Check Your Head
Erky Erkson, RedState:
Democrats Kill Free Checking Accounts
This is worse than when Democrats murdered the moving forward of payday by lenders.
Democrats, devoid of basic economic sense, continue to screw consumers with laws against business with very foreseeable consequences. Case in point: banks now are getting rid of free checking accounts.
I get giddy and whoopie-doozy when I make fun of Erickson, and I’ve frankly been drinking too much root beer:
Democrats, devo…
Sorry about that.
Why?
Because it was kind of a cheap gag, and sometimes there are too many… Wait one second here. You’re not supposed to be…?
Hey, he’s not supposed to be…?
I’m starting over.
Rik L. Rickson,1 RedState:
Democrats Kill Free Checking Accounts
This is worse than when Democrats savagely beheaded wages paid in scrip redeemable at the company store.
Democrats __void
Okay, I’m seriously going to stop that now.
Democrats, devoid of basic economic sense, continue to screw consumers with laws against business with very foreseeable consequences. Case in point: banks now are getting rid of free checking accounts.
Why?
On this day in history, that first sentence could be the one that’s the most dense-packed with stupid of all sentences in an Erickson post, and therefore, until proven otherwise, in all of human discourse. “Continue to screw consumers with laws against business” is almost beautiful. It’s a stark, unadorned construction of ideas that required literally decades of work by the postwar right, first in the building of institutions and infrastructure,2 then in releasing payload after payload of bad-faith claims and contorted analyses into the atmosphere, until at last, a sufficient degree of besozzlement was realized that a sensible moderate-income American might expect to encounter such a phrase outside of the nearly plotless string of laugh-lines that make up a Sinclair Lewis novel.
For here is George Babbitt at the breakfast table reading the newspaper: “Why, here’s another thing. They continue to screw consumers with laws against business.”
Here’s Babbitt again, down at the Elks Club with the gents:
Well, banks have been giving free checking accounts, but then charging irresponsible check holders overdraft fees for drawing more money out their accounts than is there.
“How’s that again, Georgie?” said Vergil Gunch, Zenith’s biggest coal dealer.
In other words, only the spendthrifts pay.
The almost-beauty of Erickson’s word-sculpture, and I’ll repeat it: “continue to screw consumers with laws against business,” is that anybody with a lick of, and I quote again: “basic economic sense,” knows that consumers and business are inherently, tautologically, by the nature of what ‘consumers’ and ‘business’ are, opposed in their basic interests. For example, buyers want low prices, while sellers want high prices.
In a larger sense, the great project of the right in America since the reaction against Jacksonianism, or fundamentally since Hamilton, has been to advance the interests of the propertied and wealthy, the employers and sellers, in a system set up to respond to the will of the majority, who necessarily will mostly be employees and buyers.
This is not possible to achieve except by fooling the majority that their interests are different from what they are, manipulating them to exert their political power in various foibles and whoopsies: to shoot wealth away in a circus cannon; to be maneuvered into quarrels with the Blacksons next door and the Juanses around back; to put the car in gear and have the garage door pulled off by a sneaky chain, and that night to have the car driven off skidding and beeping from the wide-open garage; to find clowns switching your water and sewer lines, then run out to have other clowns switch the sewer and gas, then run in and someone flushes the john and blows out all the windows, then run out as clowns enter through the windows, then run back in, etc.
But Congress now says banks cannot charge overdraft fees without first getting the consumer’s permission. Fat chance that will happen. So banks are going to start charging fees merely to have a checking account.
Hey buddy, tough chance, fat luck. Congress says clowns can’t rifle through your pockets without permission. Who’ll give permission!? So clowns are banned from your pockets! That’s how you just got screwed.
Where will you get your negative clown money now that your pockets have lost the guaranteed right to have clowns in them?
No, I mean WTF!?
This is not an unintended consequence. This was quite foreseeable except to Democrats.
Democrats did this thing, and it was not unintended, and it was quite foreseeable, except to Democrats.
