How cities are fighting back against the banksters

How can cities and towns across the country bring an end to the brutal reign of Wall Street big banks and their influence over the American economy? Just follow in the footsteps of Oakland, California. We all know that big banks screwing over their customers is nothing new. They routinely steered investors into junk mortgages and investments, which the banks knew were destined to fail. They hired day laborers, falsely gave them "vice president" titles to sign tens of thousands of fraudulent foreclosure documents, so they could illegally kick millions of Americans out of their homes. And all the while - they paid their executives record-breaking salaries - while sucking more and more cash out of their customers through fine-print, hidden fees, and deceptive practices. This is nothing new - and we all know someone who has been directly effected by these abuses. Or we've heard about their stories on the news - like Norman Rousseau who battled with Wells Fargo for years to keep his home, before finally giving up and shooting himself. Or Sgt. Robert Bales - who received a lot of media attention after he went on a shooting rampage in Afghanistan - murdering 17 Afghan civilians. What's talked about less in his story is that three days before the massacre - Bank of America was close to foreclosing on the home Sgt. Bales' and his wife owned in California with their two kids - and so she was forced to put it up for sale as the family was $50,000 underwater on their mortgage.

The personal stories of banks ruining families are too numerous to count in the years since 2000 when multimillionaire Republican Senator Phil Gramm, to help out Enron where his wife was on the board of directors, led the charge to deregulate banks in America, setting the stage for this disaster. But families and individuals aren't the only ones targeted by these greedy banksters - entire cities and counties have been as well. Last year - Jefferson County, Alabama filed what, at the time, was the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. Why'd they go broke? Basically because they were screwed by JP Morgan Chase - and a slew of other banks including Goldman Sachs. The city needed a new sewer system - which was estimated to cost $250 million. But thanks to a crummy financing deal with the banksters - and the corruption of a handful of elected officials - the cost of the sewer project swelled to $3 billion. Like they've done to so many unsuspecting homeowners - the bank sold the county a loan for the sewer that came with one of those adjustable - or exploding - interest rates. The county would pay a low interest rate that it could afford for a few years - then the rate would just shoot up. And, surprise!, that's exactly what happened - and when the rates went up - the city couldn't afford to make the payments on the loan - and they were wiped out by the millions in fees that the bank charged just to do the deal. So after furloughing city workers, cutting back cops on the street, and turning off city lights trying to pay the banksters - Jefferson County eventually filed for bankruptcy - one of the first American counties officially looted by Wall Street. Other cities have followed.