The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 350 - Wells Fargo

Episode Date: October 29, 2018

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine Wells Fargo Bank. SOURCESTOUR DATES OFFICIAL MERCH

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host you're listening to the dollop on the all-things comedy network. Get that energy up let's go. And called it quote his jam

pad. Jam pad? I'm the fucking hippo guy. My name's Gary. My name's Gary. Is it far fine? And this is not going to come to Tiggly Podcast. Okay. Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments. You're listening to the dollop. This is a bi-weekly American History podcast. Each week I Dave Anthony read a story from American History. Two? Oh my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. We're getting it. We're gonna get it. 1852. Okay. Of our Lord. And we're doing this we're recording this because this is an important one. Yep this is an important

one. Because we're in Australia right now. We're in Australia and I wanted to record this one before the California elections. Okay. But I think I will enjoy it. 1850. Henry Wells and William G. Fargo. Oh dude. Oh my god. What? You know what it is? Yeah is it about Wells Fargo? No it's about the Henry and William Candy Shop. Oh okay. They met in the back room of a bookstore in Syracuse, New York who discussed providing transportation of minors during the Gold Rush. Okay. In March 1852 they launched Wells Fargo and Company's California Express with $300,000. It costs $300,000 to launch it? Yeah that is a lot of money for back

then. Yeah well they didn't have Kickstarter. They did not have a Kickstarter. Okay. California only had 60 post offices for 300,000 people. The the Alta California newspaper quote the post office system so far as California is concerned is a humbug and a nuisance. Okay Dave you know what I'm gonna need you to clean it up a little bit. I really you know language is important to me. It's a humbug. David. So hold on. Look at you. What a producer. I'm taking you up a notch. Great. Finally. Like Emeril. I know I'm up a notch. So yeah so they're filling a void right? Sure. Wells Fargo. So wait sorry real quick. They're

they're working pretty much in just transferring. Yeah at the start. Okay. So they're just a cheaper more trusted way to send letters across the country. Okay. And they created a way to send gold also with the stagecoaches right? Sure. Which led to stagecoach robberies of course. Well I mean of course. You have gold in state. Yeah exactly. There's gold driving by you. Pretty slow. You can trot along. I'll be like yeah I'm gonna take it. Thank you. Bye. Wells Fargo then started employing detectives to chase down the robbers. Okay. Wells Fargo also got into the lady shipping business. Well Dave come on. What what is that? In 1893 an

unmarried woman took a trip from Los Angeles to Chicago for the World's Fair. Okay. Wells rode ahead and told their man there. She was coming and to find her place to stay. Okay. Wells Fargo introduced her to people and she was personally checked up on by Wells Associates while she was there. Did she did she? She was single. Did she ask for any of this? She's single. She can't just run around. Why but why why why is why with why with her why did this happen? Just because. Because she's a lady single in a city. She must be checked upon. What do you mean checked upon? Make sure she's being lady-ish. I don't like it. Well so

Wells this is one of Wells businesses and then they also got into the lady shipping business in Europe. Same thing. Let's say they would ship they would take someone somewhere and then check up on her. Yeah yeah you gotta make sure the lady's doing okay. In what way? Just like they would just like watch her? I guess they're like hello Mrs. Spencer how are you as a man touched you? No. Good. Okay. Good day. Stop coming over here. I'll be back tonight at midnight. It's not something I've asked for. Pantsless. Oh my god then the man never mind. During the Spanish-American War the US passed a war revenue act in 1898 that required

tax stamps on some business transactions. Okay. Wells passed one cent tax on to its customers but they also fought the war tax all the way to the Supreme Court. Okay. Who eventually ruled against Wells Fargo in 1901 but they'd saved three years of taxes by tying it up in court and made a profit because they passed on the one cent. Well that's exactly how they drew it up. So they just pushed it for three years then they got it to the Supreme Court they and now they do have to. For that they did. Yeah but they saved three years they got. In 1905 Wells spun off the banking business from its express service. Okay. So now it's now

it's a bank. Right. And let the good times roll. Yeah this is what it gets great. In 1937 a Wells Fargo movie played in theaters across the country. What? I'm detective John Wells and I'm Andy Fargo. The plot was about Rocky. The plot was about Rocky. It's the guy's name. Okay. A special investigator for Wells Fargo who goes under cover as an outlaw to find out who was Robin Stagecoach's. Wow. So this is like. You're in right. Oh yeah for sure. This doesn't feel. I mean this is the beginning of brand incorporation. Yeah. From 1957. How did it do with the box office. I don't know. I didn't check my shirt. Is it just made a killing. Who would

want to go see the Wells Fargo movie. And from 1957 to 1962 tales of Wells Fargo the TV series ran. Dude this is like Mac and me. What is the Wells Fargo TV show. Agent Jim Harris retires and then owns a ranch near San Francisco but still does agent work on the side. Right. Part time. That's right. And he's just he's again stopping state the stagecoach robberies. He must be. OK. What else would he do. I mean I don't know. You would hopefully they would come up with a plot. Nope. OK. And I mean it ran for five years. Good. What year. Fifty seven and sixty two. Wow. That's crazy. In eight. We should we should go pitch a Wells Fargo movie. Yeah. Right now. Now's the time.