There is a small, round figure standing on the moon-slatted sidewalk down by the corner, under the sign that says “bus stop.” It is holding a little suitcase with a little shirttail sticking out of it. That is my brain.
2 Actually, ‘first’ for the right was to delouse from Fascism. Among the forgotten sagas of the American right is a funny culture war between American admirers of British civilization, and American admirers of Germanic civilization, that was first bruited this way and that way in the years leading up to WWI, but that broke out with rancorous oompah and bagpipe in the ’30s, as a proxy battle between groups that could without great imprecision have been termed as ‘not Nazis’ and ‘Nazis.’ In the latter category was much of the right, while another large portion of the right still imagined the future through the corporatism of Mussolini. The distinction was chiefly in which arrangement was seen as the better way to combat Bolshevism. The delousing lasted roughly until Russell Kirk.
Geez. Somebody needs to switch to decaf.
And shutup. Also.
Clowns are in my pockets! Clowns are in my pockets!!
Democrats, devoid of basic economic sense, continue to screw consumers
Where are these banks with Democrats? I feel a Penthouse Forum letter coming on…
If it costs the banks a few hundred dollars a year to maintain a checking account, then checking accounts aren’t really free, are they? Why do “free market” fanatics want check bouncers to pay for their checking?
Because only spendthrifts find their paychecks bounce and end up paying $40 on top of a bagel and juice Friday? Or a series because of some outside, unseen force?
It’s not like banks introduced SMS banking or timely low balance notification before these laws were considered – even though they’ve had the technology for a decade.
I’ll never forget the shock of discovering that a simple miscalculation at the checkout stand could suddenly result in a $30.00 surcharge on a $2.79 purchase rather than a slightly embarrassing “insufficient funds” rejection.
Seems like only yesterday…
This is not possible to achieve except by fooling the majority that their interests are different than they are, manipulating them to exert their political power in various foibles and whoopsies: to shoot wealth away in a circus cannon; to be maneuvered into quarrels with the Blacksons next door and the Juanses around back; to put the car in gear and have the garage door pulled off by a sneaky chain, and that night to have the car driven off skidding and beeping from the wide-open garage; to find clowns switching your water and sewer lines, then run out to have other clowns switch the sewer and gas, then run in and someone flushes the john and blows out all the windows, then run out as clowns enter through the windows, then run back in, etc.
No matter how long we wait for a Gavin post, it ALWAYS* pays off!
(* almost always)
The sheer uselessness of Erk’s reasoning gives it a kind of crystalline beauty, like a mathematical theorem.
If I understand correctly, if and when banks start ripping off all of their customers, it will be the fault of laws that prevent them ripping off a minority of their customers.
If only there was something like “competition” in a “free market” that would allow customers to switch to a bank that did not rip them off.
Fat chance that will happen.
Consumers are screwed when food companies are forced to make products that aren’t poisonous, because the not-poisonous food is expensive. FILTHY BUREAUCRATS!
I’ll never forget the shock of discovering that a simple miscalculation at the checkout stand could suddenly result in a $30.00 surcharge on a $2.79 purchase rather than a slightly embarrassing “insufficient funds” rejection.
Or the wonderful feeling of finding out, on Monday, that this happened on Thursday night, and triggered a cascade of ever-increasing NSF charges, resulting in a -$420.xx balance. What fun we had…
Mmmm mmmmmmmm . One Wal*Mart ten pound beef brisket smoked to utter perfection. That’s the second try with that particular cut, and I really think I nailed it this time (not that the previous attempt was inedible, by a long shot.) Around thirteen hours in the smoker in all, which makes for a long day o’ cooking. Fired it up about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, threw the meat on about 7:40. Fat side up. Tried to keep it at about 215 – 225 F with an assortment of c_harcoals, and about equal parts Mesquite and Hickory (the former smelling quite lovely.) Basted the bottom with Stubb’s mopping sauce after about four hours, then again after another couple, then more frequently until it ran out, and then basted with Stubb’s chicken marinade (which does have a nice tang to it, especially after sitting in the fridge for several months!) After about ten hours the internal temp started to make it up above 120, and after eleven hours it was going through the 130s, at which point I wrapped it in layers of foil and kept the heat steady. Somewhere between twelve and a half and thirteen hours it was finally above 150 and juicy as could be. One guy sez to let it get to 188 F, but that doesn’t seem right to me, somehow, though I may have to try it some time. But, oh boy, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. We ate about a third of the flat just standing there. Worked our way into the point end tonight, and it’s just fabulous. Tender and delicious. Best BBQ we’ve had in this state.
