Mailbag

Check out all the great letters everybody is sending to their new friends in the 1%. If you haven’t gotten yourself a pen pal yet, what are you waiting for? It’s lonely at the top. Choose a pen pal and help a banker feel just a little closer to the rest of us!

8807
letters and counting!
  • You are destroying our country | 0  

    I know your main concern is profits: No love of country, because you are helping to destroy the very government that gave you the opportunities you have; no concern for your fellow Americans, because you ignore their cry for fairness; no sense of dignity, because you have no shame; above all you have no respect of the people, because they have removed the mask and revealed your treachery to the profession you have dishonored and continue to do so.
    
     
    LuMarion Conklin
     
     
  • It's WE not ME | 0  

    The US is a WE country not a ME country!  What kind of future do we want?  Do we want to become Somalia? or something better?
    
     
    Jon Gettel
  • I am sick of bailing you out | 0  

    It is high time for some equality. I am sick of bailing you out and than you keep raking in the profits .  How can you go broke and still pay out the highest bonuses ?  Shame on you !
     
    Karine Aguilar
    
     
     
  • =?utf-8?Q?When_will_the_CEOs_pay_for_their_actions=3F?= | 0  

    Like so many others, the falling value of our home as CEOs and  Wall Street and Bank Executives make millions is hard to swallow.  When are they going to start paying for their actions that  wreaked havoc with the economy and so many people's lives?
     
    Mary Ann and Frank Graffagnino
    
     
     
  • No thanks | 0  

    Greetings. No thanks for crashing the economy, making people choose between health care and food. Karma is coming.
     
    
    Connie Jahrmarkt
  • Enough is Enough | 0  

    The middle class can only be expected to take so much.  We carry this country and allow you to live the life you are so accustomed to.  Is it too much to ask for that we have health care, education, fair wages, and ample opportunities to feed our families and keep the roof over our heads?!  There is enough to go around while still allowing you 1%  to have all the wealth you could ever need!  Be humane and fair to the other 99%!!!!!!  
    
    Briana Aguirre
    
    Dallas, TX 75150
    
  • greed | 0  

    Everybody is entitled to a profit when they work hard and are fair.
    But  you miserable people are not satisfied with just a mere profit.  You want more, more and more.
    You probably go to church on Sunday and consider yourself a good Christian.  Love your neighbor as yourself is not part of your lifestyle.
    To help somebody in need is also not part of your lifestyle.
    Yet you call yourself a good Christian.  HOW DARE YOU.  You, when you were bailed out by the government, which I opposed, gave the top executives more bonuses saying they could not be replaced and therefore needed the incentive. 
    What if they all died?  Would you go out of business? And the worse part is that you think the people are not smart enough to know this. Well now you see differently.  May you all rot in hell where you will be going for the treachery you have wrought on the poor, the weak, the inflicted.
    RREAD THE BIBLE AND REPENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
    
    glorea shor
    
     85374
    
  • work for all able Americans | 0  

    All CEO's and billionaires must pay their fair share of taxes starting at 50%.
    New jobs must be created by building more infrastructure, such as fast trains throughout the U.S. and paid for by the U.S.government.  Encourage factories to make clothes, shoes and other necessary goods in the U.S.
    Reduce work hours to 30 per week, spreading work to everyone.  (In the past several decades, much of the work that used to be done by people, has been automated, reducing the need for workers
    
    Ilse Hadda
    
     94709
    
  • Credit Card Rates | 0  

    In the late 1990's, I received a Citibank credit card with a great interest rate. For over 10 years,  I carried a balance both large and small, and paid on time. My rate was variable, 4- 9.99%.
    In 2009, I was informed that my rate would be increased to 14.99%  or higher, despite the ten years of on time payments. Citibank would not offer me an altyernative, and I will never deal with them again. I have two cards that I use, both under 7% interest.
    
    Timothy Dunleavy
    
     16803
    
  • Banks | 0  

    
    
    I'm not really familiar with banks.  I have not belonged to one in 40 years.  I hear they are the bad guys.
    
