The time has come for me to bail out.

[Steve_A]

Hi Everybody,

I had to do it. My confidence in the private banking system finally came to an end when a simple transaction with my bank Unibanco in Brazil became a fiasco.

I closed the account and will open a public bank account today or perhaps tomorrow.

How did I arrive at my decision?

Well as we know, it's Europe and the US which is taking the brunt of the economic crisis and the secondary markets, although not affected imediately, will suffer as the crisis travels down the line, less exports, less demand, shrinking economy, more unemployment, more defaulting on debt and so forth.

What I have learnt from watching the front lines is that the UK is basically nationalizing the banking system and the US taxpayer is subsidizing certain financial institutions linked more closely to the government.

Here in Brazil there are some public banks (state owned), like the Caixa Economica Federal or Banco do Brasil (where I'll be opening my new account). These banks will be the last ones to fail as they have government backing. If these banks fail, the government fails.

Another thing is that the employees of Unibanco are totally unaware of the global financial crisis and frankly, that disturbs me. I my opinion it shows lack of interest in their business. If they can't be interested about the bank, why should we?

It appears the bank is trying to make a 'money grab', reducing costs too much, creating a sort of McDonalds' banking system, transforming the air inside the bank from what was once powerful, confident and secure to one of nervousness and a certain urgency for the customer to do their business and get out. (That was just the feeling I got). It felt like impending doom was on the way and thay had to rake it in as much as they could whilst they still had the chance.

Unibanco still has ties with AIG which also leaves me wondering about its' future. The insurance side of Unibancos' operations are linked with AIG. If AIG goes than more than half the banks of the world will go under as insurance takes up a high percentage of revenue for a bank.

Finally, the employees of the bank can do no wrong. Even after a catastrophic almost two weeks to do something that should have taken one day, the bank insists in charging for the un-service that they un-provided.

It's sad. I had my account in Unibanco for over ten years, but times they are a-changing.... and I'm outa there!

Best regards,

Steve

[piers2210]

Glad you're only bailing out of Unibanco and not Avalon!

Atb, Piers

[pyrangello]

Hey Steve, I read last week brazil lost over 600,000 jobs in the last month or so.

This should give you great comfort too, AIG recieved over 130 billion dollars from the US taxpayers, the upper management needed a break from the anxiety of recieving all that money so they went to califorina for golf, spas and $1000.00 a night rooms and hunting in england to blow off some steam. And here's the best part , havn't heard of any exectutive layoffs, but I did hear how much there book value is on paper. Another words how much the company is worth. Are you ready , drum roll .... a whole 5 billion dollars. Hmmm let me see there worth 5 billion and they get loaned 137 billion, Hmmmm , can I have the name of that guy that approved the loan, what a deal!!! Oh I forgot it was our money that we paid in taxes , or they borrowed , or they printed, maybe they won in in a poker game. Yes the SIDEWAYS BAILOUT PONZI SHUFFLE is alive and well.

This is all like an upside down volcano with with individuals who are driven by special interests stoking the fire below. And then there's the magician who has the FR printed on his top hat called the federal reserve. He keeps pulling rabbits out of his hat but just how many more rabbits are left.

Yes I too moved to a credit union , I moved everything , screw the banks, there all just legalized extrortionists. I still am trying to figure out how such incompetant people got to a place of being in charge and proving there incompetancy over and over again. In the next PONZI SHUFFLE that passed the house last night here in the states, they have hundreds of millions in this bill for contraceptives and art. All I can say is bring on the paint brushes and condems, these life forms sucking air are absoulutely brilliant paving the way for safe sex and fancy colors! That should get the economy moving again.

[Phtha]

You made the right choice Steve!
I've closed all my accounts a few months back. My final decision came when they started
putting rfid chips in the cards.
All banks and their so called money is based on lies and therefore doesn't exist anyways.:original:

[Waterman]

What we all need is to use a medium of exchange they can't control us with.

Here is the link to our Silver Round Table meeting. The second broadcast is coming soon as well as a transcript of the first.

Silver Round Table meeting Audio link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/silverroundtable#

[brutus35]

True "Waterman"..IT is coming..

[Noela]

There is an article on http://sott.net titled "Dazed and Confused - that's because you're being mugged"
by Simon Davis and Donald Hunt.

I know little or nothing of economics but I found I
could follow this - very sane and rational - and
at least get the gist.

I found it enlightening - added a bit more to
my little knowledge of the financial situation.

It would be interesting to know what others
with some knowledge of the subject would
glean from this article, and what their opinions
of it would be.

