The Great Recession: The Banking Industry Tries To Revise History

The "Great Recession" of 2008 / 2009, the worst economic setback experienced by this country since the depression of the 1920s and 1930s, was caused by the greed and arrogance of a relatively small number of bankers and mortgage lenders who intentionally engaged in negligent and extremely reckless conduct from 2001 through 2008.

This is not speculation - this is fact. Not that you’d ever know it from the advertising that the major commercial banks (Bank of America; Wells Fargo; CitiBank; Chase) have been churning out the last few months.

Starting just about a year after their recklessness was exposed, resulting in a meltdown of the U.S. and world economies, these banks have been working overtime to try to revise the facts of history and convince us all that everything they do (and have done) is really in our best interests.

Is anyone else insulted and outraged by some of the advertising that’s out there? I mean, how arrogant and shameless can these bankers be (or, how stupid do they really think we all are)?

You’ve probably seen the ads - for example, the Citi ads that claim that their bank is working hard to help us (the consuming public) get through these difficult times. Of course, there’s no mention of the fact that they played a major role in creating these difficult times. And I guess by "helping" they must mean foreclosing on homes, repossessing vehicles, and engaging in abusive credit card practices against their customers who have been driven into financial distress as a result of the irresponsibility and recklessness of the banking industry. "Citi is Helping" - yeah, right.

How about the Bank of America ads that claim that they are now the "Bank of Opportunity"? Would that be the opportunity for customers to have their credit accounts closed and their credit ratings destroyed? Or maybe the opportunity to be financially raped by outrageous credit card interest rate increases and compounding penalty fees - practices that would make even a loan shark blush?

And then there is the bank ad that claims that they have responded to what we (their customers) have asked for, and that they are now offering simpler and fairer credit card terms and checking / debit overdraft policies. Of course, there’s nothing in the ad to reflect that their prior behavior was deemed deceptive, predatory, and unfair by the federal government, or that the U.S. Congress enacted new laws to force them to stop their abusive practices.

So, when you see bank advertising that is trying to change the facts of history, or that claims that they really only have your best interests at heart - just remember, this is propaganda from the people who crapped the economy big-time in their quest for obscene levels of personal and corporate wealth. There is nothing that they have ever done, or will ever do, that is in your best interest. The only interest that these people have is protecting their profits - and they have already proven that they will let nothing get in the way of profit growth, and that they will utilize any tactic, no matter how reckless, unfair, or consumer-unfriendly, to achieve their profit goals.


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