New Doc Fundraising Teaser
Just finished work on the fundraising teaser for my new documentary, the working title of which is “Food Not Lawns”. Here it is:
If you know any documentary producers or have any other fundraising ideas, don’t hesitate to drop me a line. karneyhatch@gmail.com or 818-585-5838
Tao of the Palouse
This is a video that I thought might never make it to the light of day, but it finally has. Enjoy!
Blood Sucking of Consumers May (Finally) Be Coming to an End
The banking industry is sending out mixed signals at the moment. Just last month, several large banks including Bank of America and Chase were trying to convince people to stay with overdraft “protection” ahead of the rule change that goes into affect this summer that will make it so consumers have to opt in rather than having to ask to opt out of these evil programs.
And yes, I do mean evil. I think Bank of America’s move, yesterday, March 9, 2010, proves that they’re admitting that this program was evil as well: in the biggest single move since I started “Overdrawn!” almost four years ago, B of A said that it is ending overdraft fees on debit cards!
Now there are a gang of consumer advocates nationwide who are holding their breath to see what’s next on two big questions: First, how will the banks replace this income? I’m hoping that they go back to the old method of charging everyone $5 or so to have a checking account - this is the most democratic way of assuring that everyone from low income consumers to wealthier folks all pay the same amount.
Second, will the other big banks follow suit? I don’t see how other big players like Chase and Wells Fargo can ignore this, so it seems likely that checking accounts are in for some major re-working in the next few months. Again, I just hope that paying for them ends up being more equitably distributed between all consumers, rather than having the bulk of them being paid for by lower-income account holders.
Move California’s Money!
Okay, time to connect some dots. I was inspired by an article on the Huffington Post about a proposal from State Rep. Brian Egolf of New Mexico. He has introduced a bill to move the State of New Mexico’s money from Bank of America to community banks and credit unions throughout the state.
Naturally I thought, why not do this in California? So I called the State Treasurer’s office in Sacramento and talked for over an hour with Mark Hariri, Director of Cash Management, to get a handle on the situation. As it turns out, about 80% of the State of California’s money is also handled by Bank of America.
Which is odd, because the two largest pension funds in the state, CalPERS and CalSTRS, representing public employees and teachers, respectively, filed to be the lead plaintiffs in shareholder lawsuits against B of A in March of 2009.
They’d better get in line. According to this article in Slate’s The Big Money site, there are currently over 5,000 federal cases that name B of A as a party.
The Securities and Exchange Commission seems to think that California’s pension funds have a case. Just a few weeks ago the SEC filed its own case against B of A, “charging it with failing to disclose extraordinary losses at Merrill Lynch & Co before shareholders voted on a merger of the companies”, - Reuters.
Also last November, the capital’s own Sacramento Municipal Utility District sued B of A, along with Chase and UBS and forty four other firms, in a price fixing and kickback scheme.
I could go on.
The point is, why is the State of California banking with these guys while their two largest pension funds, a public utility, and numerous citizens of the state are suing them? Why not take that business away from B of A and put it where it belongs, in banks and credit unions that are based in California?
According to Mr. Hariri, the doors are open to any bank that wants to join the State’s Centralized Treasury System, the members of which (except Chase, which joined last fall) are listed on the Treasurer’s website. Many banks look into it, Hariri says, but then change their minds when they see they can’t compete with the bigger banks’ low rates and fees. You read that right. These low rates and fees are worthwhile when you consider California’s huge float and it’s multi-trillion dollar economy.
Of course the smaller banks can’t match these fees because of the massive economies of scale that Bank of America can bring to bear. So just as Wal-Mart drives local businesses out of business wherever they open up shop, B of A is keeping these smaller banks from getting their share of the pie by throwing their weight around.
To all this I say, wouldn’t it be worth it to pay a few extra cents per check if that money is going to a local bank or credit union, rather than to B of A?
I’m hoping to find a legislator in Sacramento who agrees with me.
Move Your Money!
Ariana Huffington is working on starting a movement to get people to switch from their big banks to community banks and credit unions. Great idea (and one that a bunch of the consumer advocates in my film are on the side of)!
A woman on Facebook , Carol Merrill, said it best: when you switch to a little bank, it’s like going to Cheers. Everybody knows your name.
Click here to check out the Move Your Money website, and don’t forget to watch the excellent video on their front page.
