, why would the banking system collapse? Credit unions are not the only option, there are also small local banks.

Well this certainly one way to get the attention of the big mega-banks. But they are not going to go down without a fight. I have read reports where people have already been arrested for trying to remove what they foolishly thought was their money.

I don't quite understand this movement anyway. But I didn't really understand the hippie movement, even though I played a part. Financial equality never has happened in human history, except when starting the Communist party in some nations. Even then, those in power get corrupted. I just wonder what people are expecting from this. I saw a news interview of a student. She said she wanted relief from her 35,000 student loans. She wants 'Wall Street' to help, when she made the bad decision? Do people expect the banks to give them money to make up for the value of their homes going down? Or for the banks to take the loss of billions for assuming the risks of people? I guess that's what happens with risk management. The banks trusted the people. The put greed over good risk management.

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- Jim
Life is just one damned thing after another - Elbert Hubbard

The Occupy Wall Street movement is not about financial equality. It is about the fact that, since the banking industry was deregulated, financial chaos has ensued due to swindling, such as the mortgage scams. Are you aware that the SEC charged Goldman Sachs with fraud? A senate investigative committee put out a damning report regarding the worldwide criminal activity perpetrated by GS. However, the financial industry owns many of our elected officials in a variety of ways, mostly through campaign contributions. The liklihood is that the corporate white collar criminals will not be held lawfully accountable for their crimes. Most working people have lost a huge portion of their 401K pension money in the economic collapse which was orchestrated by Goldman Sachs and a few other major corporations, whilst the executives of these corporations have gained astounding amounts of new wealth. The situation with joblessness is directly attributable to these criminals, which is where the young people are most affected. No doubt the young people are well aware that their parents no longer have sufficient means to support themselves in their old age. Soaring food and gas/oil prices have been orchestrated. The list goes on and on. The financial industry, aka Wall Street, needs to be regulated.

The joblessness is due to businesses sending jobs out of the country with the blessings given to them by the Republicans. Then the housing market collapsed, because people's jobs were being outsourced. Those jobs are not coming back, so new industries need to be developed. That's going to take time.

Deregulation is not something that congress wants to look at either, so this is going to be an interesting battle. Already, the Fed Reserve is allowed to operate without audit, thanks in part to people like Herman Cain who, among many, fought regulation.

The network news keeps talking about financial equality. That's why I just could not see how any populace movement was going to solve it.

Dogwoman, they want to collapse the big banks. The plan is to move it to credit unions.

JFH you really don't have a clue as to what is going on in the world. It is way past the scope of politics.

Yes it is. This is my take on what is going on.

Many think the Federal Reserve Bank will fix our problems it will not because it is the problem!

It is my belief that major portion of our money problems can be laid directly in the lap of the FRB. Although this is not to say that our politicians of both parties through some of their “enlightened” legislation haven’t contributed greatly to the problem.

The reason the FRB was created, we were told, was to control inflation and the ups and downs of the business cycles. It has obviously failed miserably on both accounts. Since its creation in 1913 the dollar has lost over 90% of its purchasing power. I don’t think anyone would call this controlling inflation.

So what is going on? Why do we even need the FED? Why do we have it in the first place? The constitution gives the government the sole right to “coin” our money. So why did our illustrious congress turn this right over to a private bank? (Actually a group of banks, some of with are not even American owned.) The reason is actually quite simple, the bankers want to take control of the country and they are doing this by first taking control of our money. To start with all that they needed to do was buy up enough politicians who it turn passed the FRB act. This put them in control of our money and not congress. This meant that whenever the government politicians needed money they would now barrow it from these banks, and of course pay interest on that loaned money, rather then print it themselves interest free. Such a deal, with politicians like this who needs enemies?

But that was not enough, they then lobbied for and got the gold standard removed as his was too restraining on their ability to control our money. Which is precisely why one would want something like the gold standard. So now that the government was barrowing money rather then printing it, it now needed a source of income to pay back the loans plus the interest charged. Thus here we have the real reason that the income tax was instated.

Note when you pay your taxes you make the check out the FRB not the federal government. However many people naturally assume that because the FRB has “federal” in its name it must be part of the government. That did not happen by accident. Again the reality here is that the FRB is no more part of the federal government then Federal Express is. They are both private companies.

But now with the FRB in control of our currency they could start playing games with credit. People were encouraged to buy on credit, banks were allowed to loan more money then they had in reserve. This money is created out of thin air and as such is imposable to pay back. Which means this money system is guaranteed to crash. Of course you as a barrower still had to but up real collateral to get a non-money backed loan.

Isn’t this is a great system? Everyone is making money hand over fist, and the more loans that are made the better. The politicians were then lobbied to change the laws and make it even easier for anyone to get a loan, even if they were not qualified to pay it back. Then as planed when these high risk loans started to fail and thus this whole house of cards started to collapse little banks are bought by big banks which turn are bought out by bigger banks with most of it being done for pennies on the dollar. While much of these assets were now worthless still along with them came the very real collateral that people had put up.

This allowed the transfer/confiscation of large amounts of real wealth and property into a handful of very influential individuals.

This is what was done during the great depression as a means to transfer wealth from the great unwashed peons of the country to the hands of few elite who were obviously much better able to appreciate its value.

When Bemanke first took office he confirmed that the FRB was indeed the cause of the great depression. But that he promised not to let it happen again. Yah right.

It can now appears that that the FED is diligently working to create a second one. I guess that the real “powers that be” have decided that it is again time to fleece the sheeple.

