How Banks Got Too Big to Fail

[Joanne98]

The nation's 10 largest financial institutions hold 54 percent of our total financial assets; in 1990, they held 20 percent. In the meantime, the number of banks has dropped from more than 12,500 to about 8,000. Some major mergers and acquisitions over the past 20 years:

(Click on the chart for a larger view)




http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/bank-merger-history


In the past week, Move Your Money evolved from a New Year's Resolution into a national movement.

Press coverage spans the spectrum from mainstream outlets to advocacy blogs and progressive organizations -- from Dissident Voice and Democracy Now! to the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, CNN's Rick Sanchez and MSNBC's "The Ed Show".

Press coverage hardly captures the whole movement, however. Across social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, a surge of grassroots organizing is showing how Americans are making the Move Your Money initiative their own.

Just minutes after Arianna Huffington announced the campaign, Facebook users became fans of the project -- over 7,000 in seven days -- and started sharing their stories through the Move Your Money fanpage as well as the Huffington Post page. Facebook user Carol Merrill commented on her experience:

Reclaimed all my money from Chase & moved to Schools...very happy with the move. It's like going to Cheers...everyone knows my name!
Others are taking even greater initiative on Facebook by starting specialized groups centered around the Move Your Money campaign. Nearly 500 people have organized around an initiative started by conservatives and libertarians who advocate for the campaign in a Facebook group, Time to Bailout From the Bailout Banks & the Dollar.

The group's description reads:

It is time that Americans began to vote with their money and tell the Wall Street bailout banks & the Federal Reserve paper dollar where to go...


Yes, we agree with Gary North and Arianna Huffington to move your funds out of the bailout Wall Street banks and financial institutions as this and future generations will be saddled with this illegitimate debt and drain on the American economy for decades to come.


Story continues below

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/07/move-your-money-movement_n_415326.html

MOVE YOUR MONEY LINK
http://moveyourmoney.info/

FIND A COMMUNITY BANK NEAR YOU!

[Dr.Phool]

1. I never applied for anything at Chase.

Over about a 3 year period, I had 3 Chase credit cards, and they had my mortgage. They took over everyone I had credit with.

[louis-t]

3. Yeah, happened to me, too with BofA.

[louis-t]

2. This doesn't include a lot of banks swallowed up

by Bank of America. First of America which became Michigan National which became Standard Federal which became LaSalle which became Bank of America. Only took 10 years to happen.

[Vidar]

4. K&R.

[midnight]

5. Wasn't there talk about breaking up this merging monopoly?

Love the move your money link....