Big Bad Wal-Mart
Awwwwwww ! Bankers are afraid that Wal-mart is going to open bank branches? Banks don't want competition? Banks don't want to go up against Wal-mart, the giant that has a reputation for putting other businesses out of business.
Wal-mart has applied to open a bank to process credit card applications. They say that is all they want. They say they have no intention of starting up traditional banks. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, based in Arlington, Va, is holding it's first public hearing in it's 73-year history because of this issue.
Wal-mart's financial representative is assuring everyone that the company has no intention of opening banks. But, Michael Barbaro from the New York Times, says that many bankers are afraid that Wal-Mart will open regular banks, "and such a move....could wipe out their businesses, given Wal-Mart's size, economic might and history of crippling rivals."
My question about all this is what is so special about banks? We have seen Wal-Mart and other mega-businesses move into communities and wipe out grocery stores, hardware stores, fast food businesses, clothing stores, the old 5 and 10 cent stores, hair salons, eye exam and frame shops, photography shops, drug stores, florist shops, toy stores, shoe stores.....and the list goes on and on and on. Perhaps those of you who live in very large cities have not noticed the repercussions as much as those in small cities or rural areas, but Wal-Mart has had a devastating effect on other business in every community.
This has been allowed, even encouraged, by the powers that be for several years. So tell me, what is so special about banks? Why are they so sacrosanct? Why are they shielded? Why can't they be touched? Why is competition not "good for them"?
I think part of the reason that there seems to be so much discontent in the United States today is that some of us have to play by different rules than others. Anyone up for a game of class warfare?
T
- Nancy J's blog
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EXCELLENT POST!
On the other hand, I remember when Wal-mart's war cry was, "Made in America."
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