Michael Moore on Brian Lehrer

Letter to the Bank #52

Dear Mr. Bullrider (or current BM if not available),

This idea is so insane…it just might work. Why don’t we simply delete all debt? I know it is a simplistic but I believe simplifying is good. We can assume debtholders won’t like the idea too much but visionary ideas must always face and overcome resistance. If we are ever to restore balance to the universe this is the only way. To the Mr. Potters of this world, for those who have never encountered debt the idea will no doubt be seen as dystopian, nightmarish, but for those in the hole—the other 99% —it is not just a utopian dream but one that is within reach! As the majority we can vote to end all debt because we live in a democracy. Of course the debt doesn’t stop at the borders and not every country believes in the democratic process. There are problems we’ll have to overcome. Naturally picking the date for Debt Deletion Day would be tricky. The whole thing would have to happen instantly so people don’t go hiding their assets or knocking down doors to find them. This is more of a headache than I thought. You could help. Give me your thoughts—the thoughtful ones not the reactive kind.

It is funny to think that communist China stood in counterpoint to capitolist America for half a century but now holds the purse strings. They are the greatest debt holder of all! My idea should appeal to capitolists everywhere. Even the banks that are too big to fail owe money to someone, somewhere! The US woud bennefit enormously if China freed it from its fiduciary obligations. At the other end of the spectrum homeowners could keep their homes to salvaging the remaining tattered remnants of this beleagured society. Surely that would be a good thing? Oh I know…legal paperwork would be voided. Ownership would have to be reconceived that sort of thing. These are minor details. The point is to let people be. Leave them alone. Get off their backs. Cease with the threats. Go silent. Be gone. Let people live their lives, their all too brief lives, with some semblance of dignity! This current system is no longer tenable. We need to circumvent, short circuit, the system. Spelunkers in the Matrix can surely find a way.

Perhaps we can find a happy compromise. If we were to be more modest in our goals and merely iron out the wrinkles in debt, even it all out, spread the pain. It would be good for people to feel in control again, self-respect, and bodily hygiene would return and, having learned to iron they’d all be well dressed to boot.  If we all took less and gave back less…for example you keep the art I sent you, keep the books you borrowed, and, for goodness sake, keep all that paperwork you insist on sending me. You know I never read it. And I’ll keep what I already have which means you’ll hardly notice a thing! If you don’t want me to write to you any more I won’t—all the less paperwork for you to deal with!

In short I’ll stop bugging you if you stop bugging me.

Yours sincerely,

Art Witherkay

Letter to the Bank #51

Dear BM,

I’ve been attempting to write haikus of late though not in their strictest form. They are pop haikus, westernized impoverishments of a transcendent form.

In a World That Shoots its own Foot
There’s a hand I often see
That likes to point at me.
Paralyzed from the shin bone up
I gawk at the passers by

My mind feels like a spiral cooked ham these days, hurtling inward to the core, soon to be turned into soup. All I wish to do is turn my protracted whine into an oratorio, convert my confusion into clarity. The desire to share the fruits of my labor with the world is overwhelming but who wants wrinkled skins, and mushy texture, spotting and bruises? It would be nice to share excitement for a change, the thrill of travel, of making new discoveries, the joy of painting.

Why do I keep addressing these letters to you, my friend? Because it seems to me essential that you, more than most, must come to your senses. I’m hoping you will finally grasp the extent of the havoc you have unleashed on this ravaged world.

I’ve always had an angry bent I suppose but mostly have always been regarded as an optimist by nature, not all dark and bent out of shape. That is the awful power of debt—it turns you into gnarly roots and vines. I’ve become an ancient olive tree in the past few years but you wouldn’t want to make oil out of my olives, no siree! Debt crushes the life out of a person. Lack of financial health is more damaging to one’s physical health than lack of exercise! You are positively no help. I can’t trust you any more or any of your ilk. Money experts are expert at making money, but not at helping people manage their own. If people do manage their money well, the experts, I suppose, make less? Is that how it works? I thought if you helped me and I did better then so did you.That is how naive I have been for all these years.

I suppose I keep writing to you out of that optimism I mentioned, that part of me that strains to comprehend, or rather find, the heart in you.