What the Fed Didn’t Do
This is a red-letter day, no question about it. The Fed gave us opt-in, which means that new and existing account holders have to sign up for overdraft protection rather than be automatically enrolled when they open an account. But the fight is far from over. As Eric Halperin of the Center For Responsidle Lending, an interviewee in “Overdrawn!”, said:
“We appreciate that the Fed chose to implement the strongest overdraft reform rule it was considering, namely requiring banks and credit unions to ask new and existing customers before charging overdraft fees on debit card transactions. But this improvement is undermined by the Fed’s failure to propose or enact necessary safeguards against a host of unfair practices.”
“Overdrawn!” Screening on Capitol Hill - Nader & Maloney will both be there!
On November 19, which happens to be my birthday, “Overdrawn!” will screen on Capitol Hill. Here’s an electronic version of the press release, with links:
11/6/09 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Karney Hatch, karneyhatch@gmail. com
“Overdrawn!” Screening on Capitol Hill
Ralph Nader to head panel of experts at Q & A
WASHINGTON, D.C. - - “Overdrawn!”, a documentary on predatory lending focused on overdraft fees, will screen in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2220, at 5:30 PM on November 19. The film will be introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), whose Overdraft Protection Act in the House was recently given new momentum by the introduction of similar legislation in the Senate sponsored by Senators Dodd, Schumer, Brown and Reed. A question and answer period with a panel of experts will follow the film, featuring Ralph Nader, Ed Mzierwinski of USPIRG, and Lauren Saunders of the National Consumer Law Center.
“Overdrawn!” follows director Karney Hatch as he tries to get to the bottom of the overdraft fee racket. The film features interviews with Ralph Nader, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Eric Halperin from the Center for Responsible Lending, a loan shark, and a former VP from Bank of America. The documentary also examines the larger questions of corporate domination of government and society with author and filmmaker Joel Bakan (“The Corporation”). In addition, the film explores the consumer revolt raging against the banks in Britain, including an interview with Mike Dailly, 2007 Scottish Solicitor of the Year, who is one of the primary leaders of the fight against the banks. The film’s happy ending is Hatch having his overdraft fees refunded by Wells Fargo after taking the bank to small claims court.
Word has been spreading about “Overdrawn!” since its first screening in Portland in 2007. In March of 2008 a condensed version of the film ran on Current TV, the cable channel co-owned by Al Gore, under the title “How to Beat the Bank”. In May of that year, Carolyn Bigda wrote a column for the Chicago Tribune, and in June of 2008 NPR’s All Things Considered discussed the film during a piece on bank fees. Film Threat said in their review that “the documentary sets itself apart from most of its peers by actually offering solutions rather than just exposing problems.”
An hour long “educational cut” of the film is being distributed to universities and libraries by Filmaker’s Library in New York under the title “Rip Off: Banks Exploiting Consumers”; distribution is still being sought for “Overdrawn!” itself, though DVDs are for sale on Amazon.com.
The trailer for the film is available on the website: www.overdrawnmovie.net
Happy Birthday to me!
Debtor’s Revolt
A woman pissed off about Bank of America jacking her interest rate up to almost 30% has called on others in her situation to join her in a debtor’s revolt. Even a year ago I’m not sure I could have supported such extreme action - I’m in favor of legal change. Now that the banks have received hundreds of billions in bailouts and their practices vis a vis predatory lending have not improved appreciably, I’m all for it. And her video is coming up on half a million hits, so someone is listening…
I’m definitely going to score one of her T-shirts as well.
Join Americans For Fairness in Lending!
Americans For Fairness in Lending is a group working for financial justice across the lending landscape, from Tax Refund Anticipation Loans to mortgages (and of course overdraft fees). I encourage everyone to sign up and maybe send a few pesos their way. Once you’ve registered with them, go ahead and write to your congressperson to encourage them to implement the Credit Card Act a few months earlier. They say it best here.
My review of Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story”
Michael Moore’s latest, “Capitalism: A Love Story”, is his most ambitious film to date and establishes him firmly as our nation’s class clown. It demonstrates once again why his films play better at the multiplex than they do in academia: they’re entertainment, not serious critiques. It’s not that he doesn’t do his homework, it’s just that the homework that he does do is much too selective, which makes it easy for his opponents to make stick the ‘liberal hack’ label that they keep handy for whenever one of his films is released.