Mmmm mmmmmmmm . One Wal*Mart ten pound beef brisket smoked to utter perfection. That’s the second try with that particular cut, and I really think I nailed it this time (not that the previous attempt was inedible, by a long shot.) Around thirteen hours in the smoker in all, which makes for a long day o’ cooking. Fired it up about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, threw the meat on about 7:40. Fat side up. Tried to keep it at about 215 – 225 F with an assortment of c_harcoals, and about equal parts Mesquite and Hickory (the former smelling quite lovely.) Basted the bottom with Stubb’s mopping sauce after about four hours, then again after another couple, then more frequently until it ran out, and then basted with Stubb’s chicken marinade (which does have a nice tang to it, especially after sitting in the fridge for several months!) After about ten hours the internal temp started to make it up above 120, and after eleven hours it was going through the 130s, at which point I wrapped it in layers of foil and kept the heat steady. Somewhere between twelve and a half and thirteen hours it was finally above 150 and juicy as could be. One guy sez to let it get to 188 F, but that doesn’t seem right to me, somehow, though I may have to try it some time. But, oh boy, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. We ate about a third of the flat just standing there. Worked our way into the point end tonight, and it’s just fabulous. Tender and delicious. Best BBQ we’ve had in this state.
Mmmm mmmmmmmm . One Wal*Mart ten pound beef brisket smoked to utter perfection. That’s the second try with that particular cut, and I really think I nailed it this time (not that the previous attempt was inedible, by a long shot.) Around thirteen hours in the smoker in all, which makes for a long day o’ cooking. Fired it up about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, threw the meat on about 7:40. Fat side up. Tried to keep it at about 215 – 225 F with an assortment of c_harcoals, and about equal parts Mesquite and Hickory (the former smelling quite lovely.) Basted the bottom with Stubb’s mopping sauce after about four hours, then again after another couple, then more frequently until it ran out, and then basted with Stubb’s chicken marinade (which does have a nice tang to it, especially after sitting in the fridge for several months!) After about ten hours the internal temp started to make it up above 120, and after eleven hours it was going through the 130s, at which point I wrapped it in layers of foil and kept the heat steady. Somewhere between twelve and a half and thirteen hours it was finally above 150 and juicy as could be. One guy sez to let it get to 188 F, but that doesn’t seem right to me, somehow, though I may have to try it some time. But, oh boy, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. We ate about a third of the flat just standing there. Worked our way into the point end tonight, and it’s just fabulous. Tender and delicious. Best BBQ we’ve had in this state.
Mmmm mmmmmmmm . One Wal*Mart ten pound beef brisket smoked to utter perfection. That’s the second try with that particular cut, and I really think I nailed it this time (not that the previous attempt was inedible, by a long shot.) Around thirteen hours in the smoker in all, which makes for a long day o’ cooking. Fired it up about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, threw the meat on about 7:40. Fat side up. Tried to keep it at about 215 – 225 F with an assortment of c_harcoals, and about equal parts Mesquite and Hickory (the former smelling quite lovely.) Basted the bottom with Stubb’s mopping sauce after about four hours, then again after another couple, then more frequently until it ran out, and then basted with Stubb’s chicken marinade (which does have a nice tang to it, especially after sitting in the fridge for several months!) After about ten hours the internal temp started to make it up above 120, and after eleven hours it was going through the 130s, at which point I wrapped it in layers of foil and kept the heat steady. Somewhere between twelve and a half and thirteen hours it was finally above 150 and juicy as could be. One guy sez to let it get to 188 F, but that doesn’t seem right to me, somehow, though I may have to try it some time. But, oh boy, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. We ate about a third of the flat just standing there. Worked our way into the point end tonight, and it’s just fabulous. Tender and delicious. Best BBQ we’ve had in this state.
