Wall Street banks are charging unemployed people for access to their unemployment benefits.
When the bankers wonder – hmmm, why do so many people hate us? – they can add this to the list.
As if bailing out the irresponsible jerks who caused the recession, to the tune of $700 billion, wasn’t bad enough, the big banks are profiting from the unemployment that they caused. How thoughtful of them.
As offensive as this is, remember that it takes two to tango. None of this would be possible without the political class buying into this. Just as too many in the political class fell for the outrageously high pay for bailed out executives, they also approved these programs.
Wall Street via Shutterstock
The report by the National Consumer Law Center is ugly, but the story needs to be told. There’s no reason the bailed out banks should be profiting on the shoulders of the unemployed. Too many politicians from both parties buy into the theory that privatizing services makes sense, but it usually doesn’t. In this particular case, it’s sickening to see Wall Street once again cashing in on the chaos that they caused.
This offensive and it needs to stop.
Jobless Americans are paying millions in unnecessary fees to collect unemployment benefits because of state policies encouraging them to get the money through bank-issued payment cards, according to a new report from a consumer group….
Banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co., U.S. Bancorp and Bank of America Corp. seized on government payments as a business opportunity. They pitched card programs to states as a win-win: States would save millions in overhead costs because the cards would be issued for free. And people without bank accounts would avoid the big fees charged by storefront check cashers…. The bank-state partnerships effectively shifted the cost of distributing payments from governments to individuals.
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