I've solved the economy problem!

Yes, I've done it. The unemployment problem plaguing this country has such a simple solution I'm amazed I haven't seen it sooner. The key to it all is Wal-Mart!

I was in our local Wal-Mart this morning attempting to check out when the answer stared me in the face. I looked down the row of 20 check-out lanes and then at the 3 that were actually open. I then looked at the 45+ people in those 3 lanes and there it was. Wal-Mart needs more cashiers and America needs more jobs. It's a win-win!

I honestly don't know why they have 20 registers there, since I've never seen more then 7 open at any given time. This despite the fact that the lines are usually a good third of the wat across the store. All the 20 registers do is give you false hope. Wal-Mart does well in tough times, so the money's got to be there and if they hire people, it means there's more people with money that they can then spend in the Wal-Mart, further increasing their revenue. Honestly, how is It I'm the only one that sees this great solution?

Obama takes fast and firm action in a timely manner...sort of

Well, obama has addressed his plan of action on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He wasted no time in spelling out just what he plans to do and what will happen in the coming months. He was quick to respond and quick to act. Oh wait...he did this on day 58.

President Bush was critized for FEMA's delay in responding to Hurricane Katrina. That was a few hours...maybe a day, right? If FEMA didn't respond for 60 days, they'd still be doing time. It's nice to see our current commander in chief took what was seen as a huge blunder and done so much better at doing nothing.

But, OK, he had 2 months to come up with something. He must have some great things to say. Here are a few points he made. This should be good...

1. He mobilized the National Guard to aid in the clean-up
2. He arranged to meet with BP execs to discuss their plan of action and ensure they supply the needed equipment to clean up their mess and try to contain the damage.
3. He appointed the Seceratary of the Navy to oversee the clean-up
4. He established a National Commission to analyse why this happened and how future accidents can be prevented.

Wow. That's a great speech. Those are some fine plans. At least they would have been in APRIL. It's now mid-June and obama has done less then nothing...aside from a speech saying it was his fault...but now it's BP's (which is true it is their fault, but why did we let the company with by far the worst safety record drill off our coast anyway?) Oh and "BP will pay for the impact this spill has had on the region" Well, seeing that they have far too many government officials on their payroll, I doubt this. And even if they do, what are we going to do? Fine them a billion dollars? What is that? 3 month's income?

Obama also once again said that we had to persue technologies that will ease our dependancy on foreign oil. That's a great idea. It was a great idea when Nixon had it...and Ford...and Carter...and Reagan...and Bush Sr. ...and Clinton...and Bush Jr. Really? 8 Presidents and there's been so little done to persue this. Of course again that's because so many government officials are so well cared-for by big oil that it's not in their bank account's best interest to invest in these technologies. Now it's no secret that I'm not a tree-hugger. I don't buy the doom-sayers screaming about global warming (yes we're affecting climate change but not to the extent Al Gore would have people believe) I'm a simple American that loves high-octane muscle machines. Still I would love to see these new options developed. I studied History. I know the main reason Japan attacked us was because they had no access to oil. They'd hoped that in victory they'd win access to oil reserves. Now we're completly dependant on foreign oil. I don't like the idea that the strongest country in the world can be crippled if some foreign government decides they don't want to sell oil to the US anymore.

One other thing obama said that pissed me off though was that "the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered". CHEAP?!? Have you actually bought gas in the last 10 years? If this is "cheap" oil and I'm paying 3 bucks a gallon I don't want to see when those days end. Thanks to the depression, buying a new car that employs any advanced technology isn't an option for me and many of my fellow Americans, so what's the solution? Maybe obama's next speech will be to appoint a czar of the boned to form a committee to investigate the possibility of formulating a plan to structure a relief effort to help aid the average American that is constantly taking it up the tailpipe. Or course since that's somethiung that people need now, I guess we'll have to wait a few years. Is it 2012 yet?

Banking Reform...as a Courtesy

Before I start this, let me say I fully understand that banks are businesses. As such they need to make money. I'm not that stupid (usually). What follows is our experience with what once was one of the few decent banking institutions left in the US.



We were looking for a new bank last year after getting sick of what Bank of America was doing to us (another bank of crooks, but that's over and done with). We had heard fantastic things about Commerce. My in-laws have been banking with them for years, and even though they had just been acquired by TD Bank, they were supposedly one of the better banks to go to. There are tales of how Commerce was always helpful and great at resolving issues so we were all for that. We opened our new account and hoped that would be it for a while.



Problem one began when Commerce's system merged with TD's late last year. It was on the major media outlets that the system merge ate many customer's direct deposits at the time, but what also seemed to have happened were phantom overdraft fees. We did not overdraw our account, as their own statements showed, but were charged for a few overdrafts. We went to our branch and the assistant manager quickly took care of it. She agreed that we did not overdraw and returned the fees. An error of some sort caused the fees to be returned twice, but was corrected the following day. Well looks like TD is also all for keeping their customers happy in the hopes that people will remain their customers. All was well for several months.



