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A Desperate FDIC Begs Americans To Open Savings Accounts During "America Saves" Week
Just in case Americans weren't schizophrenic enough, listening to Obama and CNBC telling them to spend, spend, spend, even if that means maxing out all credit cards (relax, Uncle Sam will take care of that 1,800 day delinquent account by covering 99.999% of principal losses once hyperinflation hits a few quadrillion % per day), here comes the FDIC, with the other side of the coin, imploring "consumers across the nation to consider
establishing a basic savings account or boosting existing savings." And with that the insanity that is now the United States of America is laid ba(ir)re for all to see. The question of just how underfunded US banks are if the FDIC has to resort to such fund raising gimmicks is obviously irrelevant. Well, not quite - luckily, the FDIC will come out this week with its quarterly banking update so we can all see how many tens of billions the DIF burned through in the past 3 months.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 22, 2010 Media Contact:
Greg Hernandez (202) 898-6984
Cell: (202) 340-4922
Email: ghernandez@fdic.govThe Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is calling upon consumers across the nation during America Saves Week to consider establishing a basic savings account or boosting existing savings. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said, "One fundamental lesson of the financial crisis is that savings can help families withstand sudden changes in their economic well being. Establishing a savings account in a federally insured institution is a great first step to build wealth and begin a savings habit that will last a lifetime."
The personal savings rate rose to 4.6 percent in 2009 from 2.7 percent in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. "I am pleased to see that people are saving more of their hard-earned money and building wealth. Having personal savings for an emergency fund or saving for a future expenditure, such as a college education, can make a big difference in avoiding other costly alternatives. I've always been a big advocate of a back-to-basics approach to financial services; it's my hope that Americans' increase in savings is the beginning of a long-term trend," Bair said.
"Money saved by consumers also provides a stable source of funding for investments in the economy that benefit all Americans," said Bair. "In fact, a country with robust savings generally has more capital to fund investments and support economic growth over the long-term. As demonstrated recently, it is harmful to an economy when consumers spend beyond their means, financed by debt that they cannot afford to repay."
To learn more about America Saves Week and about savings-related resources from the FDIC, please visit http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits/savings.html.
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honey i don't know this direct experience but it is serious if your singing the blues.
Coercion is coercion. Please, forgive my asking and don't answer this one publicly MsCreant, but I gotta ask. Do you feel violated by your employers actions to make you accept renumeration in this way in violation of the law and your own sense of propriety? If so then perhaps this may end up being a subject that should be addressed beyond an internet comment thread... Especially if your employer receives direct or indirect government funding and through that funding source a condition is to have the employees engage in DD to support the banking system as a condition of maintaining access to this flow of funding...... As the sickness and the actions needed to support it are spread through society, apparently by force when necessary.
BTW, check this one out. I just got an offer in the mail from the Mint to purchase a "2010 American Veterans Disabled For Life Silver Dollar" for the low, low price of only 39.95. Of course as one of those disabled for life veterans I would be able to purchase this item with the pension the government provides me with for being one of the folks depicted. Classic!
http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catal...
Did it about six months ago - now I know all my local 20-year-old tellers that ask me why I don't DD when I come in and cash the MFing check every two weeks. "It's a long story" - and sometimes they want to hear about it - to which I reply, "Look up 'fractional reserve banking'."
I get a puzzled look (he must be a crazy person), and my MFing FRNs, which are quickly converted into tangibles and for the last, few, minimal bill payments that keep me on the grid at all. If I went totally of the grid I'm sure my family would report me as a crazy person. In an insane world, a sane man must appear insane.
I don't feel like looking it up, but a DD authorization includes the employer's ability to revoke funds. "You're fired, we took a chunk from your account, see you in court if you don't like it."
Yes indeed. As a government pensioner the banks can use my known monthly federal government DD as a known future increase to the deposit base permitting increased leverage of this source of future funding. Cancel my SSA & VA DD and the bank loses thousands in "known" paper deposit flows. Plus I get the added bonus that the bank has to pay for establishing a local branch and staffing it to meet the needs of costumer deposit taking operations. hahahahahahahaha FTB! Free enterprise still works two ways at times....
" As demonstrated recently, it is harmful to an economy when consumers governments spend beyond their means, financed by debt they cannot afford to repay ."
The FDIC will be waiting a long time before an American manages to squirrel together some of this stuff called 'savings' and is incentivised to sock it away in a thing called a 'savings account'.
