Today's output from Blogistan Polytechnic Institute’s state-of-the-art HEMMED (High-Energy Meta Mojo Elucidation Detector) machine is a stifled yawn. Okay...the yawn was not stifled. It was a full-bore stem to stern yawn followed by head nodding. Because this is about Good Government. Which can be mind-numbingly boring.
As I was reading the news over the weekend, an article about bank closings caught my eye.
It was a tiny blurb: the simple statement that the FDIC had just closed the Horizon Bank in Bradenton Florida. This was the 109th bank closed in 2010 and the 262ndsince the onset of the financial crisis triggered by the collapse of the house of cards known as the "financial markets" in September 2008.
The banksters set the stage for this by tearing down the Glass-Steagall firewall between banks and investment houses with the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (also called the Financial Services Modernization Act because, really, who wouldn't want to be more modern?).
Another component of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933was the part that established the FDIC.
Here is what happens when a bank fails under FDIC:
Horizon Bank, Bradenton, Florida, was closed by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Bank of the Ozarks, Little Rock, Arkansas, to assume all of the deposits and essentially all of the assets of Horizon Bank.
All four branches of Horizon Bank will reopen on Monday as of branches of the Bank of the Ozarks and all Horizon Bank depositors will automatically become depositors of Bank of the Ozarks.
Loss of insured deposits: $0
Days that bank was closed: 0
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How does this happen? The FDIC:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) preserves and promotes public confidence in the U.S. financial system by insuring deposits in banks and thrift institutions for at least $250,000; by identifying, monitoring and addressing risks to the deposit insurance funds; and by limiting the effect on the economy and the financial system when a bank or thrift institution fails.
An independent agency of the federal government, the FDIC was created in 1933 in response to the thousands of bank failures that occurred in the 1920s and early 1930s. Since the start of FDIC insurance on January 1, 1934, no depositor has lost a single cent of insured funds as a result of a failure.
The FDIC receives no Congressional appropriations – it is funded by premiums that banks and thrift institutions pay for deposit insurance coverage and from earnings on investments in U.S. Treasury securities. The FDIC insures more than $7 trillion of deposits in U.S. banks and thrifts – deposits in virtually every bank and thrift in the country.
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Self-funding, dedicated to a single purpose, efficient and successful.
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This is music to the ears of someone who believes in Good Government:
Since the start of FDIC insurance on January 1, 1934, no depositor has lost a single cent of insured funds as a result of a failure.
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Here is the sign that an FDIC bank has on display for all to see:
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Deposits are "Backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government"
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That is Good Government in action. The kind of government that helps ordinary people.
And makes it so we don't need a Jimmy Stewart speech to stop a bank run:
TRANSCRIPT: No, but you...you...you're thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe.
The, the money's not here.
Well, your money's in Joe's house...that's right next to yours. And in the Kennedy House, and Mrs. Macklin's house, and, and a hundred others. Why, you're lending them the money to build, and then, they're going to pay it back to you as best they can. Now what are you going to do? Foreclose on them?
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And in case you need a reminder, here is the first bankster, Mr. Potter, from that same movie. Pay close attention to his words... you might hear them echoed in 2010 by some in the Tea Party GOP. And you might hear some of our Progressive Agenda in George Bailey's speech:
TRANSCRIPT: MR. POTTER: You see, if you shoot pool with some employee here, you can come and borrow money. What does that get us? A discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class. And all because a few starry-eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey stir them up and fill their heads with a lot of impossible ideas. Now, I say...
GEORGE BAILEY: Just a minute. Just a...Just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You're right when you say my father was no business man. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap penny-ante "Building and Loan", I'll never know. But neither you nor anybody else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was...Why, in the twenty-five years since he and Uncle Billy started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save enough money to send Harry to school, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter. And what's wrong with that?
Why...here, you are all businessmen here. Doesn't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers?
You...you said that uh...what'd you say just a minute ago...They, they had to wait and save their money before they even thought of a decent home. Wait! Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken-down that they...
Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars?
Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about...they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, it is too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?
Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book, he died a much richer man than you'll ever be.
POTTER: I'm not interested in your book. I'm talking about the Building and Loan.
BAILEY: I know very well what you're talking about. You're talking about something you can't get your fingers on, and it's galling you. That's what you're talking about, I know.
Well, I, I, I've said too much. I... You're, you're the Board here. You do what you want with this thing. There's j-just one thing more though. This town needs this measly one-horse institution if only to have some place where people can come without crawling to Potter.
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Good government is good for all of us. Even if it puts us to sleep.
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BPI Campus Progressive Agenda:
- People matter more than profits.
- The earth is our home, not our trash can.
- We need good government for both #1 and #2.
And for good government, we need more and better Democrats.
Happy Thursday Friday to everyone and fist bumps!
Crossposted from Blogistan Polytechnic Institute (BPICampus.com)
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