In “Capitalism”, Moore does a fine job of showing when and how the United States took turns for the worse both politically and economically, by weakening the unions and changing the way the rich are taxed and by allowing our political system to be overrun by corporate influence. But then he wanders into class clown territory, reaching the facile conclusion that capitalism is evil and socialism is good, pointing to Germany and Japan as examples of socialist utopias.
The problem is that most of those who sit a few rows back from the class clown realize that neither pure capitalism nor pure socialism is the best way to run a society - the solution that works for all of the most successful democracies in the world is a well-balanced mix of the two. Go ask England, go ask France, go ask the much-lauded Norway. All of these, and Japan too, are capitalist to their core, but with strong moderating doses of socialism thrown in, in just the places that more socialist programs are needed here in the States: health care, the tax code, the social contract. To paint the world in black and white, evil vs. good terms is to make the class clown’s choice to get a quick laugh or a quick tear at the expense of intellectual rigor.
Mr. Moore veers into sadly laughable territory at the end of his film, when he makes an earnest, straightforward call for revolution. If he had done as much homework on revolutions as he did on FDR and the history of organized labor, he might have saved himself the embarrassment that I believe such a fruitless call will ultimately cause him.
Historically, as any college history textbook will tell you, revolutions occur when the economic pain to which the lower classes have become accustomed begins to haunt the middle class. Mr. Moore would have us believe that this is happening and that a backlash has begun, with his inspiring stories of resistance by a foreclosed upon and evicted family in Miami and a group of factory workers in Chicago. The fact is that conditions are not nearly bad enough amongst most of the middle-class people in this country for a revolution of any sort, economic or political, to have a chance of taking hold. Even lower middle class people in the United States today are enormously wealthy from a global historical perspective; they have cars, houses, more than enough food, and far too many distractions (television, games, etc - the masses’ latter-day opiates) to be bothered with anything resembling revolt. The growing ranks of the unemployed, for the most part, even have unemployment insurance, something unheard of in, say, France in 1789 or Russia in 1917.
What’s more, the very fact that Mr. Moore can make an open call for revolution and still walk the streets as a free man shows that, for all its many faults, our government is not even in the same category as Stalin’s Russia or Hitler’s Germany, where such statements already would have earned him a prison cell or a shallow grave and his film a place on the bonfire rather than in theaters across the country.
But what if, as he hopes, thousands or even millions of people follow the examples shown in the film and become squatters in their own homes or hold sit-ins in their factories to demand better treatment? This could in fact lead to real reform. Millions of squatters could force concrete reforms of predatory mortgages and even of the banking industry as a whole. Millions of factory workers demanding better conditions or the implementation of FDRs Second Bill of Rights could bring back stronger unions and lead ultimately to a new political climate in which we could align our socialism/capitalism mix with the more successful democracies of Europe. Of course I want this to happen, with every fiber of my progressive being. But do I think that it will? No, not while the middle class is busy playing Wii and watching television while gorging themselves on factory farmed McFood.
And that Mr. Moore can make such a call to his middle class audience in the multiplex which has just paid ten dollars for a movie ticket and another ten dollars for a small popcorn and a bottled water or soda, shows his naivete - nobody with enough disposable income to be sitting in the theater to receive this message, mid-recession, no less, can be seriously expected to go home and rattle the door of their economic cage loudly enough for anyone to notice.
All of this notwithstanding, class clown of the most powerful nation on Earth is not such a terrible position to hold, especially when the corrupt politicians, the straight-A students who should have the real power, are nothing more than teacher’s pets. Of course the teachers in this analogy, the real owners of power, are the corporate plutocrats that Moore correctly identifies. It’s not his evidence that’s flawed - few deliver it better than he - it’s his conclusion and accompanying call to action.
The day may come when things get bad enough for real change in this country, but that time has not yet arrived. Many of us are mad as hell, but we’re going to take it for a long time to come, because the middle class is not starving, homeless or being imprisoned en masse. If you want proof that we’re not yet ready for such change, look no further than the man who should have been awarded a trademark on the word by using it so often, Mr. Obama. He certainly talked the talk during the campaign, but as Moore points out, he then appointed an industry insider, Tim Geithner (who had previously turned down a chance to run Citigroup) as his Secretary of the Treasury, aligning himself firmly with the status quo, which has only been confirmed during the health care debate.
