Tony P. wrote:
> What this means is all the data held by the credit bureaus is
> bunk. They can't even tell if identity theft has happened or not until
> it's far too late.
Although they wield a tremendous amount of power of us, they have
virtually no regulation. They can do as they please. Since it isn't
their problem if you get whacked, they don't care. Until very
recently, you had to PAY THEM to see your OWN information!
> Of course as I've said before, banks are notoriously insecure. But
> they spend an awful lot of money making sure you or I never see news
> that they have serious flaws in our banking and financial systems.
About 10-20 years ago, before the big bank mega-mergers, many modest
sized banks (ie 10 branch offices) balanced their books to the penny
every day. Every bad transaction was chased down and researched. But
when these small banks were bought out into the huge ones, they
stopped getting down to that level of accuracy. Once you do that, the
opportunity for fraud, either against the bank or a customer becomes
much greater, esp if the thief is smart enough to keep it below the
radar threshold (and many thieves do just that).
> Best option is to just use real cash for everything. Of course it
> makes it inconvenient to buy online, etc. Oh, and never, ever, write a
> check.
I was recently on a day trip and spent about $200 in buy stuff. Most
I put on my credit card. I didn't really want to (per the above), but
I didn't have that much free cash on me. One transaction was only $4
for subway but the cash machine wasn't working so I had to use a card
to get in.
If one goes into a bank to check on intermediate transactions they
will CHARGE you a service fee; even though you're saving them from
fraud charges.
Banking deregulation, which was passed in 1979 under the Carter Adm,
was the dumbest thing. More recent law relaxations, such as the end
of Glass-Stegal will hurt things even more.
The Savings & Loan scandal of the 1980s pretty much passed over most
of us because, unlike New Orleans, there were no tearful mayors crying
"help us! help us!" on camera. The liberals ignored it since they're
clueless about money and business issues and their pet groups weren't
involved. The conservatives ignored since they didn't want prying
eyes into their world.
In the 1930s, the business community utterly despised Franklin
Roosevelt for his numerous reform laws. Yet it was FDR who SAVED the
business community from ruin since it couldn't regulate itself and the
control was ripe for a revolution that would've destroyed everything.
I just wish today's liberals and unions* would stop fighting the
battles of the 1930s and recognize the issues of the modern day.
Memoirs by Eleanor Roosevelt and aides of LaGuardia clearly show the
mistakes liberals made in the 1930s and 1940s, but today's activists
completely ignore that experience.
*A union activist came to our worksite to organize and talked to us --
office workers -- as if we were coal miners of the 1800s. She didn't
realize the days of the Molly Maguires were gone and we already had
things like a steady salary, many fringe benefits, air conditioning,
breaks, flex time, etc., and didn't have mining tunnels collapsing on
us.
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com