Forum Post: Boycott: The Hammer to Compliment the Bullhorn
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 10, 2011, 6:34 a.m. EST by MmmBeefy
(4)
from Nashville, TN
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Speaking as a member of the broader national movement, a couple of things we've been talking about that have been getting some traction, that I believe will create the necessary incentives for change at the federal level:
Move all your money in checking/savings out of the TBTF banks, preferably to a credit union. http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/
Stop purchasing any products sold by these banks. This includes most products that are offered through your employer for your 401K plan. Please limit these contributions as much as possible, and focus on investing in businesses and entities that you think are worth your investment based on your personal ethical standard. Be intentional, do your homework. We collectively cannot afford lazy misallocation of your hard earned savings to the very people that are destroying your country.
Union folks: Challenge the people in charge of your pension plan to get a heck of a lot smarter regarding where your money goes. I'm very pro-union, but this is one area where union leaders has not been doing a good job, at all. Pension money that is subject to the whims of the S&P 500 index = captive money. You are essentially supporting the people that are screwing you if you're not actively fighting to get your pension money moved to the right places.
- Support public banking. http://publicbankinginstitute.org/ This is the #1 thing we can do to reduce the influence of the Federal Reserve.
Protesting for political change is an important component of the overall strategy, but protest in the absence of a coordinated national boycott is not going to get the job done.
If you did it where it wasn't a specific, coordinated day, but rather just a mass effort over the course of a few months, that would achieve the right effect without causing "crisis mode".
I wonder if the bank boycott will cause a "run on banks" effect which we all know from history will have dire consequences .... It's an interesting idea to get their attention, but I wonder if it's worth the risk (I hope you stuck up on canned food, and oil for the winter).
Public banking cuts the Fed and Treasury Reserve out of a big part of the financial loop, and is again supportive of keeping your money flowing in your own community/state.
The idea is to put (and keep) your money local to the greatest extent possible. The TBTF banks will experience actual pain if we continue to move our deposits out/close our accounts. A big part of their lifeblood is fees on consumer accounts and insanely low or free borrowing rates on consumer accounts (essentially free for checking, very cheap for savings).
If you really want to send those bankers to the house of pain, buy silver and start using that as an exchange instead of federal reserve notes.
by moving federal reserve notes from one commercial bank to another commercial bank its just keeping the Federal reserve notes in the money supply, thus only kicking the can down the road.
the only good bank is a purely national bank, and not a commercial bank that has " national bank" in their title. But i'm sure you'd be hard pressed to find one these days
Apologies regarding the numbering, unfortunately there is no edit button. Please don't let this technicality get in the way of intelligent discussion.