I definitely want to do it more like tango and cash though. If possible. Fuck for sure. OK. Thank you. Yeah. Wells is kind of buttoned up. Fargo. Good luck getting him in a cage. He knows one law. Fargo's law. In 1986 Wells Fargo bought Crocker Bank and immediately fired one thousand six hundred fifty people. It's a crocker shit. If you ask me. And then laid off another three thousand three hundred fifty within two years. Awesome. So they've become a cool business. Yes. Right. They called these payroll deductions. There you go. I'm sorry. You've been paid payroll reduced. Oh OK. Great. I mean I what is that. You're no longer on the payroll. Sort of takes the motivation out of my job. Well you can still

come in and work. We're just not going to pay you anymore. If it's all right with you sir I'd really like to. OK. Welcome to the team. Well honey I had a weird day at work. What happened. Well I still have to go in but they've made some payroll reductions but I can tell I'm a valuable part. So I'm going in for free now. So we're going to have to sell the boy. I didn't like him. Not a fan either. It's been a little shit. Well OK. Let's not. You smell like gin. I've been drinking gin. You just said eating gin. That's how much of it you drink. Oh my god. In 1996 in a hostile takeover Wells acquired a first interstate bank. At least that takeover is called hostile. Yeah. 350 branches were closed immediately

in 12000. Jesus Christ. This is what we're like 10 minutes in. In 1998 Norwest Bank bought Wells Fargo. But Norwest took the name Wells Fargo instead of making Wells Fargo change his name. Weird. I think I think Wells Fargo is just a better name than Norwest maybe. I mean that sounds like Kim and Kanye's next kid. Yeah. Oh God please. In 2012 in a foreshadowing of what was to come Wells paid a penalty of $150,000 for improperly switching customers among amongst mutual funds. So they just switching customers around and mutual funds without telling them. I mean you've never done that. No. No. Kind of takes the mutual part out of it. Three years later Wells was fined three million for improper sales of mutual funds.

Which means what they're selling people's mutual funds. I don't know. I think I don't know how I didn't look into how improper. It just gets so. Okay. There's a lot. Okay. After the banking industry was deregulated by Bill Clinton and Republicans in Congress. Wells Fargo saw the black community as a fertile ground for predatory lending. Wells created a unit in the Mid-Atlantic region to push expensive refinancing loans on black customers particularly those living in Baltimore, Southeast Washington and Prince George's County, Maryland. But it also went on all over the country. A Wells Fargo loan officer quote. They referred to some prime loans made in minority communities as ghetto loans. I mean go ahead. And minority

customers as those people have bad credit. Those people don't pay their bills and quote mud people. Are they run by like a 90 year old man? Is it like Grand Torino's in charge? It's just abusive. It's not great. Yeah. A bank office in Maryland had a quote affinity group marketing section that specifically hired black employees to call African American churches. Oh man. The idea behind this was that church leaders had a lot of influence in the black community and they could convince their congregants to take out subprime loans. Not prime loans as most of these people were qualified for. Black customers were targeted to get higher interest worst loans which were designed to white people out in the end even

though they had the credit to get normal loans. I just can't believe it's that calculated. Like I know that it is crazy but that level of calculation is a board. That's a conspiracy they're not they're not targeting church leaders to get. By the way the next time someone is on the side of the banks shove them. So yeah. So they're you know they know these loans are fucked and so they're putting people and the thing is is not a lot of us know or understand financing and banks and stuff. So you you trust the person you're talking to. Yes you totally do. You shouldn't but you kind of have to because you don't know anything about it. It's almost like a lawyer because like when I've had to do liaison like some liaison stuff

with my mother and her guy and like you just like look man I don't know what the fuck you're saying but if you say yes let's do it and I mean they're just. Yeah and then these guys are being predators. Yes. Yes. Wells even had software to generate marketing materials to minorities. If a Wells loan officer anywhere in the U.S. wanted to send a flyer to an African American neighborhood soliciting subprime loans he could ask access software that would print out a flyer for people who spoke the language of quote African American. Sometimes the best way to see racism is like the like contortion the contortionism of how they will try to be politically correct while being awful. I mean it's just speak the language of the African

American. You mean English. It's just like the fact that that was fucking software and you could access it. It's just fucking. Okay. Starting to miss John Fargo the cop. Wells top producing subprime loan officer at the time Beth Jacobson quote we just went right after them. It was fertile ground. She I mean she's on it's just crazy to hear someone say something about across all banks during the mortgage lending madness black households making more than sixty eight thousand a year were five times more likely to hold high interest subprime mortgages as whites were well income or lower income. But for Wells Fargo the numbers were worse two percent of whites versus 16 percent of blacks in the same income. Holy

shit. Wells Fargo put bounties on minority borrowers. Jesus Christ. We're just getting started. I know and I'm more that's what I'm that's why I just said that I'm like already like our uncle. Beth quote by this I mean that loan officers received cash incentives. She earned as much as seven hundred thousand one year and got all expenses trips to Cancun Palm Springs and the Bahamas. Anywhere nice. There. Aerosmith Jimmy Buffett the Beach Boys the Eagles Cheryl Crow Elton John and James Taylor performed for employees. James Taylor this is folk singer. This is this is really is the whole problem is the way that if you you will sell your soul to make money. Yeah. And and even the musicians you just named the

fucking me what the fuck they don't need that fucking money. Look I expect this from Stephen Tyler but Joe Perry call me. I expect it. I expect that from the Eagles. Yeah for sure the Eagles. Yeah. Yeah. Beth would get gifts of artwork crystal platters. She even a stake of the Month Club membership. But should Beth be telling people what she did. So far it's OK. So she was rolling in it and she ended up buying three homes. She didn't ask a lot of questions even though it was pretty obvious something wasn't right. Why would why would you ask a question. Hey how come I get these great stakes once a month and Aerosmith's in my contacts. And why do I have flyers for how to talk to black people. In 2007 while

she was cranking out 55 million a year in subprime loans the CFO Wells went on the news and there he denied that Wells Fargo even had a subprime division seemed pretty pretty obvious things were very wrong to Beth. So she quit and couldn't find another job. Pretty soon all three of her homes were in foreclosure. She applied for a loan modification from Wells Fargo under the government program but she was refused. I mean that's what honesty gets you in 2008 as the economy melted down to the to the housing crisis. The government decided to bail out the banks not the people. Wachovia Bank was going tits up. The bank held a shitload of toxic mortgages. Citigroup made a deal to purchase Wachovia's banking

assets for 2.2 billion. The government brokered the deal. Wachovia made it. I think it's Wachovia isn't it. I think it is Wachovia. Well they said no CH. Wachovia made an agreement. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't want to lead you in a direction of mispronunciation. I mean it doesn't exist anymore so who cares. Right. Well Don Wachovia is upset. Wachovia made an agreement with Citibank that it would not quote participate in any discussions or negotiations with any third party. Okay. So the deal's done. They're not supposed to talk to anybody else. Okay. Then Treasury Secretary Paulson quietly issued a document revising the tax code. I miss Hank Paulson's sweet mug. This gave huge benefits to certain banks that buy other banks. One