I wonder if a growing number of us "savers" already get how it is, and will not be saving with the banking system any time soon.
HOLY CARP!
Nice find TD! That should put everyone into some deep thought as to WHY they would need to promote something unless they intend to scoop up savings accounts as part of the great retirement theft they are planning.
WOW, we are truly on the road to Buenos Aires.....
...yes. The " great retirement theft ". The final solution.....phase 2.
Unless the home guard comes to us first. ;-)
Just starve the BEAST.
The only bank worth mentioning is the Bank of North Dakota.
State owned and for the state. No stinking bailout $ required or needed.
Along the "starve the beast" line, how many here are reducing their withholding to a minimum, paying taxes quarterly instead? In view of the rumored "delay" in sending out refund checks, this would appear prudent, but I haven't heard it proposed or discussed.
Well, I guess Ms. Bair knows not to put one's savings into a money market account. The Feds will just freeze it. Oh, and by the way, forget about certificates of deposit. She does not want people buying those pitiful things. And stay away from gold. Purchasing that stuff is just plain dumb. Yes, Christmas accounts, that is what we need. Save and do not borrow. We will all be better off.
"it is harmful to an economy when consumers spend beyond their means, financed by debt that they cannot afford to repay."--- I do not know about you guys, but I am going to go roll in that opossum that has been dead for 3 days on the side of the road. It will take my mind off the fact that the FDIC is why we are in this mess.
" the FDIC is why we are in this mess."
Well, one reason, but definitely A reason, no doubt.
I only bank where my $ is safest.
http://www.banknd.nd.gov/banking_services/
This is the model. End the Fed
This is absolutely idiotic.
The government should be encouraging spending. Reflation (that is not in fact possible) is the goal of everything the TPTB have done till this point right? Now they're encouraging savings with interest rates as low as they can possibly go? HA! That's funny.
At this point the powers that be are like a chicken with its head cut off. It's running around and flapping it's wings, to no real effect, and meanwhile we're all just a'waiting for the damned thing to fall over and admit death.
It's interesting. At first I assumed this was a case of poor coordination (Bair expressing the FDIC's thirst for bank reserves even though it undermines the overall plan for animal-spirits-driven releveraging) or cognitive dissonance (after all, the government can't really admit to itself that the only possible way to get the desired, promised, imminent V-shaped recovery is to restart the lethal debt Ponzi). But on second thoughts, *maybe* the administration has just quietly given up hope of igniting releveraging and has switched to Plan L: managing a lost decade of zombie banks, deleveraging and fiscal stimulus. In that case you would expect it to stop trying to get the consumer to spend and borrow again, and start encouraging the consumer to prop up the banks through saving - while leaving interest rates at zero, because keeping the banks undead and their losses unrecognised would remain Job One. The big difference would be that under Plan L the banks' losses are to be hidden until they can be slooowly backfilled, while under the old "Keynesian" Plan V the idea was to hide the losses until they can be erased by a sudden economic rebound. I suppose we'll find out what the plan is soon enough.
plan L spell this out for me.
"flat-lined" recovery; dead - get ready for war.
The Japanese government routinely begs their citizens to save so that Nomura can purchase all the JBGs that get issued. Be on the lookout for this:
Japan Turns to Taxi Cabs for Help in Selling Bonds
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=awQopeDIR2X8
Feb 19, 2010
"Citigroup Warns Customers It May Refuse To Allow Withdrawals"
Hmmmmmmmmmm........
For those who have not seen this, do so.......................QE to infinity, as Jim say's.......here's why.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
" As demonstrated recently, it is harmful to an economy when consumers spend beyond their means, financed by debt that they cannot afford to repay."
Uh, er', excuse me...................but, when your BOSS does it, then ask us.
Why would we be SO stupid to SAVE dollars, and keep them in the US Banking Institutions?.
Ala, CitiBank?.
Why would anyone want to keep their money in a bank at nearly 0% interest? The FDIC should make it worth one's wild. As such, the FDIC should make banks give depositors 80% of the interest rate of whatever the average interest rate is on credit cards as suppled from that institution. That seems fair as am sure the bank, clearing a nice hefty 20% profit, will be doing well.
Oh, who am i kidding?!?! Only a fool would trust a bank nowadays when they can shut you off from you money during a 'holiday' or even lock you out for a full week.