As Moore frequently points out, the central irony of his career is that the very corporate megaliths that he targets for his attacks support the distribution and advertising of his films. The irony of this latest film, if he’s to be believed, is that he really thinks he’s delivering a Trojan horse with the power to initiate the overthrow of the system through that corporate-owned distribution network. Unfortunately for Mr. Moore, class clowns don’t start revolutions, members of the intellegentsia do. Robespierre, Lenin, Jefferson, Adams - academic intellectuals all.
Reuters Blogged the Doc
Felix Salmon, a Reuters blogger, linked to the short version of the film that aired on Current TV.
Bank of America and Chase move in the right direction
This is big-ish news. B of A and Chase are moving in the right direction on their overdraft fee policies, though they still have a loooong way to go. Here’s a link to the main article in the New York Times. And here are some thoughts on specific bits of the story.
The moves come as lawmakers and regulators in Washington push proposals to reform what critics say are excessive charges of which consumers are unaware.
Here, here. Let’s not go and give the banks too much credit here - there’s no way they would be doing this if they didn’t see the writing on the wall in Congress and maybe even the Fed.
Bank of America said it was spurred by consumer demand rather than legislative pressure to change its policy. “We made the decision that we had to help customers now and help those most stretched by the economy,” said Brian T. Moynihan, president of Bank of America’s consumer and small-business banking operations. “They found themselves getting hit by too many fees, and they said, ‘Help us out.’ ”
I think what they were actually saying was something closer to “Stop screwing us, you insensitive, bloated-on-stimulus-money but still sticking it to us bastards!” But I guess when you translate that into executive-speak, that’s what it comes out as.
Beginning Oct. 19, Bank of America will stop charging any fees for customers who overdraw their accounts by less than $10 in a single day. It will also limit the number of overdraft fees it charges to four a day, although the bank will continue to charge a fee of $35 per overdraft.
This is why it’s a step in the right direction, but not near far enough. Four fees a day is still ridiculous, and $35 a pop is still unconscionable. Until these numbers start to change, I’m going to keep fighting.
Current customers who want to opt out of Bank of America’s automatic overdraft protection can go into their branch on Oct. 19 and turn off the ability to overdraw their accounts. The bank will cut them off when their debit card purchases or A.T.M. withdrawals go beyond the money in their checking account, and will no longer cover bounced checks.
Um, isn’t this the way your card should work, like, when you don’t have any money, it gets turned down? Score one for common sense, but again, let’s keep the pressure on until they really clean things up, or it gets cleaned up for them.
“Overdrawn!” Screening in Sacramento
![](http://karneyhatch.com/karneyhatchdotcom/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/karneysacramento.jpg "\\"Overdrawn!\\" Screening at the Guild Theater in Sacramento.")
Photo: Anthony Bento
A group called Movies on a Big Screen put up “Overdrawn!” on Friday and Sunday, and I was at the screening on Sunday for a Q & A. A reporter for the Sacramento Press was there and posted this story.
Digg up my question for Secretary Geithner
Over at Digg.com they’ve teamed up with the Wall Street Journal to ask Treasury Secretary Geithner some questions this Thursday the 20th. Reproduced below is my question. If we Digg it up enough, it will get asked…
Don’t we the taxpayers now own sizable chunks of these banks, and shouldn’t we therefore be able to tell them to stop abusing we the people?”
Film Threat Gives “Overdrawn!” 3 1/2 stars
This happened back in November but I just noticed that they put it up recently. These guys can be pretty harsh critics, so I was pretty happy with their review. They gave one of my favorite films, “Donnie Darko”, two stars, for example. And they had this to say :
“Like many films of this ilk, “Overdrawn!” successfully sets your blood boiling. However, the documentary sets itself apart from most of its peers by actually offering solutions rather than just exposing problems.”
Pretty cool, huh? Read the full review.
“Overdrawn!” Featured in USAA’s U.25 Magazine
This happened a while ago, but it just came back onto my radar screen recently.
You can read the magazine for free online here (it’s a 4+ MB .pdf, so be forewarned):
Click on “Don’t Throw Your Money Down the Drain” on the left hand side once the .pdf loads.