Mmmm mmmmmmmm . One Wal*Mart ten pound beef brisket smoked to utter perfection. That’s the second try with that particular cut, and I really think I nailed it this time (not that the previous attempt was inedible, by a long shot.) Around thirteen hours in the smoker in all, which makes for a long day o’ cooking. Fired it up about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, threw the meat on about 7:40. Fat side up. Tried to keep it at about 215 – 225 F with an assortment of c_harcoals, and about equal parts Mesquite and Hickory (the former smelling quite lovely.) Basted the bottom with Stubb’s mopping sauce after about four hours, then again after another couple, then more frequently until it ran out, and then basted with Stubb’s chicken marinade (which does have a nice tang to it, especially after sitting in the fridge for several months!) After about ten hours the internal temp started to make it up above 120, and after eleven hours it was going through the 130s, at which point I wrapped it in layers of foil and kept the heat steady. Somewhere between twelve and a half and thirteen hours it was finally above 150 and juicy as could be. One guy sez to let it get to 188 F, but that doesn’t seem right to me, somehow, though I may have to try it some time. But, oh boy, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. We ate about a third of the flat just standing there. Worked our way into the point end tonight, and it’s just fabulous. Tender and delicious. Best BBQ we’ve had in this state.
Mmmm mmmmmmmm . One Wal*Mart ten pound beef brisket smoked to utter perfection. That’s the second try with that particular cut, and I really think I nailed it this time (not that the previous attempt was inedible, by a long shot.) Around thirteen hours in the smoker in all, which makes for a long day o’ cooking. Fired it up about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, threw the meat on about 7:40. Fat side up. Tried to keep it at about 215 – 225 F with an assortment of c_harcoals, and about equal parts Mesquite and Hickory (the former smelling quite lovely.) Basted the bottom with Stubb’s mopping sauce after about four hours, then again after another couple, then more frequently until it ran out, and then basted with Stubb’s chicken marinade (which does have a nice tang to it, especially after sitting in the fridge for several months!) After about ten hours the internal temp started to make it up above 120, and after eleven hours it was going through the 130s, at which point I wrapped it in layers of foil and kept the heat steady. Somewhere between twelve and a half and thirteen hours it was finally above 150 and juicy as could be. One guy sez to let it get to 188 F, but that doesn’t seem right to me, somehow, though I may have to try it some time. But, oh boy, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. We ate about a third of the flat just standing there. Worked our way into the point end tonight, and it’s just fabulous. Tender and delicious. Best BBQ we’ve had in this state.”
Mmmm mmmmmmmm . One Wal*Mart ten pound beef brisket smoked to utter perfection. That’s the second try with that particular cut, and I really think I nailed it this time (not that the previous attempt was inedible, by a long shot.) Around thirteen hours in the smoker in all, which makes for a long day o’ cooking. Fired it up about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, threw the meat on about 7:40. Fat side up. Tried to keep it at about 215 – 225 F with an assortment of c_harcoals, and about equal parts Mesquite and Hickory (the former smelling quite lovely.) Basted the bottom with Stubb’s mopping sauce after about four hours, then again after another couple, then more frequently until it ran out, and then basted with Stubb’s chicken marinade (which does have a nice tang to it, especially after sitting in the fridge for several months!) After about ten hours the internal temp started to make it up above 120, and after eleven hours it was going through the 130s, at which point I wrapped it in layers of foil and kept the heat steady. Somewhere between twelve and a half and thirteen hours it was finally above 150 and juicy as could be. One guy sez to let it get to 188 F, but that doesn’t seem right to me, somehow, though I may have to try it some time. But, oh boy, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. We ate about a third of the flat just standing there. Worked our way into the point end tonight, and it’s just fabulous. Tender and delicious. Best BBQ we’ve had in this state.