Ptffffff, screw the banks an the FDIC. They are getting what they deserve.
Amazingly the banks are losing money on their credit card businesses despite 30% usury charges. Anyone paying these high rates or saving at the ridiculously low .1% rate is subsidizing their less responible neighbors who have either spent more than they can pay back or have just decided not to pay back their debts. There is no free lunch!
But if Americans saved more money, wouldn't that mean that they're not spending it?
And if Americans aren't spending money, then how the hell are the economy and jobs supposed to come back?!?
Just when you thought government agencies could not get anymore sleazy and despicable.
Pull your money out while you can, the gangstas and bankstas are getting ready to sieze it.
Let the gangstas and bankstas bring their worst. The regular people of this country are getting ready to open up a can of Joe Stack.
crab cake i think i am following in love.
Pull your cash and tell your bank they can't use your money because the return is too far below the rate you require to keep it there. There's no incentive to keep your savings in an institution when you get nothing for it and they get to x10 it in lending. Too much pulle and all of a sudden they have to contract their loan book, or borrow from uncle sugar.
give me a reasonable return and I'll keep my cash there...otherwise, screw you.
Right on man. Let's rebrand that America Saves week as Punish Banks week. I propose everyone that is able to remove money from the bank that week.
I opened a saving account too. My bank is open 24/7. If I need cash, there are no lines, no waiting time, I get it within seconds as much as I have in my account. If I do a bank run, I'll get my savings 100% in cash within seconds. Pays only 0% but's worth the service. Higher interest at other institutions rates are not worth the risk.
Oh yeah and we take gold deposits too and pay 1.6%. You look thirsty here you want some kool-aid.
WOW. Even Warren Buffett is bailing out, says "It's Over, basically for the U.S."
http://moneynews.com/Headline/munger-buffett-economy-debt/2010/02/22/id/...
The best medium term trade remains:
1. Get a government job. Any government job.
2. Get into debt up to your eyeballs
Not the way I'm playing it but that's the trade.
I pulled my money last month and paid off the mortgage. Now I'm debt free, the bank can't multiply my money and loan it out and I don't have to worry about 0% interest on my deposits that would eventually be confiscated anyway. It's a win for me. Now I can work less and pay less in taxes. Fuck the bank. Fuck the federal government. I couldn't care less.
Congrats Anon. I am in the same boat. No debt. You'll save money faster now. And if you are not a big spender, real fast. Good job. I can't say enough good things. They got us still on property tax, but otherwise, they don't own you so much any more.
I salute you.
And five states still have *real* homestead laws so ruthlessly stacked in the little guy's favor - none of those laws could be passed today.
Not a complete fix (most of us still need income for food and tax shakedowns) - but does reduce the risks.
That's the scariest press release I've ever seen.
My former bank just changed the deposit limit on checking accounts to 500.00 when before it was nothing, and if not mantained you will be penalized. This is the first of many changes to come. Do not use banks, atm cards or credit cards this will and is having an effect.
Like trying to salvage a fucked up recipe:
Gov agencies crossing wires, trying this and that hoping the fallen souffle will reflate. No leadership, no themes, no ideas. Just another huge gamble, betting all the chips on reflation with no plan B.
Bair wants more of your money in the broken piggy bank to give Ben some breathing room with the inflation hawks. Oh and they want to hold gold down asap so their screw ups look less obvious.
Congratulations, Ms Creant! Seems your “evil plan”--Money out of TBTF. Money only for bills, put that into credit unions—is taking hold!
Credit Union VS. Bank: Is It Time to Make the Leap? | Brent Hunsberger, The Oregonian | February 20, 2010
quote
…Deposits at the nation's 7,800 nonprofit financial co-operatives are up 8 percent nationwide through the 12 months ending in September. They're up 11 percent at Oregon's 83 credit unions. By comparison, bank deposits are up 4 percent nationally and 9 percent in Oregon.
It's all part of the backlash against big banks -- their taxpayer bailouts, high fees and reluctance (or inability) to lend money. Witness the online "Move Your Money" drive, which encourages consumers to leave "casino-style Too Big To Fail banks and give their money to community banks and credit unions."
… Credit unions, with less than $750 billion of U.S. deposits, have a long way to go to surpass the $9 trillion squirreled away in banks.
…That said, if you haven't considered a credit union, you're missing out on better rates for savings and loans in an arguably safer savings system. You might also get better customer service. You'll probably sacrifice some convenience, but perhaps less than you think.