[pyrangello]

Good Morning , Since our President Obama took a stand yesterday spanking the wall street bailout bonus reciepients, Three cheers for our president. The Wall Street guru's put the spin on the news this morning that the reason they need to give out 18 billion in bonuses last year is so they can maintain there high level of skilled financial people in place............................................. .........Am I missing something here, Let me interpet what they just said , The SIDEWAYS BAILOUT PONZI SHUFFLE team has just told us all that they need to maintain the individuals that need to borrow the borrowed or printed money backed by the taxpayers of the U.S. for their performance and they deserve a bonus in doing so!!!!!!

Just exactly how stupid do these people think we are????

Can we start a fund for a space bubble that we can encapsulate all these exectutives on a one way ticket into space. All the money will go to people truly in need and we can sell tickets for the launch. I'll bet will make a ton of money just on hot dog sales alone !

Everyone needs to pull together thru this , thats the key except for the bubble crew.

[Steve_A]

Hi Noela,

The guy is absolutely right. There is one thing missing though. He says that if we boycott products from certain countries there would be no market and withdraw funds from the banks would create a financial crisis (it already has a financial crisis), but what he didn't say is that if we all maxed out our credit cards and refused to pay them, we could at least see some of the taxpayers' money that is being wasted to try and prop copanies like Citigroup up.

If whoever has a Mastercard or Visa maxed their cards and told the company to take a hike en mass, that would bring an end of the money wasting of the government, as the coffers of these companies will really dry out.

Personally I've seven credit cards, all looking at me.... :) If I think over here there's no going back, I'm doing the lot! :D

@ pyrangello, I wouldn't be too proud of Obamas' lip service. He appeared angry (he has to - it's part of his job), but I listened to what he didn't say, rather than what he said.

He didn't say who these companies were. He didn't say that these companies were no longer entitled to bailouts because they spent money recklessly, nor did he demand that these sums of money be returned. What does that tell you?

For the companies that try and justify the holding on to these 'highly qualified professional', two comments; It was these 'highly qualified professionals' who got the companies in the poo in the first place and secondly, where would these 'highly qualified professionals' go to? If I went on a job interview saying that I was financial officer of Citigroup, that would be the kiss of death. Just ask any company director who is making money.

Best regards,

Steve


There is an article on http://sott.net titled "Dazed and Confused - that's because you're being mugged"
by Simon Davis and Donald Hunt.

I know little or nothing of economics but I found I
could follow this - very sane and rational - and
at least get the gist.

I found it enlightening - added a bit more to
my little knowledge of the financial situation.

It would be interesting to know what others
with some knowledge of the subject would
glean from this article, and what their opinions
of it would be.

[Noela]

Steve - Thanks for taking the time to read the article and for your comments. I thought it was pretty sound.

I have never had a credit card - so can't take up your suggestion there.

Don't be too hard on Obama, Steve. He has got to go a bit "softly, softly" - he is trying to take people with him,
not stir up more agro. He will tend to act, rather than speak.

There have been changes due to statements/attitudes
from the new administration e.g. - one company has
withdrawn their intention for an aeroplane (billions
I think was intended for this). The guy (another
banker) who was arranging to completely re-decorate
his apartments has said he will pay back the money.
Small changes, I know, but shows the message is
getting through.

[Noela]

Hi Steve - I have just been reading a very interesting
post on www.fourwinds10.com. Written by someone
merely signing as"Whistleblower" refuting and
enlarging on an article by Tom Henegan (you may
have come across him - very far out).

Whistleblower's comments spring from the Leo Wanta
funds saga. This chap seems to know what he is
talking about, and again I would be interested
in your comments.

I've read a little on the Leo Wanta saga (better
than any novel!) - and I've always felt it
was dodgy from the start - which is what
Whistleblower is saying.

His remarks do go on to elucidate on the
present economic situation, so although you
may not want to get caught up in the Leo Wanta
matter, I thought you (or anyone else reading
this post) might be interested.

Whistleblower purports to be talking "as close
to the horse's mouth as you will get". His
remarks struck me as very professional. He
states he is not an American.

Altogether, very interesting. I do hope you get
the time to read it and comment. As previously
stated you would understand the subject
matter much better than I do.

Noela

[peaceandlove]

California Broke, please see article at:

http://projectavalon.net/forum/showthread.php?t=9995

Post #14

January 29, 2009

Excerpt:

California State Controller John Chiang announced on January 26 that California’s bills exceed its tax revenues and credit line and that the state is going to print its own money known as IOUs. The template is already designed.

[Steve_A]

Hi Everyone,

The freshest batch of banks to go under:

Ocala National Bank, Ocala, FL January 30, 2009
Suburban Federal Savings Bank, Crofton, MD January 30, 2009
MagnetBank, Salt Lake City, UT January 30, 2009
1st Centennial Bank, Redlands, CA January 23, 2009
Bank of Clark County, Vancouver, WA January 16, 2009
National Bank of Commerce, Berkeley, IL January 16, 2009

Draw your own conclusions.

Best regards,

Steve