Remaindered Stoat:
1.75 jiggers of strolloped blastula
0.5 pounds of shelled Mandingo nuts
1 Pinch Catholic Priest
3 daubs of cow
4 1/2 cups pre-filtered manatee fringe
1 sun-dried, salted, yellow-necked ermine (essense)
7 pieces of eight
15 groans of c_harcoals
Pound the ermine until clear, and set aside to chill in a refrigerator for 3 hours, or until sublime. Stir the blastula into an iron pestle, mixing with the priest and cow until the foam rises. Add to the manatee fringe in a glass beaker, folding it in with a hickory spoon. Drink 4 fingers of Booker’s bourbon (neat), and continue. Beat the priest/cow mixture into the pieces of eight, and strain through the c_harcoals. Blend the ermine, priest and manatee, and cover with the Mandingo.
Serves 3 Adults, 14 children, and the kitchen staff.
You know, I know the point of all this is not to actually point out what Erick got specifically wrong, but I can’t resist pointing out that banks could just make you give permission to charge overdraft fees in order to get the free checking account. Which you’d agree to, if you knew you were good for it. Erick’s degree isn’t in economics is it?
Send in the clowns,
They’re already here…
Should the cow be recently *refreshed* for that recipe, stackozone? And if my kitchen staff refuses the leftovers, what’s the recommended recourse?
Owchie.
Soooooo, sort of like Thursday nights, then?
EBL –
Actually, the beauty of this recipe is that you can “daub” the cow as you require! The possibilities are endless! Let your creative juices FLOW!!!
erm, ewwwwwww…..
That last little paragraph about your brain is a masterpiece all by itself.
Oh yeah, I got hit with one of those “we covered that dollar you overdrew; you now owe us thirty dollars plus that dollar” things, and now I have a credit union account instead. Yay!
What I love is Erickson’s complete lack of introspection. When Erickson’s free shit is threatened he gets all indignant about the situation. But you know, I’m sure he’d throw every poor single mother on Welfare under the bus just to save a few dollars. They’re probably just a bunch of Cadillac driving, self-entitled, princesses who are too lazy to find a job anyway.
I would ask why he hasn’t thought about this about himself but I’ve been involved with enough narcissists to know that they completely lack insight and empathy.
Yeah I guess smoking a brisket is okay, if you’re a dilettante or you live at an Extended Stay America. If you really care about your food, though, you need to go sous-vide. Stick that sucker in a giant zip-lock and put that into some water at 131 F for 48-72 hours, then get a hat and hold the fuck on to it, because dayamn that is some good barbecue. Well, not barbecue — it is to barbecue what barbecue is to microwaving a hot pocket.
Ha, ho, good to see the shout out to the late Rik L. Rik, which lead to this. More dead guys.
Enraged Bull Limpet got it all. Used to be that a bad check was sent back where it came from, & they charged you a ridiculous fee.
Some asswipe decides this can be a profit center & …
There is no such thing as a free checking account.
Go ahead, prove me wrong. Review your checking account statements carefully. There are fees and then there are multiple-fee fees.
“now I have a credit union account instead”
Me and the wife had a credit union account in MIchigan and after they misplaced our deposits three weeks in a row closed out the account. A week later I paid a Sprint bill by phone. I gave Sprint the info to charge my new bank account. Sprint charged the closed account at the credit union. The credit union paid Sprint out of the now closed account. They then proceeded to wait thirty days to inform us that we owed them an overdraft fee plus a dollar a day that the non-account was in the negative.
Not all credit unions are forces for good. Some are downright bankish.
Shailesh Mehta
I’ll bet Mememememeeeeeeeeeeeeegan McGargle is really pissed that she went on her honeymoon and gave Erick the Red the opportunity to horn in on a neato economics story that really, truly, naturally should have been hers.
From the WSJ OpEd:
Cry me a fucking river.
There are fees and then there are multiple-fee fees.
And then there are hurt fee-fees, which Erick the Tiny apparently specialized in.