But this time will the Wall Street protesters be able to hold the elite's feet to the fire long enough to bring them down?

Transferring money from one bank to another is simple enough. I have been a fan of small local banks for thirty years. Years ago, when the small bank I did business with was bought out by Bank of America, I went to another small bank and told them I wanted to switch banks--I wanted to open an account with them. They handled everything for me. I didn't have to go back to the other bank to close the account.

Mad Scientist:

You have a good take on the Fed. And yes fractional reserve lending is a huge contributor to instability. The great depression you say they are trying to concoct has already happened. There was a bigger transfer of wealth in the last 3 years then there was during the Great Depression.

That aside, I'm not sure if you are advocating a gold standard? A gold standard would not help, it would make things worse. 2/3 of the world gold supply is owned by international banks.

I wonder if the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, and Morgans etc. are scared by this Movement? Probably not.

One thing is for sure, if we want to put a dent in the banking frauds we need Ron Paul.

Yes I think it would be good to get back to a gold standard. But you are right trying to get that gold back from the central banks could be interesting.
Of course isn�t it also interesting how we are told how great and wonderful this fiat money system is and that a gold backed system is of no value, this from the very people who own most of the gold.
Agree. At least not yet.

Of course there are the Wall Street protesters are running around telling us that Wall Street is evil, that�s fine but just who is controlling Wall Street? Many of the protesters are carrying �end the FED� signs. This gets us a little closer to those running the show but even that is still a faceless entity. I think the protesters could be more effective if they but names on the faces of these elites and bankers. As the last thing these individuals want is to be is cast out in the limelight. They do their �best� work while hiding under rocks and letting politicians and others take blame when things go wrong.

So how about some signs like these:

�ROTHSCHILDS SHOULD BE IN JAIL�
�CARNEGIES ARE CRIMINALS�
�KISSINGER IS A GENOCIDAL WAR CRIMINAL�
�ROCKEFELLER WANTS 90% DEPOPULATION�
�GREENSPAN ENGINEERED ECONOMIC MELTDOWN�

Of course there is a long list of others that could also be mentioned:
The Bush�s the Clinton�s, Cheney�s, DuPont�s�, Lehman�s, Morgan�s�, Rumsfeld�s, Vanderbilt�s, Warburg�s, etc.

Yet if they can keep us all screaming at each other while we are working to try fixing all the problems they have created then we will not look to them as the source of these problems.

[When one is in a swamp and is surrounded by alligators it is hard to think of draining the swamp as a solution.]

Yes. I do have a clue. At least one.

Kings and queens have lost their heads, because of populace movements becoming revolutions. Entire royal families have been assassinated due to populace movements becoming revolutions. History repeats, because people forget. Balance of power shifts.

See the populace movements in the Arab countries. In Greece. In Italy. And now, in the US.

But remember how this populace opinion becomes a movement. Oppression. People were losing their jobs. You know why. Then people were unable to find jobs. You know why. The government was collecting less revenue, but was acting as if there was no change. Wars had to be paid for. Homes had to be paid for. Mortgage companies were losing revenue, so they extended risk. Stupid people were coerced into borrowing more. Corporations were still greedy. Best way to make money is to cut labor. Foreign workers did not require health care, social security, disability, liability, etc. Naturally, there is/was a redistribution of wealth globally. Therefore a redistribution of power.

The pendulum swings in both directions.

Personally I use a small local bank - very conservative, requires 30% down for a Mortgage. They
had very few loan losses in the housing meltdown. Thus I won't need to move my funds to another bank.
However, if I was going to move funds, I sure wouldn't wait until "Transfer Day" to do it.
This OWS movement is about a lot more than just transferring of wealth.
People FINALLY are sick to death of big bonuses for corp biggies like CEO's.
esp. while workers being laid off, etc.
It may take a while but I hope the Revolution continues & finally makes some changes.

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May you always have..Love to Share, Health to Spare, and Friends that Care!

Mad Scientist:

Fiat money has worked well in the past, when it was controlled by an ethical government. For example, roman empire coins, tally sticks, colonial scrip, greenbacks. It doesn't matter what it is backed by, it only matters who prints it and how much they circulate.

I do believe Wall St deserves almost as much protest as the Fed. The people at the top of Wall St, the Fed, Banks are the same. If they are not the same, they are most certainly working together. The stock market and the Fed essentially treat money as a commodity, which is wrong.

We can have reform or we can have revolution. Reform will come if we end the fed, punish the financial institutions, end the wars, fix the tax code, etc. But inevitably the bulk of the problems will reoccur, because monetary economics encourages corruption by default.

Revolution will come by people changing their train of thought. Monetary capitalism, socialism, fascism, communism, and the free market all produce the same thing: A decoupling from our environment and sustainable human values. Revolution will occur with a new economic system

Bingo! Absolutely!
And that is why the constitution gives the government the power “to coin money (gold, silver, etc.), regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, (exchange rates) and fix the standard of weights and measures” and not to a central bank.
Even if we stayed with a fiat system at least the people would be able to vote out of office those were not minding the store.
The problem with fiat money is that it lends itself to being abused. When governments find that they are running a little short of money they can just “print” some more. Of course if you or I were to do that we would be called counterfeiters because we would be devaluing all the other money currently in existence and obviously we cannot be allowed to do that.

I do believe that the FED is the “king of the hill” but I agree there is still plenty of blame to be all spread around. We really need government to go after all those who were abusing the system and prosecute them but it is going to be really hard to get congress to bite the hand that feeds them.