HRoth - 2:36 pm on Dec 16, 2012 (gmt 0)

Martinibuster, yes, you are right--I misremembered the name of the bank. It was HSBC, not BoA. There was an article on the front page of the NY Times wondering whether some banks had become "too big to indict." IOW, the Justice Dept. or whoever was in charge, decided to take a settlement instead of indict people and send them to prison because if they did the latter, the sky might fall and the Sun might blow up, etc.

dpd1, actually, Occupy has been one of the major voices for people removing their money from banks and putting it in credit unions. I think you cannot possibly argue that Occupy is lazy, no matter what you think of them otherwise. They did a lot for NYers after Sandy--many NYers argue they have done more than FEMA or the Red Cross, esp. in the less glamorous neighborhoods (i.e., off Manhattan). And then there is their Rolling Jubilee program, which really tickles me since it is based on a concept from the Bible--that every seven years all debts were to be canceled in Israel for the Jubilee year, a sabbath year. They buy up old debts and cancel them. They have bought up $2 million worth of debts so far. These are those pennies-on-the-dollar debts where the debt collectors threaten to put people in jail. If you have ever been harassed by a skeeve debt collector, you will understand how much relief it means to a poor person not to be pursued anymore for something like that. I intend to make this a regular part of my charity giving myself. I don't believe demonstrations work anymore, but IMO this kind of action does work to create real community. People actually helping other people is supposed to be what it's all about.