Sincerely,

Art Witherkay

PS_Here is another haiku for you:

We are the bankers’ wet dream
All that we earn they get
For a job poorly done
To maintain good credit
And a debt that will never
Ever diminish

Letter to the Bank #50

Dear BM,

I keep writing in hopes of discovering I am not alone. But you never answer my letters. I persist because I have hope. I’m a hopeful pessimist. Also you not responding allows me to speak my mind. Here is my latest thought:

The institution of banking as we know it has had it’s day. I do wonder what you observe from the inside though— do you see fine marble columns that bolster a sense of security—or do you see decay? Do you notice the gilt work (as it were) or the guilt, that insidious virus, working its way into the fabric of your networks, despite all efforts on the part of your guilty peers to ignore, sideline or deny that any such thing exists, or would even have reason to exist as all that they do is above board and beyond reproach?

So it is that I find myself standing on the pulse of my local branch, the sunlight streaming through that splendid rose window setting my hair aflame. I hold on like some heroic sailor going down with his ship. Then I hesitate. Is this how I want to go? Do I lash myself to your mast and keep making those massive interest payments to your floundering institution, into that leprechaun pot of gold you so cherish? Or do I jump ship, abandon my obligations, and attempt to swim all the way to the shore? The latter feels no less noble these days. This life of indentured servitude in a society so batty it can’t tell its head from its toes doesn’t ring right. I’d like to try something else for a while, somewhere else, somewhere off the grid where it is warm and the life is a simple one. I loved Robinson Crusoe when I was a kid!

Best regards,

Art Witherkay

Admit it. You enjoy my letters. Without them you’d be terribly out of touch with how the other half, rather the other 90%, think.

Reining in Corporate Influence

In January the Supreme Court opened the door wider than ever to corporate interests by allowing them to donate pretty much whatever they wish to influence elections however they choose. Show me a politician who can take the money and then ignore the bidding of these massive corporations. This was a distressing day for this tattered democracy. On the upside there are people out there struggling to do something about it. I received this request from Jessica Sharp and enclose the links she provided.

Hello!

My name is Jessica Sharp and I'm involved in a new movement to rein in corporate influence over our elections.  Corporate persons have enjoyed tremendous influence over our democratic process for decades, but the 1/21/10 Supreme Court decision opened a new door.  It's time for the madness to stop and to re-introduce sanity into our electoral process!  I've been working with a few different groups, some national and some MD-based where I live, to do this. 

One of the groups I'm working with on a national scale is Free Speech for People.   This documentary I'm sending was produced by them about our rally in MD.  It was released on Wed, 3/3 and was featured on michaelmoore.comand huffingtonpost.com almost immediately!  That being said, our movement is non-partisan.  Conservatives, liberals and independents are all equally disgusted with corporate influence on our elections.

Since the news cycle is so fast, it has now been rotated away from the homepages of those sites and into the archives.  I am trying to keep it in the public consciousness so we can continue to spread the word and recruit concerned citizens to our cause.  Since it is a professionally produced video, it really gives some clout to the movement.  Could you please link this to your blog?  I've been reading Art and the Bouncy Banker and I really like what you have to say.  I will offer 3 possible sites:

www.freespeechforpeople.org/making

http://michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/jessica-sharp-why-she-got-involved-fight-campaign-finance-reform

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-hanbury/new-populist-heroine-spar_b_483706.html


Thank you so much!  I really hope you will consider it!
Jessica Sharp

The New Money Lenders

I quote from money.co.uk"

It's looking very likely that within the next year or so the face of British banking is going to be unrecogniseable from its previous incarnation.
Not only is this the year that Santander stamp their name firmly on our highstreets (Alliance & Leicester are next in line for a rebranding). But, after the unprecedented number of mergers, takeovers and rescues that have narrowed the financial sector considerably, 2010 looks like it's going to be the year we welcome a host of new brands into British banking.
While we're not setting our expectations too high, the new additions are looking promising and we're keeping our fingers (and toes) crossed that a new era of customer focused banking is about to begin.

Last night I watched the not very good film version of Animal Farm (featuring the voice talents of such as Patrick Stewart and Ian Holm) wherein we are reminded that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The story of Animal Farm by George Orwell is a story for the ages and though it was a reflection on the rise and disintegration of communism at the time it might just as well be a parable on how excessive zeal in any quarter—capitalism for example— will always bring out the worst in people. Let us only hope these new banks truly intend to help people manage their assets and their debt holdings responsibly and do not encourage bad practices. This will only happen if they are regulated. Regulation is a word that strikes fear into the hearts of the private sector. These new banks should embrace it if they want their public to trust them.