    A Hughes
    
     85719
    
  • Tired | 0  

    I was checking today my retirement plan today. I dismayed seeing that I have invested more money than what I have right now. In other words I do not plan to become rich but have some money for the time I retire. I do not want to depend in a social security check only. Well to make the story short I have less money than what I have put in. But bankers, investors, financial analysts and wall street have the rest with their high bonuses. They simply do not get it, bunch of bastards. I will start putting the money in  my matress
    
    Jesus Lopez-Guisa
    
     98118
    
  • Fair reward | 0  

      Did any of you get where you are all by yourselves without labor and/or purchases from any of the other 98 %  working Americans  either directly or indirectly that are  struggling under increasingly difficult conditions to progress financially.
       We have all been dealing with  Increases in regressive state and local tax and/or fee hikes, increases in tuition for colleges directly  due to federal funding cuts trying to balance a 2011 budget with a 2000 revenue level since tax cuts were passed that were a huge break for top income,  but the large majority  realized very little  to no benefit from their portiion of tax cuts which were eaten up in regressive local and state tax and/or fee hikes, and other increases in cost of living,  and despite the average increase in working hours have  realized very little increase to none to a decrease in income  for over 10 years now.
      A fairer balance in pay and/or taxation that would generate a  bit less inequality between low and high paid for work at all levels would allow all levels of income  to realize some increase in income, and that is a needed incentive to encourage work at all levels  and would boost consumerism and provide a more sustainable stable economy with more job growth. 
       Is it really essential for top income to make more in one  day  or a few months than  the majority earn in a lifetime of working ?   
       Do you not depend on purchases and/or labor, investments, etc in some fashion from the large majority  of working Americans not in the top income ranges ?
    
      
    
    Barbara Jones
    
     76821
    
  • Greed | 0  

    This is the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA not the UNITED STATES OF GREED AS your Wall Street firm thinks it is.  Tired of bailing YOU out and others of similar ilk like yourselves after you "screwed" us over royally. 
    
    Well guess what?  We aren't taking it anymore and we are MAD AS HELL.  Be careful there is unity in numbers and we have MORE NUMBERS to keep up the pressure.  
    
    Time for your greed and self interest to be cornered, monitored and taxed beyond belief!
    
    Cheryl Hobson
    
     91977
    
  • Are you worth the money | 0  

    I don't believe any human individual or the work he or she may do is worth the money you all pick up as salary with benefits.
    
    The least you should do is pay a fair amount of tax.
    
    How about taxing all those speculative financial transactions.
    
    I am lucky and keep my money in a credit union.  If I had been unlucky enough to bank with any of you, I rather stuff the money in a mattress.  I urge everyone I know to take their business away from all you "too big to fail" banks
    
    Katherine O\'Sullivan
    
     10034
    
  • Join The Human Race | 0  

    Blasphemy? That may be how you feel about my suggestion...
    
    Instead of giving these unfair and outrageous salaries and bonuses to yourselves, why don't you lower your profit margins 50%, give you lowest paid workers (and INSIST to those you contract hire, to do the same for THEIR employees) a living wage.
    Lower what you're charging consumers... basically, JOIN THE HUMAN (and humane) RACE!
    You KNOW what you should do. STOP living in a world where you've set up the new rules and made yourselves the elite. Take a look back to where your industry was 40 years ago!
    What you've become is absolutly grotesque!
    
    John S. Cheney
    
    John Cheney
    
     89014
    
  • refinancing a mortgage | 0  

    Because of your reckless behavior I am unable to refinance my mortgage on a very modest home in a rural community.  I thought that there was a law about refinancing which would make home mortgages more affordable.  This is not the case.  You got the stimulus money and humg on to it, not put it into circulation as it was supposed to be.
    
    Robert Clifton
    
     54853-0132
    
  • Honest, Hardworking People | 0  

    I was fortunate enough to have been less affected by the economy as a student with financial aid, but my parents were not. My husband and I were already used to squeezing by on a student budget, but my parents still had five more children at home when they both lost their jobs because of downsizing and budget cuts. Two mortgages, selling one of the cars, four temporary jobs, unemployment, and sending two more children to college has been incredibly difficult. Savings are difficult to accrue when the ends don't even come close to meeting. My family was never rich, but my parents worked (and work!) hard to provide us with everything we needed. Catholic education, college, health insurance, and a home are things that may soon become impossible because of their financial struggles.  And they are still so much better off than many of the people who are struggling, starving, homeless, and jobless. 
    
    Please help keep the American people alive, because the dream can't happen if there is no one to dream it.
    
