AlterNet: Fury at Wall St. Banks Fuels Public Action for Move Your Money Campaign

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AlterNet / By Daniela Perdomo

Fury at Wall St. Banks Fuels Public Action for Move Your Money Campaign
The banking behemoths have used our dollars to destroy our economy. The Move Your Money campaign says we don't have to wait for financial reform to fight back.

February 5, 2010 |


Since the burst of the financial bubble in 2008, and surely before, millions of Americans have watched as their life savings dwindled to fumes. Unemployment has held steady at 10 percent or above (among minority groups, it will likely hit the 20s this year) and one in five Americans went hungry last year. As the human recession has worsened, Congress has been slow to act to quell it, while they've rushed to the aid of too-big-to-fail banks.

A new campaign called Move Your Money aims to tackle the frustrations with the Wall Street banks, and the politicians they've bought off, head on. The campaign is based on a simple idea: Americans ought to move their money from the big banks -- that took billions in taxpayer money and continue to foist outrageous interest rates even as they cut lending -- to local financial institutions that actually are a part of their communities. Move the money back home.

In the first 48 hours of the campaign, which launched days before the New Year, over 100,000 people responded with inquiries on how to move their money and credit to the nation's 7,600 community banks and 8,000 credit unions.

Channeling anger for change

The action campaign isn't the first to base itself on widespread anger toward the largest banks in the country. In April last year, that anger was channeled into A New Way Forward (ANWF). The group organized protests across the country that sought to break up the "zombie" banks. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/economy/145541/fury_at_wall_st._banks_fuels_public_action_for_move_your_money_campaign