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Banks win Supreme Court case on overdraft charges

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friendlybear On March 10, 2010

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Nanaimo, Canada
#16New Post! Nov 27, 2009 @ 03:34:22
you have that right, we are captive customers, according to the system we've adopted. And it's all based on greed.
ImBlue On August 14, 2010

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, Rhode Island
#17New Post! Nov 27, 2009 @ 05:38:25
Well, what can you say? Media corporations and banks rule the world. The law usually permits them to do anything, and if for some reason the law is in any way an obstacle to them at any given time - the law will be swiftly changed, to better suit the interests of the media corporations and the banks...
Jennifer1984 On July 20, 2022
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Penzance, United Kingdom
#18New Post! Nov 27, 2009 @ 07:53:38
The points raised about the captive system that the public has had more or less imposed upon it are quite interesting. The way the banks do business, of shifting money around is also quite relevant to this discussion. I think we all know that there is not enough actual cash available in the economy to supply all the accounts that are held. If everybody went into the bank and drew their cash out the whole financial system would collapse immediately.... Just look at the panic that ensued in banking circles when queues appeared outside branches of Northern Rock..!!!

It also brings to mind a little story I heard about something that happened in the 1970's in London.

An undergraduate student at the London School of Economics (LSE) looked at a pound note one day and thought about the statement that was printed on every British bank note at that time. It read: "I promise to pay the bearer, on demand, the sum of one pound" (or five or ten, etc depending on the note). The statement was signed by the Governer of the Bank of England.

The student decided to take him at his word, and see what would happen.

He walked into the Bank of England, in Threadneedle Street, went up to a teller, handed over a pound note and requested one poundsworth of gold.

The teller looked at him as if he'd just asked for a yak on toast. The student repeated, that he would like one poundsworth of gold please. Upon being told that this was not possible, he pointed out to the teller, that the Governer of the Bank of England had promised......(etc, etc)

Higher officials were called to the counter and a discussion ensued. They attempted to dissuade the student from his request, but by now he was on a mission and held his ground. He went further to say, that if he wasn't given his poundsworth of gold, he would hold the Governer personally liable for breach of promise and would consider suing him.

After much discussion and even some phone calls to lawyers, it was established the student was perfectly within his rights to do this, and that the statement on the bank note was legally binding.

The student was asked to come back the next day, and on his return was presented with an amount of gold to the value of one pound.

The student wrote his dissertation on this incident and eventually graduated.

At the next reprint of Bank of England notes, the statement had been withdrawn and has never been seen on any English banknote since.

What this incident exposed was just how precarious our banking system is. The western economies base their economic systems on gold. In the history of the world, the total amount of gold ever mined would, if made into a single block, fit comfortably under the base of the Eiffel Tower. Just imagine if every banknote on earth were cashed in for gold...... the global economy would collapse.

Money in banks is not real money. It is numbers on a sheet of paper. Nothing more. The grip of the banking systems on the financial well being of the world is precarious to say the least.


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