of those being Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo from this revision of the tax code would get 25 billion dollars. Now suddenly Wells Fargo want to buy Wachovia. In October Wells got 25 billion in tarp funds the biggest amount awarded in a single shot and that exact same day Wells had a surprise announcement. They would buy Wachovia for 15 billion. So they were going to get 25 billion. Yeah. For doing it and it cost them 15 billion to actually do it. Actually the government thought that Wachovia should be worth more than Citibank was offering. So they revised the tax code so that incentivize get a 25 billion dollar windfall and then they could buy and get have 10 billion dollars left over. Yeah. And the people nothing. The people

what. Sorry. I shouldn't. I shouldn't say that word anymore. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. And put the ring out. I'll kiss Wells Fargo and Citigroup had a public spat and it ended up ended up in court. The government got involved again and it was decided Wells Fargo would get the bank Wells Fargo chairman quote. We believe this is the correct and right decision for our country and our citizen. Oh god. You know what. I'm like I might need to lay down. We might need a halftime. God damn it. It's like a different human. It's not a human that I've come into contact with. Like I've met liars. There are people who are full of shit that I've met for sure. But not on the level of this sort

of Hitlerist angle on the people and banking. It's magical. How much money is enough money. I don't think that they think there is such a thing as enough money. Honestly. Well. OK. Citigroup said it would sue for 60 billion dollars Wells Fargo ended up paying Citigroup a hundred million. OK. In 2009 Wells Fargo had the second worst record among large banks in helping families modify home loans. Right. Because the crisis is on the government set up a program to modify home loans in order to get people to keep their homes to keep their homes. Well supposedly only six percent of his hold. Sorry. That was housekeeping. You should have. You should have let housekeeping in for this. Sorry. What. What did you just

say. Oh I was just saying that you know they settled for a hundred million after they were able to absorb Wacovia. Yeah. Which there was a 10 billion dollar net gain for them. Yeah. Oh it is. OK. Good. I'm glad you could get my car. Would you hand her a mic. So six percent of Wells mortgage customers were getting a trial modification under hand. The program that was created to do that's only six percent of people. Wells also paid no income tax in 2009. That that that sort of stuff. Now that's personal Dave. That gets my goat. Thirty five percent corporate rate. It would have been about 18 billion. Nothing. Instead they pay nothing. Nothing. With its. I mean. I already knew that in a way. But when I pay more money

than Wells. That's what I mean. It's like why do we have to do it. Why do all the people have to do this dumb bullshit exercise. Yeah. Where you're constantly in fear that you're going to accidentally mess up a number. Yeah. And then you're going to get an audit or something like that. And in reality. I mean why not. Eighteen billion dollars would probably be enough for a lot of our taxes as my guess. I mean with the economy in the shitter Wells had to figure out a way to get those profits back up. In 2009 Wells began having employees secretly create millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts in customers names without the customers knowing it. OK. Familiar. They charged bullshit fees for the fake accounts.

Wells employees had to hit crazy sales targets. If you're if you're a person who banks with Wells Fargo and you're are you noticing like more that you're taxed more or that like your money is going or that you're losing money based on this. Well I think that the I mean I think the idea is is it like you know so they open up a savings account for you and then what's it. Seven dollars a month. Right. Don't notice if you have you know a decent amount of money. Right. If you're scraping by and every dollar matters. But they're probably not targeting those people. Well actually I'm just going to say a little too much credit there. But I really think the idea is like well fees people won't really notice. So let's

do this. Right. Well CEO John Strumpf publicly stated that each Wells customer should have at least eight accounts with the company. Oh my God. So not just banking as a credit card like whatever they can get. I mean that like I can think of three or four. No I can't even add like what the fuck you talking about the candy fund. Wells called this it's quote gr eight initiative. How is that. How is that being spelled. G. R. dash. E. I. G. H. T. gr eight. Great. Eight eight accounts. Eight accounts. They're good. Feels like I work over there. Wall Street loved it and stock went up over five. Hey Dave I hate what they're doing. Over five years bank employees opened up over 3.5 million accounts without getting

customers permission. And they the employees know what they're doing. Yeah. They did it by moving money from a customer's existing account to a newly created one. Customers were then charged fees for not having enough money in their original account. Holy shit. As well as overdraft fees. Have you. I mean like I remember living with the overdraft cloud above me for a long period of time. And this when you would get screwed on an overdraft fee. I mean it's like it could be for like three dollars over but then you're charged forty dollars. Yeah. So now you're down forty three dollars. Yeah. And you're poor. And then it's and it's a bank. It's like just say no to me. Right. That would be a lot of

it. I would just don't. Yeah. Just don't give me the money asshole. Money. That's kind of sometimes what you're trying to figure out. I mean I remember being at Vaughan's being like come on baby come on baby come on baby. You know I'm being like all right got it. And then being like dude I'm screwed. No there is no reason for an overdraft fee. Yeah. Don't pay the fucking money. Yeah. I didn't have it. Don't you're a bank. That's kind of what you do. It's yeah. So right. So they're moving money from one account to another. People are getting charged overdraft fees. Wells employees submitted five hundred thousand five hundred sixty five thousand four hundred forty three credit card accounts

without customers knowledge. Fourteen thousand of those credit cards brought in the bank over four hundred thousand dollars in fees. Employees said they were brutally pressured to meet sales quotas. How about whistle blow. We'll get there. Employee Sabrina Bertrand quote I had managers yelling in my face they wanted you to open up a dual checking account for people that couldn't even manage their original checking account. The bank's district managers discussed sales for each branch and employee quote four times a day at eleven a.m. one p.m. three p.m. and five p.m. Wow. Employees started doing anything they could to keep their job. Besides opening accounts they created something called pinning which

