One Man's Opinion on Outrageous Comments

As we do every day, we were trying early this morning to pick up as much news as possible, reading the papers, checking Internet sources and data, and watching/listening to the business news from CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and Bloomberg Radio.

This morning, we half heard two quick "outraged" comments which got our attention.

First, that Pres. Obama was saying that "banks have no inherent rights to profits" and that Sen. Dick Durbin was "trying to create a bank run on Bank of America."

Ok, back to these comments in a second, after a brief disclosure statement.

We are far from rabid fans of money center mega-banks, despite having worked with some of the biggest names in the industry over the years.

Their bureaucracy, inefficiencies, internal politics, self-importance, and lack of true concern for consumers largely infuriates us. We also do not think senior management of many financial services firms were ever really taken to task for their roles in the financial crisis, but that is a whole other storyline.

We also generally applaud the "spirit" behind the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but fear it will get caught up in politics and what will likely be its own inefficiencies.

But, that said, our initial reaction to today's "outrage" by several commentators over comments by Obama and Durbin on BofA's new debit card fee flap was to agree with them. Our thought was "now is the last possible time that the President and Congress should use the banks as whipping boys again, with such fragility all over the industry."

And then we read the real comments both made about BofA proposing a $5.00 monthly fee for consumers using debit cards.

Obama: "You don't have an inherent right just to get a certain amount of profit if your customers are being mistreated, that you have to treat them fairly and transparently."

Durbin: " Bank of America customers, vote with your feet. Get the heck out of that bank (if you do not like the fees).

Now, both of those comments seem fairly reasonable to us. The only argument we might agree with on the critics' side is that it might not be a great time to take these objections public and perhaps they may be handled better in private conversations.

The overall issues of the "fat cat' financial services industry versus the common man is really heating up with the non-stop coverage, at least in the New York area, of the "Occupy Wall Street" protests. But we still haven't really figured out yet what that is all about.

All we know is that Pres. Obama is in a tight spot and taking heat from all corners. Many of his Corporate/Wall St. big donors from the last election are currently sitting on the sidelines. And the anti-Tea Party movement is gaining steam.

According to one source, "Obama has managed to p--s off both his big donor base and his hard-core liberal base on the same financial issues. Not an easy feat to pull off."

Good Trading!
David W. (aka The Underground Trader)

 

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