Here in the States a similar movement toward community banking, customer focused banking, is thwarted by the mountains that need to be climbed to move one's accounts (such as they are) into the hands of community banks that seem themselves to be precarious at best. It is easier to stay with the nasty banks and so, exhausted as everyone is, that is what they do. At least when the big banks collapse they'll do so with a bang not a whimper.

It is hilarious that I write about these things. I am not a money guy. I suppose it is this lack of fiduciary confidence that prompts me to try and figure all this out. I've always resented needing money to live. These days I resent it more than ever, and cast around for the next job to bring more in.

Editorial - A.I.G., Greece, and Who’s Next? - NYTimes.com

Editorial - A.I.G., Greece, and Who’s Next? - NYTimes.com

Letter to the Bank #49

Letter to the Bank 50


Dear Bullrider,

Art here. That is what I’m sticking with these days, Art.

Kristian, my first name, despite being spelt with a K, feels too burdensome, too high fallutin’, even a little dishonest. Though I do put you through the ringer on all that moral stuff like having scruples and actually using them I never pretended to be perfect myself. But I am just an artist. What I do effects nobody. I can be immoral because I can be ignored. You cannot. If I mess up my finances I now understand it is my problem and the ripples caused will barely register on your radar. What you do or don’t do has consequences for everybody and these days, don’t argue, you are causing pain. I’d call you a sadist except I’m still not sure you see it. I’m not convinced it is intentional. You’re just callous, blind. I’m Art. I see all so watch it. I’m everywhere but so elusive. Just when you think you have caught up with me I disappear around the corner. Go ahead. Foreclose on me. My home is in my heart. Trouble is that is also where you’ll find my family. That is where you get to me. You hurt the children. This is why I can’t let down my guard. I might lash out. This is why I must bone up on finance. I warned you about this in my last letter because I am never anything but upfront. I’ll read “Investing For Kids”,and Money For Dummies” and then I’ll come play with you! I can’t let up but I can be lighter. Light interests me so much more than the darkness of your turgid world, the darkness I refuse to let you pull out of me.

I may not write many more letters to you because I can safely say that the only letters I ever receive from the bank are the least poetic, least enjoyable correspondence I ever have the misfortune of receiving. I had hoped you might respond with real advice. I hoped you’d make human your institutions, accessible your world but honestly we are all shut out who do not spend a quarter of our life times joylessly balancing our check books. It is only because I feel I’d be in a position to act on your conscience if (having relentlessly chipped away at your cold granite facade) I eventually find something in you I can relate to. Then I can hold you to account. I write to you as a last act of defiance, defense and hope.

My time would be so much better spent writing to the people I admire in this world, the people who truly make this world a better place. Just the act of writing to them would be uplifting. This would surely be a better use of my time.

Yours sincerely,


Art (Witherkay)

Letter to the Bank #48

Dear Bullrider,

As a self confessed financial neophyte I must confess this letter writing campaign of mine has been good for me, if nobody else. The feedback has been nonexistent. There is something to be said for getting things off one’s chest but this has also become for me a crash course in understanding the world of finance. I am becoming (lord save us) a self taught financial expert. There are many more like me out there—people who barely knew how to balance their check books, had no understanding of how to finance a mortgage, and certainly no comprehension of what caused the Big Meltdown, or what those big, strange words you all used meant—who are now waking up to a new and frightening reality: A multitude of us now see  there is no safety net to speak of any more and that pursuing any interests besides those of acquiring money (by any means necessary) is an ass’s game. Painting for example, who needs painting? Who needs Art or creativity? Workers? What are they? Machines are easier to deal with so the machines will come. So now we are joining your game. If that sends shivers up your spine it probably should though our expertise may prove no more dubious than yours in the long run. Frightening for you is the possibility that we may even attempt to exercise good judgement, fair practice, and mat attempt to make our transactions ethical. Our arrival presages a change of language in the banking sector. Gaining real Trust might make a come back as a winning formula. Aware as we now are of the condescending viewpoint of the bankers on high we’ll tread warily. Given that they tend to regard us all as poor fools I do think it rather kind of me to point out this thing they may not have noticed: A flood, a tsunami of self taught financial wizards is pouring onto the trading floor because, with rising joblessness, and most available jobs failing to pay enough to even cover basic health insurance costs, a tide of humanity is betting on one last great gamble—playing the bankers at their own game. Armed with creativity and a willingness to work, actually work, who knows? Some of them might just find a crack in the system through which to squeeze and so be in a position to unseat the unscrupulous souls at the top.

Yours sincerely,

 Kristian Art Witherkay, financial neophyte