was to have ATM cards issued and assigned a pin number without customer authorization. I don't like where this is headed. Then they would get shit going. They would create fake email addresses and then more accounts. The customer had no idea any of this was going on. So there are fake debit cards going. I'm worried and they're getting like a second debit card made and then they're taking it and they're using that to open up other accounts for this employees for customers. Mike well and employees in a way. Employees who did not meet daily goals were quote reprimanded and told to do whatever it takes to meet individual sales quotas management to tell employees to quote achieve solutions through

family members. What. Yeah. I mean this is like not a lot of places start at the top and then move down to pyramid schemes. It's fucking crazy. This is the thing I don't understand and I know this is going to be the point but like this is such a short sided plan. Yeah this is so like this monumental and that's the problem with the corporate. That's the problem with having to grow every quarter is that you have at some point you're going to have to not grow and then the companies will just keep. I mean it's like a machine. Well the guy running this doesn't care because right now profits are up. Yeah he looks good right now for sure. Yeah. He's giving shit about the long term. Nope. Former branch

manager in Florida Rita Marillo said quote we were constantly told we would end up working for McDonald's if we did not make sales quotas. We had to stay for what felt like after school detention or report to a call session on Saturdays. She couldn't take it and quit her job. She didn't have another job lined up. She lost her house. Workers who refused to go along with the fraud were fired. Dennis Russell was fired after working at Wells for five years. He was expected to refer 23% of his collars to a sales rep for product sales. Wow. Just go to hell. Just fuck off. Honestly. I mean honestly. How much. When I call and you say hey do you want this. I just don't give a shit. The worst. I usually don't have time.

Well beyond that it's just like enough. Yeah. I need it. Stop. Yeah. I also don't need when I go to Subway or some fucking shitty place. I don't I don't need to go online and fill out a review for the person. Well I mean I'll tell you this and then we'll jump right back in. You're talking to a guy who used to go to El Pollo Loco twice a day and on the back of his receipt would go home. Fill out a survey to get one dollar off the next chicken break. And I was involved in a vicious cycle of every day going home from El Pollo Loco. Filling that out. I mean like I knew the people at the drive thru. I was like here my two receipts. I know it's supposed to be four thirty nine but it should be two thirty nine is is Heidi

back there. What's going on. You were winning. Yeah. Yeah. But the economy is in the economy crash. The companies like Wells Fargo who had sold everyone shitty subprime mortgages to crash the economy were now trying to crash the economy would just fucking force people to make money right off of nobody crash the people. Nobody has money. Yeah. Dennis was just talking to people who were quote in dire financial shape. They all had mortgages in foreclosure credit cards and collections and cars being repossessed. There was literally no bank product you could offer them. So he was fired. The Committee for Better Banks launched a campaign that got 10,000 signatures of Wells Fargo employees stating they were

being forced to do this. They knew it was illegal. Unethical. And they all felt really bad. The company ignored the petition and continued the process. Someone opened up accounts for friends and family employee quote. There would be days where we would open five checking accounts for friends and family and just go home early. Management was fully aware of what was going on. Some employees tapped every family member or friend they had. Others spent holiday dinners trying to convince all their family members to sign up for accounts. The problem is you seem a little desperate. I do. No I'm just saying I think there's a I think Wells Fargo is a great home and a great place for you know look just sign the sign

the guy. Okay everyone we're not having turkey until everyone signs the goddamn papers. Look can we just eat. No we're not eating until every look guys I'm trying to help you. You're not okay. Let me talk Dan. Okay. Let me my god. I mean you're making me sound crazy. Just sign it. Shut the fuck up. Shut up. Your eyes are bleeding. Of course they're bleeding. I haven't slept in a week. Okay. And I'm not under a lot of pressure. Okay. Shut up. Okay. I just need everyone here to just sign up for some accounts. Okay. And you can trust the list. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Listen to me. I'm your pal. Hey. I just. Hey. Sign the thing. I'm pal. I love you guys. I love you guys so much. I love

you guys so much. Why don't we just do. Why don't we just do this. Can I let's shut up. I'm not trying to be rude. I love you so much. Let me shut up. Why don't we just do the thing where everybody just opens a credit card. Okay. And then we can have a nice a nice Christmas meal. This is the most unorthodox prayer we've had to start Thanksgiving. Amen. Okay. Come on guys. Fill out that paperwork and let's get the gravy going. Huh. All right. I got a loaded gun. All right. We're all signing up. I'll sign it up for some goddamn credit cards. One. It's just one branch manager in the Pacific Northwest was dismayed to learn employees had talked a homeless woman into opening six checking and savings account. Dave I mean this like this

is just getting so much worse by the by the two every two minutes. These came to $39 a month. This is unbelievable. How would they're just like walking down the street looking for homeless people. They live in that level of fear of these of the bank. Yeah. Because they're gonna get fired and they have no other job. I mean and I remember it's it's a recession. Worst recession. I understand the dire nature of the it is you know it's like it's like gladiators. I mean it's just like totally okay. Capitalism is good. Yeah. So some managers told employees to make unauthorized accounts and then just apologize when the customer called and say it was a mistake. When one bank manager in Los Angeles called the company whistleblower hotline to report all the ongoing fraud. He was

fired within two weeks. He was unable to find a job in banking at all because Wells blacklisted him. You see me at Guitron watched the fake opening and closing of accounts in her St. Helena branch. So she told her manager nothing happened. Next she did what she was told to do during training and called the whistleblower hotline. Nothing happened. She kept going up the chain up the chain to an HR rep and then the regional manager. When you say when you say whistleblower hotline that is for Wells Fargo. An internal whistleblower hotline. Well I mean that's a whistle that doesn't have the little ball in it. It's not. Yeah. It's a problem. It ain't a whistle. No. She then started being harassed at work and was fired for insubordination. So the whistleblower hotline was really a

place to let them know to fire you because you were going to tattle. That's right. She sued Wells Fargo and lost and ended up with 18000 in court costs. Afterwards no one would hire her because she was a troublemaker. During trainings Wells emphasized how important their ethics code was and urged employees to call the confidential hotline if they saw anything inappropriate. Right. Yeah. Why wouldn't you. Yeah. The hotline became something people would call and then be fired. And Mr. Johnson and Malibu was fired three days after reporting illegal opening of accounts. He was evicted from his house and eventually all his possessions in a storage unit were auctioned off because he couldn't pay the bill. So that's why people are doing it because if they don't. Yeah.