    LaShuna Garcia
    
     85716-1644
    
  • Foreclosers | 0  

    Dear Wall Street Executives,, You took bail out money from us the people, BUT you have done nothing to help in stopping all the foreclosers. So many people, families in my neighborhood have lost their homes. Some have told me that they approuched the lenders for some sort of assistance, ie , lower mortgage payments, reduce the value of the home to reflect the current market. and lower interest rates. To no avail. 
      It was the American Dream to own your own home. Now it is the American Nightmare. What happened to the trickle down theory? None of the money you recieved from US the tax payer,,, trickled down! Where is the money?????????
    
    albert siniscalco
    
     33004
    
  • Pride in an honest profession | 0  

    The profession of a banker, economist, etc. is no more important than a profession of a teacher, nurse, scientist, firefighter, social worker, etc. 
    Why do the elites of Wall Street, who earn so much money than other professions, think that their jobs are so much more important than other professions on this Earth that they deserve or need this discrepancy in salary? The economists on Wall Street say that they are the best for those jobs because they make it impossible for anyone to understand what they are doing and how they are doing it and then they just laugh and say the rest of the world is stupid or illiterate. These are not descent human beings but selfish narcissistic inhuman animals.
    
    Margaret Yelenik
    
     07726
    
  • transfer from banks to credit unions | 0  

    Subject: bank transfer
    
    The government advocated lending riskier mortgages to less qualified borrowers.  Blame the government, both parties.
    The banking industry complied.  Blame the banks.
    Ignorant people thought this was a good idea.  Blame the people or lack of education or protective regulations.
    Wall Street bundled these likely to default mortgages into security packages and sold them around the world.  Blame Wall Street.
    Rating agencies like Standard and Poors gave this junk very high ratings.  Were they ignorant or have some motivation?  Blame the rating agencies. 
    Some brokers knew these mortgage backed securities would fail and made bets that would happen that earned them fortunes while knowingly selling junk to unsuspecting clients.  This is unethical.  Blame Wall Street and no regulations.
    This caused the housing market and likely your house to drop about 40% in value from its peak.
    The banks still have huge losses on their books from the defaults because they did not have enough capital to cover these losses.  Blame lack of regulation.
    Tax payers bailed out the banks so their losses would not bring down the entire financial system.
    People defaulted on their mortgages because the value of their homes became much less than the amount of their mortgage.
    The housing industry declined causing job losses.
    Brokers made a lot of money.
    Bankers and brokers got huge bonuses after the bailout.
    No one was prosecuted for negligence or fraud.
    Wall Street, the banks, and Republicans want no regulations to prevent this from happening again.  Let the buyer beware.  Hide stuff from the public.
    Capitalism and the free market system will supposedly catch all these problems and rectify them, but only after they have occurred.
    Only the public home owners got hurt from all this.  Their taxes bailed out the banks, while their house value dropped, and some lost their homes and their credit rating.  Borrowing is now next to impossible.
    
    So you want to participate in free market capitalism?  The banks did not get punished by the government so you must take the opportunity to punish the banks.  Close your accounts with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank and other big banks and move them to a credit union.  This is a simple task.  The first thing that will do is save you the $5 per month charge that Bank of America is applying to your debit card.  But more importantly it will send them a message that you have the power to look for a more competitive service.  This is how the free market is supposed to self correct.  If you don't take this action you are simply allowing the banks to take advantage of you once again.
    
    Those of you familiar with the DVD rental service, Netflix, know this power.  Netflix recently split their service into a streaming rental and a mail order rental, which doubled the costs to their customers.  Within a couple of weeks of more than 1 million customers cancelling their service due this action, Netflix reversed the split.
    
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/44800021/Occupy_Wall_Street_Backs_a_Nationwide_Boycott_Against_Banks
    
    John Ladasky
    
     95762
    
  • a responsible and democratic republic | 0  

    
    
    Dear Bankers:
    
    Please return to sanity.  Please use your higher order rational thinking instead of your impulse to simply make money.  There are no morals inherent in a capitalist system - it is up to you, citizens, and government to impose morals over the system.  The right thing to do is not always the easy thing to do.  
    
    Corporations ought not to be equal with a person under the law.  There ought to be a way for us to co-exist financially.  For you to make a profit and for responsible citizens to have a fair opportunity to achieve a middle class lifestyle.  
    
    Doing this will require you all giving up some power.  The question now becomes, how will that take place? 
    
    Jeremy
    
    Jeremy Wattles
    
     14456
    
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