This brings us to the past few weeks. We started getting overdraft notices like crazy. We do monitor our account balance on their online banking site daily and never saw our balance hit zero before the first $140 charge. It was this false charge that dropped us below 0 and forced 2 more charges. Again we did not overdraw before the fees that caused the other charges. We went to the branch again and a new person (the helpful one apparently no longer works there as I have not seen her since..guess helping people isn't in the TD business plan so she had to go) told us that there were charges at the time that would have dropped us below 0 so we got hit with fees. Now these charges are in different places on our statement then theirs and on ours we did not overdraw, but on theirs it seems we did. Also, these charges were pending, as was a transfer that is supposedly instant according to TD's own information but it's more profitable to hold those long enough to rob people of a few fees first. The fees added up to almost my wife's entire take-home for that week. We did some research and found the proper government agency to file a complaint with. After the feds stepped in, we received a letter from a VP at TD explaining that they DO NOT CHARGE overdrafts for pending charges. We already knew this was a lie, but the letter also notified us that we had received half the fees back "as a courtesy". Isn't it funny that when we catch them stealing from us they return half their ill-gotten gains "as a courtesy"? Where was the courtesy when we first found out about your thieving policies that you like to lie about? Anyway, we figured that was probably as good as things could get and started looking for a new bank. Frankly we didn't feel like bending over for round two, but seeing we were approaching the month's end, we needed a valid checking account to pay the rent so we had to ride it out for another week or so.



This brings us to the beginning of May. Rent's paid so we can seriously consider bailing out on the thieves before they do it again. But first I had to check the mail...what's this? Another $140 in overdraft fees. Let's check the online banking. Again we did not go under zero before their fees, but saw there were 2 more fees coming. It looked like once again we were being charged for pending charges so with our letter saying they don't do that, we went straight to the branch manager. Now she was apparently aware of us and was less then pleasant, asking us where our ledger was. It seems TD doesn't trust their own computer system as much as they do our handwritten record of charges. Isn't that what online banking is for? We went back and forth, all the while biding my time. She printed up her version of our transaction statement which again did not match the one I had printed from their own online banking system just 20 minutes earlier. We pointed out the record of "available balance" and how it did not go below 0 until their first fraudulent charges. She said something about that number not including the pending charges. Well, then it's not "available" now is it? That number is something they just made up I guess to help collect more fees. She explained that they do this "as a courtesy" so you don't have to be embarrassed by having your card declined. Well lady, I have other cards so I'm fine. You know what's more embarrassing? Explaining to the power company and the phone company how my payments will be late this month because my bank stole a small fortune from me "as a courtesy".



This was my moment though. I asked very clearly if that number includes pending transactions. She said no. I asked if that meant the overdrafts were caused by pending charges. She said yes. I then repeated the question, asking if she's saying TD charges overdrafts on pending transactions and again she says yes. Then I pull out the letter from her upper management that says they DO NOT CHARGE for pending transactions. Oh did her attitude change then. We had caught her company in a flat-out lie. A lie that meant they had stolen another $200+ from us. She said she'd have to contact the woman that sent us the letter, which I understood as I'd likely have done the same thing to confirm its accuracy and said she'd call us in the morning.



The next day I had a call from her saying that the fees would be returned and we would be removed from their program "as a courtesy". That was it. We got our money back again. but as a great man once said "Fool me once shame on you...fool me twice...you can't get fooled again". We went to TD and pulled our account. We're going to give a Credit Union a shot. Supposedly they are better so we'll see.

First post...Introduction

Well I guess the first thing you do with these things is type an introduction so here's mine.

A little about me: I am a man rapidly approaching the age of 30 living in New Jersey. I, like many others in this country, have become a victim of this lovely current economic climate, which is to say I am unemployed. I am pretty opinionated, which seems to be a requirement to be a good blogger, so there it is. I was born and raised in NJ, attended college here and would very much like to live here the rest of my life, raising little Jersey boys and girls in the process. It's not that I don't like other places, it's just that this is my home and I love it.

What to expect reading this: Right now my plan is to combine random catastrophies and occasional victories that people should hear about (at least I think so) combined with my opinion, rants and occasional raging entries about current events, politics and anything else I see as interesting and wirth writing about.

My pipe-dream: Of course all bloggers want theirs to take off...have tons of readers...blah blah blah...And I'm one of them. Ideally in addition to sharing my views I hope to do my small part to give a face to the struggling middle class...you know the ones that Congress cashes in on constantly, but refuses to do anything to help. There are certainly those less fortunate then me and I see people talking about them all the time and of course those more fortunate then me and good luck trying to get them to shut up, but I really feel like the middle has no voice so I lend mine to it as best I can. So many programs are geared to the lower rungs of society, and yes I agree with that to a point, but it's rarely the upper rungs that pay for it though they can with what their servants pull out of their overpriced (and usually tacky) couches but no. We in the middle bear the load and don't get the credit so there will be things of that nature here.