They lose everything. No. I mean look that's what it's what socialist means when they when they say you know this is what slavery. Yeah. Yeah. Because really I mean you know like they're obviously making a wrong ethical judgment but it is being you this is like obviously yeah this is where it all ends when you just have the people pitted against each other. One lawyer estimated the number of people who have been fired for reporting illegal activity was in the tens of thousands. Jesus. In May 2013 Wells jumped into the wonderful world of payday loans which would take advantage of desperate people living on the edge. The annual percentage rate for payday loans is between 225 and 300000 percent. Sorry. 225 and 300 percent. Holy shit. So that's your

annual annual rate on the loan. Are you going to explain what payday loans are. OK. So OK. So payday loan is you you have you make a certain amount of money. You're short on money. You're short on money like you're you have a big bank but your car broke down. You have a medical bill. So you need five thousand dollars. Lesson that you need you need eight hundred eight hundred dollars. So you go in and you say I have a job. Here's my receipts. Can I get a loan for this amount. And they say yes. But the the rate is extraordinary. And so within within two weeks you owe the same amount you just got. Like it's just it's just postponing your disaster and making it more impossible. But it's not now. And the reason this is legal is because both Democrats

and Republicans support it 100 percent. But Dave those are the two parties we get. Yeah. Yeah. More than 25 percent of payday loan borrowers are on Social Security. OK. Almost all payday loans lead to a negative balance after two months and the need to take out another loan. Wells Fargo was the only large bank in the country now involved in payday loans. They are just I mean OK. I mean like all banks are I mean all big banks are vile vile but Wells Fargo is really. It's on their. Yeah. Right. Monsters. Right. In 2015 Wells Fargo continued its relentless assault on human beings trying to take their homes with no documentation. A New York Westchester County woman called Cynthia Carso who was a speech pathologist for autistic children was continuing

years long fight. Wells just forged documents to say they should be able to take her home. My God. I'm honest to God they should have just stuck to the human delivering business. That was a simpler time wasn't it. A judge in the case overseeing the case Judge Drain quote the blank endorsement upon which Wells Fargo was relying was forged. Nevertheless it does show a general willingness and practice on Wells Fargo's part to create documentary evidence after the fact when enforcing its claims which is extraordinary. She's offended. She's saying that he literally just saying Wells Fargo was forging documents to prove their fucking case. Is that a legal ending it to the court. Is that a legal day. I think so. A year before the case had revealed

that Wells Fargo set up internal procedures in a hundred fifty page Wells Fargo foreclosure attorney procedures manual to fabricate foreclosure papers on demand. My God. A fucking training manual. The brashness. Anytime they had a house they wanted to foreclose on but couldn't find the documents they would just create the documents. So the housing crisis happened because there were so many fucking loans being done bullshit loans and there's so much bullshit of things moving around and so they have they have so many houses they believe they own but they have no documents to prove it. So it was called robo cop robo was like robo stamping or something but they had buildings in which all the banks would just tell that

tell these people in these buildings to just create documents fake documents because they believed they owned the homes. Yeah. This is widespread at all banks. One VP of loan documentation for Wells Fargo said she signed as many as 500 foreclosure papers a day in the deposition. She admitted she did not verify the principal and interest the bank claimed the bar owed. The only thing she checked was whether her name and the title were accurate. She said she thought the documents had been reviewed by outside lawyers. So they're hiring people with absolutely no experience in business or law or finance because they know they're taking advantage of questions. Right. Right. Herman John Kennedy worked as a manager heading

up a quote default documents department. That's a good department to have for sure. Definitely want to open one of those within. We're not sure we should call it forged documents department or documents. I mean I don't really care anymore. I don't really care either. Yeah. Let's call it the scrum department. Fargo under oath he admitted to signing between 50 and 150 documents each day that were being created to administer and enforce Wells defaulted loans. Judge Drain quote Mr. Kennedy's testimony does not stop at describing manufactured mortgage assignments. He also testified that his assignments teams duties were not limited to processing assignments including when determined necessary creating them. Well it's very creative.

Has she thought about that. By the way a little judgy. How about some points for you know being creative and taking. Yeah. How about how about for creating the conditions that we thought only Satan could work at. But here I am doing it. Good Lord. There's nothing wrong with being daring. Yeah. How do I play your honor. Bold. Very bold. Very bold. Fucking crazy like a fox. Yeah. Yeah. I mean if you're Wells Fargo's lawyer you're like OK so let's just get all the information out on the table because it seems like things are really leaking out at a horrid pace. So. So they're not just making documents up if they didn't happen. So they are just making a document if they didn't. It's happening all over the country.

Right. All of us was hit with a fine after fine in 2011. Eighty five million for pushing people into subprime mortgage loans. Thirty seven million for municipal bond rigging 2012 on several banks find several of the banks were fined twenty five billion for their part in the housing crisis. But this was a largely just a bullshit fine. Only three point five billion of that were payments to wronged homeowners. The rest was for the rest was for quote consumer relief that ultimately helped the bottom line of the banks. Where did that money go. That money went to the government that just put it right back to the banks. Well the government said this is a fine. Right. Yeah. I've been fine. So three point five billion went to

people who needed help. Right. And then the rest was just like set up new products for people to help them. It's just another way for them to make money. So it was just an investment for the bank. Sure. Yeah. It's great. That relief reached because now they have some money to play with. They got a little funny money. Little walking around money. You know what I mean. That relief reached far fewer borrowers than it was supposed to. That wasn't that. Wait. You mean the three point five reached not enough people. Yeah. What like even that's having halved in July 2012. Wells was finally fine for the pattern of discrimination against African American and Hispanic and Hispanic mortgage borrowers.

