By Numerian posted by Michael Collins

We’ve often talked here about the bank practice of extracting equity from customer accounts. Now comes a 90 page ruling from Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California against Wells Fargo Bank, showing in detail exactly how the bank engaged in “gouging and profiteering” when it managed customer checking accounts. Nor is this one of those polite judicial rulings where the judge waits to the end to conclude whether or nor the defendant engaged in bad behavior. Judge Alsup is biting and nasty throughout his ruling, barely able to hold his disgust at what he concluded was a deliberate attempt by Wells Fargo to profit off a system that trapped customers into overdraft hell.

How the System Was Rigged to Create Overdrafts

Prior to 2000, Wells Fargo did its best to minimize overdrafts in customer accounts. Its computers processed all credits to the account first, followed by ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases, followed by checks and then Automated Clearing House transactions (the ACH is used by banks to process debits such as PayPal charges or monthly mortgage or rental payments where the customer has agreed to an automatic debit). In every step, Wells Fargo used low to high sequencing; the smallest debits would go first and the largest would go last. This entire process mimicked the way the consumer managed their account using a traditional checking account balance, which ranks all transactions in chronological order. When an overdraft occurred on the bank’s records, the consumer would have known had they been keeping their checkbook balance up to date.

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by Stephen Lendman

This article follows two previous ones, accessed through the following links:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/11/struggle-for-net-neutrality.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/07/under-threat-free-and-open-internet.html

Free Press.net is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working for media reform through education, organizing and advocacy - Net Neutrality its defining issue, keeping it free and open, letting users access all content without restrictions, limitations, or discrimination, an online level playing field for everyone, the essence of democratic free speech. Without it, consumer choice will be lost, stolen by corporate predators, making the Internet look like cable TV, letting them decide what web sites, content and applications are available at what cost.

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Allen L Roland

The illegal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan will only end when the Veterans themselves take a stand against the out of control Military Industrial Complex and greed driven financial elite, as Iraq Vet Mike Prysner has, and say ~ Enough, No More!

WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs just confirmed what most progressives already know ~ the progressives are considered roadkill ~ run over by Obamanomics and the corporate oligarchy. But our day is coming and it will be heralded by transparency and the truth, starting with the illegal and corrupt occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan ~ and the Veterans will lead the way as they did with Vietnam.

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Stuart Littlewood

A few weeks ago the Methodist Church's annual conference did a very courageous and praiseworthy thing. It voted to boycott products from Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestine, regarded as illegal under international law, and to encourage Methodists across Britain to do the same.

"The decision is a response to a call from a group of Palestinian Christians, a growing number of Jewish organisations, both inside Israel and worldwide, and the World Council of Churches," said the press release.

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Bishop Donald R. Corder

Caught in an illusion and seeming invincibility of the moment, fantasy of grandeur immerges as the Don Quixote of America stands in the Maya of Zionism. The distinction between consciousness and physical matter, between mind and body, distinction between the self and the Universe is a false dichotomy resulting from an unenlightened perspective. Wherein truth is dressed up and there is no turning back from the lie camouflaging the devastating implications of a war against Iran as a humanitarian gesture; rendered on behalf of regional peace. Men and women of good conscience look upon and find themselves therein criminalized within the paradigm both for their pacifism or raising their voices and lifting their hands in opposition to the sheer madness now orchestrated in the Middle East, by the dogs of war. All taking note the good people, should quite simply have looked the other way.

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