I grew up knowing that when you had extra money, you put it under a bed, stashed it in a book or a clock, or, if there was enough of it, it went into a savings account at a bank.
It hadn’t occurred to me that my bank account could be contributing to the climate crisis until I learned that since the adoption of the Paris agreement in 2015, 60 of the world’s largest banks have invested $5.5 trillion into the fossil fuel industry. And they’re using our money to do it.
When we deposit our paychecks, the money doesn’t just sit there. Generally, banking institutions will use our money for investments and loans to other individuals and businesses, including fossil fuel companies.
So I realized that one of the levers that I could pull to fight climate change would be to take my money out of banks that invest in fossil fuels. And I could use my skills as a journalist to figure out where […]
Never lose sight of the fact that the Federal Government has picked the winners and losers in this sector. When the 2008 economic crisis arose, mostly as a result of banking systems failures (Liars loans, bunding of risky mortgages with healthy ones, inflations of property values and incomes, etc….) the Federal Government instead of practicing capitalism and dissolving the banks, and putting conservative management in place, instead declared these institutions “too big to fail”. The banks were then bailed out and management kept in place (and getting bonuses no less). None of the bankers went to jail. This was socialism for the rich, and capitalism for the rest of us. What did the banks do with these gains? Why they bought up smaller, well run banks. So when you are faced with these moral issues as to what to do with your money remember: The Government chose to save Wall Street, at the expense of Main Street. They have penalized the smaller regional responsible banks and rewarded the irresponsibility of Wall Street. I am certain that campaign contributions had nothing to do with these decisions.