What was the fine here. I don't remember. OK. Sure. It was Mr. Tran do it. Duck was born in Vietnam in 1961. He was 13 when the North Vietnamese took over the government in 1975. His father was sent to a prison camp for four years when he was released. He got his son out of the country. Tran went to Cambodia where he was captured by the Khmer Rouge. They took him to a camp where they made the 17 year old their slave and forced him to dig wells. Quote sometimes the soldiers got drunk and took me out and put AK 47s to my head. So I would pass out. Eight months later he was traded to aid workers for humanitarian supplies a kilo of rice two boxes of cantona two boxes of sardines and tomato sauce antibiotics

and some other medical supplies. He was traded for this. Yeah. The aid workers then helped him migrate to the United States. His first job in America was dishwasher. Then he worked in payment processing at a local bank. In 2002 he started working in a call center for Wells Fargo collections. In 2013 he transferred to the home equity division. Oh boy. As Tran examined loans he realized Wells was missing some paperwork that proved the borrowers owed money. Oh just print it up. We have a whole thing. Just actually there's three stacks of paper over there. Just staple those together. It's pretty straightforward. Write a name in. Just write a name. Make up a name. Write a name. No my God. Not mine. Those pranks

are bad. Tram was told the loans were valid but he did not have access to all the borrowers information in the systems. Okay. So one day he got a call from a man in North Carolina. Man was 88 years old. His wife had just gotten a letter from Wells Fargo saying she owed $90,000 on her house and if she didn't pay it in 90 days they would foreclose. The house had been paid off 30 years before. Okay. The wife had Alzheimer's. Oh no. Tran tried to find the documents. There were none. Anywhere. So he went to his boss who said not to follow up with it. Okay. Quote it's no problem. If the customer calls back tell them it's a balloon loan. Wait. Oh my God. So it's just whatever it takes to close. It's not even closing.

Or whatever it's in someone's house. Right. But whatever it takes to close that deal to take their house back. They literally stealing someone's home. Yes. Right. And the boss is like yeah fuck it. It's something they got a balloon loan. By the way I know someone this happened to. I know someone who was calling up Wells Fargo and dealing with them and saying this and they were lying to him the whole time and he had lost his house. Fuck. So a balloon loan if you don't know is a type of loan which what it sounds like it's a small amount a small amount a small amount and then you owe a huge amount and it's basically designed to fuck you out of your house. Right. People's idea was that they would buy a house and before

the balloon loan payment came due they would sell the house. Right. And make money but what happened is everyone's balloon payment loans came due at the same time. And the economy crashed. No one could buy houses. So another manager said if there were no documents quote that is not something we would share with the customer under any circumstances. That's not something we share with the customer. We don't tell them the truth. No. Tran felt very uncomfortable. That's weird. Oh did he have like a moral compass. Yeah he had he had some people in banking of human empathy. He was inflicted with ethics. Yes. Yes. Right. It's sad. Yeah. Sad when that happens to people. Yeah. So the guy calls back and he's

now demanding proof from Wells about this money. Send him a picture of a balloon. Tran got a call from another woman who had not taken out a loan but received a notice to pay $165,000. I mean imagine getting a letter in the mail that says this. Yeah. Especially if it's bullshit. You know you're fucked. Well that's the thing right. You see that and you're like oh man this is going to be a fight. Yeah. She had children. If they took her home the family would be homeless. Again Wells had no paperwork for this loan. So Tran went to his boss and said this is obviously fraud. Within months he was fired. Hey call the whistleblower line. Good capture Tran. Yeah call the whistleblower line. Let him

know. It's great. That's where all that stuff goes. If any of your friends feel the same way have them call. They did not tell him why he was being fired. Oh well I wonder what do you think it was. They said if he probably ate someone's lunch. They said if he wanted a reason he should call human resources. Oh yeah right. That's right. Yeah call human resources where there's another guy like what's he saying. Well tell him he had a balloon contract. Where they're making up documents about why they fire people. Yeah. HR told them if he was fired he was fired for failing to orally respond to a customer during a call. Oh my God. These pieces of shit. We have the greatest shit reasons. Let me let me give this guy

one. It's actually like it's the magic eight ball and you just shake it and then it'll give you a bullshit thing to say to the guy. We kind of made a game out of it. Oh you were fired for looking at someone weird. Yeah. Don't you remember. We have footage. Great. In 2015 Tran sued Wells for retaliation. He wanted to force Wells to admit publicly they were wrong. Quote they have so much money. They use that money to buy off the American justice system and they never go to court. Now I would imagine a guy like this. What he's been through is able to stick it out a little bit more than other people because he right had that history where an AK 47 put to his head. So he was very adamant about

never settling. And then this year he settled. It was supposed to be a seven figure payment that he was supposed to get. Yeah. That's the. Yeah. Okay. That he probably got. The guy whose wife who has Alzheimer's is still to the state fighting Wells Fargo over a loan that is not real fuck as our thousands of people across the country. Sorry. Well I have it. I mean obviously like because I know the the 30,000 foot overview of this story. Yeah. Wells Fargo seemingly I mean by the way they came they had that commercial where they're like I mean they're just so they will say anything. Yeah. They were forced to do some sort of national program where they are giving money to different places and different things

and they're forced to do it. It's part of their agreement with the Justice Department and they're putting on ads acting like they're doing it out of the goodness of their heart. Right. And they're sending mayors around the country letters and the mayors are like thank you for doing this. No one has any idea that it's a penalty. It's fucking crazy. It's like banking with Herbalife. In June 2016 Wells Fargo and other banks announced they would once again start making subprime loans. What? How is that? How is that come back? Well they they got rid of the number they passed laws and then they got rid of them all. And people can get a loan with just 3% down and they get a lower interest rate if they go to a government

sponsored personal finance class. Doesn't matter if you have bad credit and the banks lower their credit guidelines. They accept documentation from quote non-traditional sources. Was that themselves? Yeah non-traditional sources is what got us into the fucking crisis in the first place. Happy to repeat it. The federal housing agency specifically Fannie Mae are helping and are set up to buy the subprime loans from Wells Fargo's website quote Wells Fargo will service the loans but Fannie Mae will buy them. I don't fully understand what that means. So Wells Fargo is making the loan and then they're selling it off to the government which is what happened with the subprime. Right. Borgage crisis. So Wells Fargo makes

the profit and the taxpayers assume the risk. They're literally going after people who shouldn't have loans. Again. Well because they I mean. They were not punished. Yeah. Because they I mean why would they not? Nobody went to fucking jail. Yeah. Nobody went to fucking jail. They paid three holder. Nobody went to fucking jail. In July 6 2016 Wells Fargo announced the head should we get the maid in here. I feel like we're hitting a really good run now. This would be when we want her in July 2016 Wells Fargo announced the head of the Department of Fake Accounts. Carolyn. That's what I was going to say. But Dave 15 years away from that being like allowed. Hi. I'm the CEO of Total Bullshit. Are you really.

I run the fuck the customer. I've heard unbelievable things about you. Hi. I'm fakey. Her name was Carolyn Tolestette. It was announced in July 2016 she retired at the end of the year. She wasn't retiring immediately because at the end of the year she would get a 19 million in stock options. Dude. I mean. Yeah. I already know the bullshit. But this again is very infuriating. On September 8 2016. What do you do with 19 million dollars. On September 8 2016 the public learned the scope of Wells fake account mess which have been going on now for fucking years. The bank was given a hundred and eighty five million dollar fine. The plan had always been to blame employees when the shit came down. So Wells

Fargo did because the CEO called the whistleblower line. Yeah. Yeah. Wells Fargo then fired five thousand three hundred people who were doing all of this to survive. Yeah. Not getting fired because there was no real money to be made for them outside of that's right. David Vladeck a George. I think I'm going to go back in time and beat the shit out of Wells and Fargo. Wouldn't that be the thing to do. Yeah. That's how you stop all this is like killing Hitler. You go to that back room where they thought about it. Yeah. David Vladeck a Georgetown University law professor and former director at the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection quote one wonders whether a penalty of a hundred million is

enough. It sounds like a big number for a bank the size of Wells Fargo. It isn't. Who said that. A guy a law professor and former director of the Federal Trade Commission. Yeah. Well I mean for sure. He's even giving him a little too much credit with that. It just doesn't seem right. Yeah. Wells wrote an email to bank employees when the Fank scandal broke. Hey fuck you guys. Later. Quote at Wells Fargo when we make mistakes we're open about it. We take responsibility and we take action. Oh my God. That's why they fired all the employees. Yeah. Because they're taking responsibility and changing the culture that they enforced that they created. The bank released a statement saying it had made a

number of quote fundamental changes to ensure our team members are not being pressured to sell products. They would now have enhanced training that would value ethics and how to report concerns. Yeah. Well you know what. Call the whistleblower hotline. We. Yeah something like calling a whistleblower. Yeah. That's that's a good thing to put in place. CEO Trump. Big brother. Listen whistleblower. Sorry. What did I say. Oh my God. What did I say. CEO. Trump at the end of September said he would forfeit his salary including a bonus and 41 million in stock. But people were still pissed. Wells then decided to claw back the 19 million from Carolyn Tolestrette and said she was fired. So clawback is an

actual banking term in which you go and take money back from someone that you've paid them. OK. And they are actually taking money away from people who made exorbitant amounts. Right. The head of the department department. People are still pissed. In October Wells retroactively fired her. So they went back and fired her. What. Before she was fired. No. This is clawed back another forty seven point three million and paid. But I think what they're saying is you were doing illegal stuff. We found out. So we're right. We found out about what we were. We knew we're very disappointed in you to think. So now they took back another forty seven point three million. So all together that's like sixty sixty six million dollars.

How hard for things were things for Kerry. Not at all. She left Wells with a hundred and twenty four point six million in stocks and options. CEO John Trump quote a trusted colleague and dear friend friend Kerry Tolestet has been one of our most valued Wells Fargo leaders. A standard bearer of culture a champion for our customers. Do they know how to fire someone and a role model for responsible principle and inclusive leadership. Yeah. Well I mean you know Dave what's crazy is to be able to tow the line between being honest capable and also walking away with a hundred twenty million dollars. Almost seems like those two are. Yeah. The don't fit together. They're really oddly. Yeah. Sort of. Say it. Yeah.

CEO John Trump testified at a Senate banking committee hearing. It didn't go well. He had trouble answering direct questions and tried to stick to his talking points. He was pretty much slaughtered. He lied and he left looking like an idiot. Days later it was real revealed Wells Fargo had been illegally repossessing cars of members of the military. Oh my God. Federal law requires banks to get a court order before repossessing a car from members of the military because they are going into the like if they're working a job and they go into the military their salary goes down. Right. It's like a thing where they're trying to help them out. Right. Courts have to sign off on repos if the service member took out

the loan and made a payment prior to entering the service. The National Guardsman of North Carolina complained that his car had been seized while he was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in two thousand fifteen Wells auctioned his car off then tried to force the family to pay the ten thousand remaining balance. This began an investigation. Turns out Wells Fargo had begun this practice in two thousand and six. These they had repossessed four hundred and thirteen cars. It was revealed between two thousand eight and two thousand fifteen. But a year later that number suddenly jumped eight hundred and sixty cars. But that wasn't their only car scam. Wells required people who got car loans to have comprehensive

insurance. If the customer failed to get insurance the Wells contract said the bank could buy it for them and charge them. Let me guess. They were looking for like some cheap stuff. They were on hold with Geico the whole time like nah it's not good enough. This is exactly what they did. They bought insurance for customers who would already purchased insurance. What I mean. Oh my God. This is just insane. Wells did this to over eight hundred thousand customers. Oh my God. I thought you were going to say eight hundred and it hurt. This put undue financial burden on many which led to twenty five thousand people having their cars repossessed. By the way when you bring up that military aspect like you know would our rage at people who

do not support people who serve their country not be better pointed towards a bank than a goddamn dude taking a kneel during a football game and calling that unpatriotic. One would think so. Right. Wells promised to pay sixty four million in cash refunds to these people. That worked out to a hundred forty dollars per person. Oh well Dave why didn't you cut me off. There's a happy ending. They'll get a hundred forty dollars if your car was repossessed you get eight hundred dollars. Oh OK. That should cover nothing. Yeah. Wells Fargo said the insurance issue is due to inadequate checks and balances at the bank. Dude you're a bank. They're all about checks and fucking balances literally. It's your whole thing. Wells Fargo

spokesman quote we take full responsibility for our failure. Oh boy boy well welcome to the egg on our face news conference the annual one. Oh we did it again. Oh boy. CEO Strumpf testified in front of the House of Representatives. Representative Michael Capuano said Strumpf was quote clearly and unequivocally guilty of a range of crimes including conspiracy to commit fraud conspiracy to commit identity theft and rocketeering. Did the Obama administration charge him. Let me. Yes. No. Weird. Strumpf said he learned of the unauthorized account problem in 2013. This was a lie. It was a real he was sent a detailed letter from an employee about the fraud in 2007. After his testimony. So he's lied. Not as he committed

crimes but he's also perjured himself in front of Congress. Right. After his testimony Strumpf agreed to. He should have just said he liked beer. It's the way you wiggle your way out of this stuff. After his testimony Strumpf agreed to a 41 million dollar clawback on October 12 2016. John Strumpf suddenly retired from Wells Fargo CEO. I'm curious. I'm mean he must have left owing the money. He walked out with 134 million dollars. What do you do with that much money. He should be in prison. Yeah. He should be in fucking prison and have no money. Yeah. That's what that's what his punishment should be. All of his possessions are taken away. He can live in a fucking half way house for the rest

of his life. Yeah. And he and he is in prison for fucking 30 years. How about this. Get him to income level so low that Wells Fargo is approaching him to open new bank accounts. Yeah. And it's like this this guy you couldn't prosecute. Yeah. Why not. I mean the whole reason I know the answer. You know the answer. But yeah. Strumpf was replaced by Tim Sloan a long time Wells Fargo insider. These last names just sound shady. Strumpf Sloan. Sloan is the former boss of Kerry Tolstead. Oh so he literally did all this. Sloan quote my immediate I'm a CEO clawback quote my immediate and highest priority is to restore trust in Wells Fargo. Yeah. Well dude someone do it. In April 2017 it was revealed that Wells Fargo

had been overcharging small businesses for processing credit card transactions. Can we have a list of the places that Wells Fargo was not screwing people. Well the small business owners tried to leave Wells. They were charged quote massive termination fees. God. I'm going to give them a termination fee. The overbilling scheme used deceptive language in a 163 page contract that was purposely designed to confuse small business owners who didn't have legal expertise. So they're that ahead of their bullshit too. They are in a way just like working day to day like a Coke attic but by the same token they are savvy enough to have paperwork in place that when these people are going to reject what they're doing they'll

still be able to screw. Yeah. It's good stuff though. Wells charged the small businesses monthly fees for not meeting the minimum number of transactions even though there was no such clause in the contract. That's just an insane thing to have. Yeah. Yeah you didn't do enough with your money so we're pissed. Look you didn't make enough money so guess what we got to charge you money. Yeah you got to know money fee. It's going to cost you money. Money. And June 2017 it was revealed Wells Fargo was modifying mortgages without telling the borrowers. I mean we need a nanny cam. Christopher and Allison Cotton had 16 years left on the mortgage but medical expenses forced them into bankruptcy. Wells then changed their

mortgage several times without getting their approval and extended the mortgage by 26 years which increased their interest payments by $140,000. This is so crazy. It is still not known how extensive this practice is but Wells has admitted to doing it at least a hundred times. Well that means a million. A million. In October it came to light that Wells was charging mortgage borrowers for missing a deadline to lock in promised interest rates even though the delays were Wells Fargo's fault. Well but again they can't pay that. They're broke. That's right. They're giving all their money away. In August of this year it was revealed Wells had a quote calculation error that affected hundreds of homeowners

who applied for mortgage modifications from 2010 to 2015. Here's a term they can't use anymore. Error. It was a software issue that somehow miscalculated whether or not homeowners were eligible for the home affordable modification program that was created to help people to remain in their homes after the housing crisis. Of course. Of course it is. Around 625 people were wrongly denied mortgage modifications. 400 lost their homes. Wells then set aside $8 million to compensate them which is $12,000 per owner. Oh my God. Patricia McCoy a former government mortgage official said about these new mortgage revelations quote Wells Fargo had a business model until all this came to light that emphasized generating fees charged

to customers under duplicitous circumstances simply for the sake of padding revenue. Someone's got a new slogan. Yeah. Wells was given $1.5 billion from the government as part of the HAMP program. 70% of that went to homeowners. The rest went to investors and the servicer. I don't understand that. Why would. How is that even possible? A lot of people will say that Obama's biggest failure was the HAMP program and if you get into it it's abominable what happened. It's abominable. Wells released a statement saying it was quote. Sorry. Very sorry. We're very sorry. My bad. Our bad. You know what they say. Fool you once. Shame on you. Fool you for about 30 years. Shame on us. I'm sorry. No I'm sorry. Well that came

on wrong. Shame on you again. Shame on others. Wait. Shame on. Fool me. No I'm curious. Fool me once. Sorry. Fool me once. Oh. Fee me once. We're charging you a fee. Fool you a bunch of times. I get a boat. Yes. That's it. That's the one. That was it. Yeah. Wells paid $2 billion settlement this year for misleading investors about its subprime mortgages in the run up to the financial crisis. The bank had revenues in 2017 of $88.4 billion. A comparable impact for a family living on $75,000 a year would be a fine of $1,781. Right. So you have to find them $88 billion. Yeah. That's what you have to find the bank. Yeah. Wells Fargo announced it was refunding tens of millions of dollars to clients because they had add-on products

without customers knowing. