A couple of days ago cyber-attackers shut down JP Morgan Chase's (I think it was JPMC) customer accounts for a few hours, meaning customers couldn't get to their money. A few hours is no big deal, but what if that had been for several days or even several weeks?
I rarely have enough cash on me to buy a cuppa coffee at Fourbucks. I pay my bills online and use my debt card for purchases around town. If my bank's computers turned turtle for more than a few hours I'd probably be on the corner with a tin cup begging for lunch money.
I think I'll pull out a few hundred bucks at least and keep it under my mattress. That should at least buy enough kibble to keep us going a while.
Speaking of banks, it looks like the movement to break up the biggest of them is gaining momentum. Dallas FED President Richard Fischer is rallying support from all quarters to possibly put hard caps on their size. JP Morgan Chase might soon be three: JP, Morgan, and Chase.
"Too big to fail" banks will soon be small enough to fail and "Too big to jail" bankers will soon be know as "Inmate 95686532". It looks like my work here is almost done. :)
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It seems Catholics have 'em a new Pope. I kept waiting for the call, but it never came. I knew I was a long shot at best, considering I'm not Catholic. That's OK though. No hard feelings. In fact, it seems like this guy might be a good one. He eschewed the traditional Cardinal's mansion in Buenos Aires and instead lived in a small apartment on the outskirts, and rode his bike or took mass transit to work every day. Even traveling to Rome for this conclave he made the 13 hour flight in a coach airline seat. (That's coach, not Coach.) I find that rather refreshing.
I'd like to see some of our high-flying TV evangelists do some of that. Ha! That would definitely qualify as a miracle!
Counting down to the weekend....
S
I'm with you on this cyber thing. I hope our gbmt is hiring some good guy nerds to fight back and shut these guys down, but i'm afraid they are waiting for some serious crap to come down as you said. Why are we only proactive about stuff we can not really fix, but makes everyone feel good?
ReplyDeleteThey'll probably break up Morgan Chase and then like AT&T they'll just slowly come back together again a couple decades later until it's even bigger than ever.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious now that he's in one of the cushiest jobs besides a monarch in Britain or Monaco how the new pope will respond. But he sounds like another hard-line conservative. It'd be nice if they picked someone younger who might drag the church at least into the 20th Century.
Mike & I would be totally screwed if we couldn't access what little money we have - he MIGHT have $20 cash on him & I never carry any at all. Maybe I should plant more than one tomato plant this year.
ReplyDeleteI have friends who seemed surprised that the new pope is so conservative on social issues. I would have considered it a miracle equal to the virgin birth if he HADN'T been anti gay marriage & such. For heaven's sake - the Catholic church in the US has spent a ton of money to defeat gay marriage bills - where would this liberal pope have come from? On the other hand, good for him for being humble & closer to the people. It's a start.
While the last Pope was from the same county where I am from, this Pope only spent time at a university in Germany in the mid-1980's. But he, too, speaks German.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm Catholic, but I found it interesting.