Maloney’s Overdraft Bill Re-Introduced
It’s had three different numbers over the last few years, but it’s chances of actually getting passed are now better than ever. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (who we interviewed for the film) re-introduced her Consumer Overdraft Protection Fair Practices Act in the new Congress a week and a half ago and it’s moving through the pipeline.
So call your representative and tell them to get on board. Enough helping the banks, it’s time to help the people!
You can track the bill’s progress on Thomas. It’s HR 1456 this time around.
Also, if you’re on Change.org, you can send a letter to your representative in about five seconds.
Overdraft Class Actions
This hasn’t made the mainstream press much, probably because it’s been drowned out by bigger stories, but Bank of America settled an overdraft class action lawsuit for $35 million in September of last year. I’m going to call the attorneys and B of A next week and update this entry with more info, but what you need to know for now is that the deadline to join the class is May 1, 2009. Go here to find out if you qualify (and file a claim online), but if you were a B of A customer from 2000 to 2007 and paid any overdraft fees, you’re in. The maximum payout is $78, but it takes less than a minute to fill out the form.
A similar lawsuit has been filed against Wells Fargo, which is scheduled to go to trial in June in California. The most exciting thing about these cases is that, regardless of B of A’s legal mumbo jumbo about not accepting responsibilty, the fact that they settled the case shows that they know the legal landscape is changing and that they’re on shaky ground. The days of running roughshod over customers and posting obscene profits are over. Whether they like it or not, the regulatory leash that they’ve been used to, so long as to be almost useless under the Republicans, is finally getting shorter.
More soon, but go fill out the form and get your cut. $78 may not be much, but it sure feels good to get your hands back on some of your money that they stole from you…
Success Story
I recently got this email from someone who watched Overdrawn! and was inspired to take action. She works as a Case Manager in Washington State:
“A client of mine owed a huge amount of money to her bank; much of this was due to the bank allowing her to repeatedly overdraw her account, charging her up the ass in overdraft fees. After the Client’s failure to reverse charges with the bank, Bad Ass Case Manager Nicole got on the line. I informed them of my relationship to our mutual Client, and explained I would like to explore options with bank personnel before assisting my client in pursuing her legal options in Small Claims Court. The banking representative informed me her manager was in a meeting, but she would report back to Client. No further contact was made….then Client recieved a bank statement:
Wohoo. Thanks Overdrawn!
- Nicole”
Makes us all feel good here at Team Overdrawn!
Touring Colorado
The tour is going swimmingly. I warmed up in Laramie, Wyoming and Fort Collins, Colorado, then really got going in Boulder where I projected onto a Wells Fargo ATM kiosk right off the Pearl Street Mall.
In Denver the only decent place I could find to project in downtown was the US Bank Tower. Security called the police, and three motorcycle cops showed up. We ended up chatting about the DNC and their credit union. They didn’t even talk about arresting me and didn’t have much of an argument for shutting down the show.
Next week things will heat up when I get to Las Vegas and California. There’s a confirmed screening at UC Berkeley on the 27th and several other screenings in the works. I’m also got interviews lined up on KPFA in Berkeley and KZOZ in San Luis Obispo. Watch this space for details about upcoming screenings.
Here’s a short video I put together about the tour so far. It’s rough but it gives you an idea what it’s been like so far:
Death of WaMu
If anyone knows where I can get one of these T-shirts, let me know!
I have mixed feelings about last night’s takeover of WaMu by the FDIC and subsequent sale to JP Morgan.
WaMu is the reason I made “Overdrawn!”, and now they’re gone.
Don’t feel sorry for these guys, though. Like many have been saying, at the center of the whole financial crisis is the fact that massive losses are now being socialized, following a period in which massive profits were privatized.
On top of all the billions of dollars in overdraft fees that Americans have been paying for years, we’re now going to be stuck with the bill to bail out the banks that have been sticking it to us. As taxpayers and debit-card holders, we’re paying for it coming and going. This is a screwing so convoluted that it’s worthy of the Kama Sutra!
The punch line for me is that even conservatives are calling for more regulation now. Truly, it’s time to change the law.
Overdrawn! on All Things Considered
Okay, this was the day (so far) that made the whole movie worthwhile. I’m an NPR geek, so to me this was like getting on CNN.
It’s archived here for your listening pleasure: