http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
‘How would you feel if someone
told you that one of the largest banks on Wall Street makes more money whenever
the number of Americans on food stamps goes up? Unfortunately, this is
something that is actually true. In the United States today, one out of
every seven Americans is on food stamps. In fact, the number of Americans
on food stamps has increased by a whopping 14 million since Barack Obama
entered the White House. All of this makes JP Morgan very happy, because
JP Morgan has been making money by the boatload on food stamps. Right
now, JP Morgan Chase issues food stamp debit cards in 26 U.S. states and the
District of Columbia. The division of JP Morgan Chase that issues these
debit cards made an eye-popping 5.47
billion dollars in net revenue during 2010. JP Morgan is paid
per customer, so when the number of Americans on food stamps goes up, they make
more money. But doesn't this give JP Morgan an incentive to try to keep
the number of Americans on food stamps as high as possible? Of course it
does. JP Morgan is interested in making money as rapidly as possible. If
JP Morgan can get more Americans enrolled in the food stamp program and keep
them enrolled in it for as long as possible, that is good for business.
And the Obama administration
is certainly doing what it can to help out. Even though a whopping 46
million Americans are now on food stamps, the Obama administration plans to
give out large
amounts of money to organizations that are able figure out ways to
get even more people enrolled in the program....
Despite the historic rise in food stamp use, however, the Obama
Administration believes not enough people are receiving food stamps who should
be and is offering $75,000 grants to groups who devise “effective strategies”
to “increase program participation” among those who have yet to sign up.
In fact, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says that if we
can get even more Americans enrolled in the food stamp program, that will be a
great way to "stimulate
the economy".
Of course JP Morgan just loves all of this. The more
people they have in the system the better.
Christopher Paton, the managing director of JP Morgan's
"Treasury Solutions" business, made the
following statement about the "food stamp business" that
his firm is engaged in during an interview with Bloomberg Television....
"This business is a very important business to JPMorgan.
It's an important business in terms of its size and scale…Right now, volumes
have gone through the roof in the past couple of years. The good news, from
JPMorgan's perspective, is the infrastructure that we built has been able to
cope with that increase in volume."
You can see more of the interview with Paton in the video posted below....
As the interview above noted, more than 40 percent of all food
stamp recipients in the United States actually have a job.
This is an exciting "growth area" for JP Morgan.
As the middle class
continues to decline, the number of "the working poor"
in America is exploding.
Back in 1980, less than 30%
of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40%
of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs. This trend is
perfect for JP Morgan because it means that the number of low income workers
that are eligible for food stamps is going to keep increasing.
And what makes all of this even sadder is that JP Morgan has
outsourced many of the customer service jobs for its food stamp program to
India.
Yes, you read that correctly.
When Americans that can't find a decent job need help with their
food stamps there is a good chance that they will be talking to a customer
service representative sitting in India.
Isn't that crazy?
When ABC News confronted
JP Morgan about this, JP Morgan would not tell ABC which states have
customer service calls sent to India and which states have them handled inside
the United States....
JP Morgan is the only one today still operating
public-assistance call centers overseas. The company refused to say which
states had calls routed to India and which ones had calls stay domestically.
That decision, the company said, was often left up to the individual states.
But JP Morgan doesn't just handle food stamps. JP Morgan
also issues child support debit cards in 15 states and unemployment insurance
debit cards in 7 states.
Of course JP Morgan is not the only big bank involved in this
kind of business. Several others are also making money in massive
quantities on the backs of the poor.
The following example comes from a
Huffington Post article....
Shawana Busby does not seem like the sort of customer who would
be at the center of a major bank's business plan. Out of work for much of the
last three years, she depends upon a $264-a-week unemployment check from the
state of South Carolina. But the state has contracted with Bank of America to
administer its unemployment benefits, and Busby has frequently found herself
incurring bank fees to get her money.
To withdraw her benefits, Busby, 33, uses a Bank of America
prepaid debit card on which the state deposits her funds. She could visit a
Bank of America ATM free of charge. But this small community in the state's
rural center, her hometown, does not have a Bank of America branch. Neither do
the surrounding towns where she drops off her kids at school and attends
church.
She could drive north to Columbia, the state capital, and use a
Bank of America ATM there. But that entails a 50 mile drive, cutting into her
gas budget. So Busby visits the ATMs in her area and begrudgingly accepts the
fees, which reach as high as five dollars per transaction. She estimates that
she has paid at least $350 in fees to tap her unemployment benefits.
There is something about all of this that just seems very, very
wrong.
When we have good jobs, the big banks hit us with outrageous bank fees
and they try to get us enslaved to credit card debt.
When we are down on our luck and become dependent on
the government, the big banks still find ways of making money at our
expense.
Why do the banksters always seem to
win and we always seem to lose? ’