On Sep 26, 2008, at 1:46 PM, ravi wrote:
On Sep 26, 2008, at 4:30 PM, Louis Proyect wrote:
more and more credit cards impose stiff penalties
I use a card that can be either a credit card or debit card. The end
result (a withdrawal from my account) is the same. I've noticed that
when I use it either way, it shows up on my on-line access damn near
immediately -- if I head straight home and look it up, it's already
there. However, when I pay a bill on-line it takes a few days to show
up. I've always wondered if the merchant got his money as fast as it
was removed from my account when I pay at a checkstand. Any one know?
My guess is that banks use the float to their advantage and that it is
a major source of their income.
WaMu's collapse yesterday was preceded by billions of withdrawals on-
line from normal depositors.
My brother, a banker kind of guy, tells me that if WaMu hadn't been
purchased the drain on FDIC would have bankrupted it.
I wonder if the guv'mint's bailout ultimate goal is to give
"credence" (an analog to "credit"), i.e., value, to "assets" that
don't really exist except on ledgers.
The bailout effectively transfers the notion of reality (real people
doing real work earning real wages on which they are taxed) to fantasy
(collections of collections of possible collections of probable
assets). The real working people pay, the bums on the plush win. Big
time.
Dan
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