Erky Erkson, RedState and CNN:
Ficzt for impact.
But this:
This is not an unintended consequence. This was quite foreseeable except to Democrats.
Is a new twist on an old favorite… If a tree falls down in forest and no-one is there to hear it, blame deaf people.
[M&M] went on her honeymoon and gave Erick the Red the opportunity to horn in on a neato economics story that really, truly, naturally should have been hers.
Alicublog informs us that in her absence, one of her locums is indeed on the case. Also, the words “Erick the Red” and “horn” do not belong in a sentence together.
Creedleback – superband formed by Chad Kroeger(Nickleback) & Scott Stapp (Creed)in 2012. The Mayans say Creedleback is an apocalypse sign.
This is the worst news since Good Charllout Boy.
Architect/Engineer humor, if that’s not too strong a word.
I had some dreams, they were clowns in my pockets, clowns in my pockets
I seriously have to ask, do people still use checks somewhere? I’ve assumed such payment methods would only be found in developing countries and other less advanced societies. I’ve travelled a bit, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen checks used outside US.
As far as I can tell, there is no benefit from using checks that is not present in other systems.Why does such system still exist on this day and age?
Checks are still in use because the convienient and safe electronic payment systems in the States (and maybe elsewhere) are run by the credit card companies. They take a percentage off of each transation. This gives them the money to lobby against federal involvement in a modern electronic currency system. It’s a slick deal.
Also: if a check is for less than some baseline ammount ($25k, I think), I’ve heard it isn’t subjected to scrutiny.
I imagine clown money being festive and colorful and having a picture of Emmett Kelly on it.
I imagine clown money as Disney Dollars. Specifically, Disney Dollars kept after Disney stopped accepting them. Perhaps even purchased after that point.
Why does such system still exist on this day and age?
We just really, really hate trees and will find any excuse to grind them into pulp to make into paper.
[blockquote]#
Michael G. said,
June 22, 2010 at 12:49
Checks are still in use because the convienient and safe electronic payment systems in the States (and maybe elsewhere) are run by the credit card companies. They take a percentage off of each transation. This gives them the money to lobby against federal involvement in a modern electronic currency system. It’s a slick deal.
Also: if a check is for less than some baseline ammount ($25k, I think), I’ve heard it isn’t subjected to scrutiny.
[/blockquote]
So no debit card payments, no dual debit/credit cards? You do have internet banking, right?
Barney Fag made us give mortgages to the coloreds and now that mean ol’ Br’er Fox gonna throw ol’ Br’er Rabbit right into the briar patch! Boo Hoo!
Isn’t Erik bin Erik committing Randian apostasy here? Checking costs the banks something, so, no free checking.
Why does Erik hate Ayn Rand?
The clowns! They’re calling from inside my pockets!
Or the wonderful feeling of finding out, on Monday, that this happened on Thursday night, and triggered a cascade of ever-increasing NSF charges, resulting in a -$420.xx balance. What fun we had…
Ahhh, yes, those were the days.
My favorite was when someone wrote me a $250 check (that was a LOT of money [who the fuck am I kidding, that’s a lot of money now]) that bounced but because it was from a relative, I thought that it was fine and spent all of it. Not only were there all those lovely insufficient fund charges, but there were also charges for the bounced check, resulting in about $300 in fees. Good times. Good times.
@LD
There are credit/debit cards, but if they’re used in “credit” mode, the associated network (Visa or MC) takes a cut. When used as debit, I’m not sure. Hey, we don’t have chip-and-pin either.
Electronic money backed by the government would make a lot of sense. It’d put a stop to them printing dollar bills, which have little value and wear out quickly. It’d also be nice to pay merchants or friends over the intertrons without involving paypal or a bank transfer fee. But you know, there I go inserting big government into a system of kick-backs and ball-kicks that is working just fine* thank-you.
*Identity theft is irrelevant; the costs are shouldered by the small people**.
**Do I capitalize that now?
If you ban excessive fees, then only criminals will charge excessive fees!