…Credit unions, on average, beat banks in what they pay on savings, money market and long-term share deposits. Vainer's new "Save 4 It" account at USAgencies pays 1.51 percent annual interest on as much as $5,000.
…Nationally, lending to consumers declined 7.3 percent last year, Federal Reserve data show. But credit unions reported a slight increase in "consumer installment credit," which includes auto, credit card and other smaller loans.…Last week, classic credit cards issued through Oregon credit unions, on average, charged 11.2 percent interest, according to Datatrac, a market research firm. Bank-issued cards charged 17.2 percent
…Though their rates on home mortgages usually aren't better, they charge you about 1 percentage point less interest on auto loans. A $25,000 car loan at a credit union in Oregon would have saved you more than $1,000 over the five-year life of the loan, according to Mike Schrenk, senior economist from the Credit Union National Association, a trade group…
…The National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund backs deposits up to $250,000 at 7,800 credit unions, much like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Bank Insurance Fund does with bank deposits. Over time, credit unions have had lower failure rates than comparably sized banks, costing their insurance fund less, according to 2004 research by the Federal Reserve Bank.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/finance/2010/02/credit_union_vs_bank_is_it_tim.html
;-)
Maybe we can get movie stars to sell "Hamptons Bonds" to savers. The new twist is that the bond holder pays interest to the bank. The gift that keeps on taking.
memo to the media: ZHers have their thinking caps on tonight
Fast forward ten years:
I'll try to find you.
i'm following you your phuckin funny.
the US better start buying gold. we should free up the fdic to the states, right. let the states back the banks. and not just any bank either, not the majors. i want regionals and credit unions only. and then the states should be free to back their banks with whatever the f$$$ we are supposed to back currencie with....like gold and silver (commodities, hemp too?).
All you need to know about Amurika Slaves Week:
http://www.americasavesweek.org/about/coordinating.asp
The development of this Web site was made possible by a grant from Washington Mutual.
The money side is the side getting all the attention.
There are people like you and I, all traumatized to some degree.
6 million with nothing to do and a lot of stress
Many senoirs watching this unfold are also fearfull
Those like me (59) know we will never see SSI and are dissillusioned
The youngsters paying loans for a poor education in the realities of life should be pissed
And many of us are realizing this was/is a planned event to take down the country
That its been done to other countries and we are the current pig being slaughtered
AND theres not a damn thing we can do about it. Saw Zeitgeist the final cut. It confirmed what in bits and pieces i had found.
This is it. It sure is dramatically awesome. The truth is stranger than fiction, and Frankenstein is alive. So now we grab our pitchforks, and make the walk to the castle. We will do something about it. The final crux will come at the apex of the storm, and the light will breach the paradigm's outer edge and light a fire inside all things. For all it takes is the one hundredth monkey, and we are almost there.
DEFLATION NEVER COMES (subhead) | Gary North | December 23, 2009
[T]he debate between hard-money deflationists and hard-money inflationists…goes back to the early 1970's. Consumer prices in 1972 were approximately one-fifth of consumer prices today. You can verify this with the Inflation Calculator of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
Despite the fact that the deflationists' scenario was wrong by a staggering five to one (so far), the intellectual heirs of those long-forgotten forecasters still find ready believers. Yet there has not been a single year since 1955 in which the CPI has fallen, and in 1955, it fell by a tiny 1%. There has not been a year in which prices have fallen by as much as 3% since 1933, the year before the creation of the FDIC, which ended the threat of bank runs by depositors withdrawing currency -- the major cause of monetary deflation in a fractional reserve banking system.
For over seven decades, there has been no price deflation. Yet newcomers with no knowledge of American economic history since 1934 still flock to websites that predict price deflation…
(NOTE: Housing is excluded from the CPI’s ups and downs. Rent, however, is included, and, according to the BLS, “Rent of primary residence (rent) and Owners' equivalent rent of primary residence (rental equivalence) are the two main shelter components of the Consumer Price Index (CPI)…homeowners constitute roughly 66 percent of the CE (Consumer Expenditure) sample in urban areas.”)
So, there hasn't been deflation in the US since ... the *last* time there was a major credit contraction and private deleveraging in the US? Er, okay.
Shiela darling, this is idea is so gold standard. What do you want to do ..... kill aggregate demand. If so ship me and the nation a coffin.
Sheila, where's you savings deposited?
Not only did i close my Chase savings account, But i paid off my remaining balance on my Chase Mastercard. As of this morning i have a zero balance. Sheila, The only thing im going to save is my ass.
You go! Fucking thieves.
Geithner-
"Sheila, you $%^&*(! Shut up!"
Well, maybe all those family generations now forced to live under one roof because they bought a Greenspan/Bernanke dream home “beyond their means”--“so harmful to an economy,” i.e., the banks--can repent and Save With Sheila:
More US Generations Living Under Same Roof | Reuters | 22 Feb 2010
More generations are living under the same roof and the trend will deepen as U.S. families grappling with near double-digit unemployment share expenses, a study showed Monday.
Demand is escalating for multi-generational housing as buyers scale down during the deepest housing crisis since the Great Depression, according to a survey by Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Parsippany, New Jersey.
Thirty-seven percent of the company's real estate agents polled in January said that in the past year, buyers were increasingly.
Almost 70 percent of the agents said they expect economic conditions will drive still greater demand for this type of housing over the next year.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35517749
I'm told that Jesus saves. America, not so much. Especially at 1%. That's like spending money and getting nothing in return.
The FDIC is suddenly interested in encouraging me to save more cash with the banks?
Run!
I will prefer death to saving FRN's.
Saving FRNs = death.
Major banks now offering payday loans. They seem to be getting desperate.
THEY.....the consumer or the bank It's a last ditch, all or nothing, desperate move before being vaporized ..........time is not your friend.
Not sure if this has been posted here at zh yet:
Frustrated Owner Bulldozes Home Ahead Of Foreclosure
http://www.wlwt.com/news/22600154/detail.html
Must read....must share!
Saw that,and he said he was going to do the same to his business................
One had enough EATER.
Folks act like creating jobs is a snap. Low savings? Well, create some jobs. Unemployment too high? Well, just create some more jobs. Rapidlyu declining tax receipts? Let's get some jobs as if you can order them up at McDonald's at will.
When will those who have likely never created a job in their lives realize that the work that needs doing is NOT in publicly held corporations, small or medium sized businesses, that at an average 30 hour work week, it is plain that we have overcapacity in just about everything starting with politicians, lawyers, and other scumbags, and a huge shortage in creative brainpower, and a huge problem with deployment of available workers to work that needs doing?
Watching 60 minutes the other night featuring the "Bloom Box", here is a technology if it can be believed that should receive billions in start up capital for a new power generation industry that is revolutionary, but would eventually 'unemploy' hundreds of thousands in the other sectors of the electrical power industry in maintenance, engineering and dam building.
Our models of what constitutes employment are obsolescing so fast we can't possibly keep our 400,000,000 people busy let alone the rest of the 6 billion on the planet soon to grow to 7 billion.
WTF?
the ending statement, GE will make the bloom box cheaper. folks it doesn't matter if you vote (buy) republican or democrat they are both owned by P & G.
pay your bills with postal money orders
and grow your own. hey sheila the treasury just cut you another check, way to lead by example.
This sounds a bit like my Avatar (Buy Liberty Bonds).
My question would be is your Money SAFE in the Banks. With the FDIC basically BROKE who will cover all of the Depositors with massive Bank failures?
C announcing it can require 7 days notice to withdraw any of your Money in a Checking Account.
The ability for Money Market Accounts to be FROZEN indefinatly.
Trying to get a percentage of 401K's into Government Bonds.
The Banks do not pay enough in interest for the apparent inherant risks of putting your Money in the Bank.
Who would have enough confidence to put Money in a savings account in a Bank.
The writing is on the wall something big is comming.
Let me translate: We need you to put the rest of your money in banks so we can ensure you lose that on top of your 401K, your house, your job, your economy, your country, your rights, etc...
America Saves...WEAK
If I save, then I'm not consuming. Isn't that un-patriotic?
put money into the bank again and have them print up 10, 20, 30, or even a hundred debt dollars indistinguishable from my one dollar deposit that compete with my dollar at every transaction, and thus raise the prices of everything i want or need, and raise the prices of every service i need because of the rising prices and dollars competing to buy the things the providers of services must pay for what they need or want and try to get it from me...again? and again!
Why should I buy precious metals at the current prices? Don't I risk losing savings if the price drops? How does the precious metals saver justify this?
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