Top CD Rates

Bank of America (stock symbol BAC) has been in the news for a long-time now. Their stock price a year ago was at $43.00. It recently traded as low as $2.53. They traded as high as $55 back in December of 2006. The became the poster child for engineered bail-outs by saving the FDIC from closing Countrywide and then buying Merrill Lynch at a deep, deep discount. But look what it did to Bank of America. Not a pretty picture.

At this point the Gov’t and the FDIC seem bent and propping up Bank of America and their investment arms Banc of America and now Merrill Lynch. Despite the fact that Bank of America has misused tax payer money from TARP and has lobbied to not have to be transparent with those funds.

The sad thing is they and many other FDIC Banks have been allowed to become so big that the Gov’t can’t afford to let them close or fail. Which puts us the tax payers on the hook for a never ending vicious circle of providing bail-out funds.

Will Bank of America Survive? Probably. Should they, I think not. No corporation should hold so much power over a country or the Gov’t. No corporation should be allowed to grow so big that the Gov’t can’t allow them to face the consequences of poor decisions and greed.

FDIC insured banks should have limits placed on them so that they can’t grow to over a certain asset size. The fact is the greed and corruption of Bank of America, Citibank and others is not only affecting you when it comes to the TARP bail-outs, but now the FDIC is assessing all banks with a 20 Basis Point premium. How do you think the banks will pay for that? They will either increase fees, reduce staff, and or reduce your rates. As if the bank CD rates weren’t low enough already?

Bank of America along with Citibank has spent years gobbling up other banks and leaving a wake of bad service and high fees behind them. How much do you pay when you have an overdraft? I say, break them apart. Let the “little” guys by pieces back. Let them purchase near by branches and return them to being in the hands of community banks where they belong. Let them return to serving their communities instead of sucking them dry like vampires.

These mega-banks have broken the trust of America. And the people of America should demand better so that trust can be restored. Many people invested not only in the banks directly, but also into the stocks. The savings of America is probably safe, but the stock investments will probably not return for over a decade.

Small Business of America has been affected. They have seen their credit lines frozen and many have had to close their doors as they couldn’t afford to purchase more product or pay their employees. Have they received a bail-out? No. The banks that wallowed in greed and most likely corruption have been bailed out. The good people have been left holding an empty bag.

Come one America. You are better than this. Rise up and demand better.

Bank of America, you should not survive.

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Bank CD Rate Comparison

This is be a part two of my four part series on banks in the states of the Vice Presidential/Presidential candidates. This post will focus on Joe Biden’s homestate; the banks of Delware and their CD Rates.

First thing you’ll notice is the banks in Delaware are some of the larger banks in the US and many of them are having financial problems. Joe so kindly helped pass a bail-out plan to help them out. AIG took the bail-out and then had a big party. Nice.

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I thought it might be fun to feature banks in the home states of the current Presidential / Vice-Presidential candidates. As most of you know, the VP for the Republican Party is Sarah Palin from Alaska (AK).

This will be a four-part series and after I’m all done, I’ll try to draw some conclusions for the upcoming election. For now, here is a run-down of banks in Alaska and their CD Rates.

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