Hey mon, this is Tosh the carribbean walrus here to tell you, mon. Use checks when you get your “air repair”, mon. Everybody needs a bank account, mon, someday you amy need to get a loan. Irie, irie, I’m off to get turned down for jury duty.
Architect/Engineer humor, if that’s not too strong a word.
many people won’t say the word “Engineer” in polite company.
Democrats, devoid of basic economic sense, continue to screw consumers with laws against business with very foreseeable consequences. Case in point: banks now are getting rid of free checking accounts.
Has nothing to do with the bankstahs ripping the customers off to make a buck, right?
does go to show that it takes an idiot like Irk von Irksome to fall for the “free checking” bait and switch.
Hey, Imma zombie and an architect, and I never believed in free checking. Or the Easter Bunny.
Freedom isn’t free, you know!! Feeverines!!!
Has nothing to do with the bankstahs ripping the customers off to make a buck, right?
Well, yeah. I mean, how did banks get by for DECADES without charging exorbitant fees? It seems unpossible in Erick’s universe.
This is not an unintended consequence. This was quite foreseeable except to Democrats.
This is beautiful in its unabashed wingnuttery.
Screwing is theft.
No, wait.
Clowns are theft.
Aww shizzl3.
I’m confused by the clauses
consumers with laws against business with very foreseeable consequences
Could we get an engineer in here to diagram this?
I imagine clown money as Disney Dollars.
I imagine clown money as having a portrait of a painted-faced man staring in angry uncomprehension at a pair of magnets.
Erk has so many great delusions laid out so well, it’s like a triumphant showcase of stoopit. I did a lot of crimes in my younger, rowdier years, but robbing banks was not one of thm. They hate anyone moving in on their hustle. The free check w/ brutal overdraft fee shtick vs. nominal fees for checking would be a logical solution- probably why it isn’t offered to us Small People.
similarly, i have horror stories about supposed “overdraft protection”, which always seemed a lot like old fashioned “protection” schemes..
like, using a debit card to purchase gasoline.. previously, the pay-at-the-pump would reject my card when the balance was low.. suddenly, the rules changed. The card worked, the gas dispensed, but i overdrafted by 50 cents.
the protection scheme kicked in. $27 immediately for the overdraft, and $27 a day until i discovered the error by checking my balance at an ATM. By then, the fees had accumulated -$400.
oh, the lulz that ensued. Sooo funny when i got to beg a friend for the money, so that i could pay the entire amount. You see, i had to pay it all and return to a positive balance in order to stop the continuing daily overdraft fee. So that is bank protection.
reminds me of my Grandfather’s stories.. he was a farmer during the Great Depression.. money was tight then, too.. short story version; he never trusted banks or bankers again.
Bankers continue to screw consumers. Devoid of any business sense, they eradicate faith in their own institutions.
I’m convinced Gavin writes with a Slinky. me like.
Bankers continue to screw consumers. Devoid of any business sense, they eradicate faith in their own institutions.
I actually had free overdraft protection. Had it for nearly thirty years from Shittybank. I could write checks, no problem and no fees. They were content with getting 8 percent over prime. In fact, I had free checking, no monthly fees, because I always carried a balance on either a credit card or my checking overdraft.
Last year, I noticed fees were being withdrawn. $10 here, $20 there, $30 a month. So I called and got absolutely livid with them, because they never ever mentioned they were going to instate those.
Turns out, it was in one of those “privacy notices,” but never on the statement (not even the Schumer box) until they started charging them.
I manage to avoid them now by manually transferring money around to cover checks, but I’ll be damned if I’m not paying that shit off and cancelling the account the first chance I get.
So … um … what about the fact banks are already going to the opt-in model—and have been for months—and, oddly, haven’t started to charge folks for their accounts?
I guess reality triumphs over Eric Son of Eric Ericson. Again.
As far as overdrafts go, that’s how some banks get a ton of their revenue — and it’s even better when they program their system to credit the biggest debits to your account first, instead of doing them in date order, so they can trigger an overdraft fee.
Basically, it’s a loan … at anywhere from 100% – 1,000% APR, depending on how much it’s overdrawn.
Pretty disgusting, actually …
On the one hand, you have glibertarian types like Anne Applebaum, who thinks that people who request a paper receipt from their ATMs (or voting machines) are paranoid and dumb. On the other, you have people like this cheesedick who insist that it’s the moths-flying-out-of-their-empty-wallets-the-day-before-payday-people’s fault if they get stuck with overdraft fees, while not explaining how his spendthrifts-pay-for-everyone system works if they decide to be as responsible about keeping a positive balance as he insists that they have to be. Really, they’ve got all the bases covered.
If it costs the banks a few hundred dollars a year to maintain a checking account, then checking accounts aren’t really free, are they? Why do “free market” fanatics want check bouncers to pay for their checking?
Perfect.
I seriously have to ask, do people still use checks somewhere?
I have two payees that ONLY accept checks. Crazy, but 2x a month I have to dig out the checkbook just for them.
The new regulations could reduce the industry’s service fee revenues by as much as 20%, according to Sandler O’Neill + Partners, an investment firm that specializes in the banking industry. Bank of America’s service charges are 12% of revenues, excluding securities gains, and a 20% drop in such fees would mean a loss of $2.2 billion for the bank, according to Sandler O’Neill.
“As much as 20%” plus “a 20% drop in such fees would mean a loss of $2.2.” How cute. Or, you know, banks could figure out how to cheat you in some other ostensibly legal manner, meaning rather than any loss of anything it’ll work out as another profit center AS ALWAYS. As pointed out about, they can just require your permission before you get an account. Or they could send you the letter I got today, offering me the FABULOUS deal of 30$ worth of “overdraft protection” a month for a mere 4.99$ a month. I will bet those authors a home-baked cookie hat that the banks will NEVER see a 2.5% revenue loss because of this, but if they did SO FUCKING WHAT, some businesses lost far more revenue than that due to the bank-caused economic crisis.
shorter erikson: i have a gut feeling the democrats are through being cool. taking away free checking means disrupting your freedom of choice, jerking you back and forth. this is a beautiful world, but i can’t get no satisfaction. you might as well be working in a coal mine.
oh – and the girl u want.
Between the Goddamn Batman and dex, my homeboys DEVO rock! (And kick much boojie boy ass) yeah, I’m a fuckin, mongoloid! Fuck you, Trig- deal with it- live with it or die from it!
Mistah Apostrophe, he daid! Dammit!
Of course- FYWP
Between the Goddamn Batman and dex, my homeboys DEVO rock! (And kick much boojie boy ass) yeah, I’m a fuckin, mongoloid! Fuck you, Trig- deal with it- live with it or die from it!
Oh, I see! To get any respect around here, you have to go all Devo huh?
Well, Jocko Homo me….
I imagine clown money as having a portrait of a painted-faced man staring in angry uncomprehension at a pair of magnets.
what’s latin for “Fuckin Magnets”?
Fututiones magnet (yes, same word, Latin or English. The magnet was discovered in ancient Greece in Magnesia).
Thanks for linking that video. It pops up on YouTube every month or so, is on for a week or so, and then Warner gets it pulled. It’s one of only a tiny handful of extant recordings of the Nu-Tra stage show, so I wish they’d leave it be. GVC’s dancing in “Jerkin Back N Forth” is sublime.
On the same subject, I happen to be listening to their new release. Never expected to hear such a thing as an entire new DEVO album, but there you go. It’s really good.
FYT, grinning swine. May you suffer every indignity you champion for others ten times over. I’d spit on you, but it’d be demeaning for my saliva.
I seriously have to ask, do people still use checks somewhere?
Yes. I’ve yet to live somewhere where the landlord would take electronic payments, for one. And while utilities usually will, they may require you to sign up for automatic payments if you want to pay electronically, which works a lot better when you’re not living paycheck to paycheck.
do people still use checks somewhere?
What several other people said. And not everybody has Internet access, either; what do people do in those other countries if they can’t afford that?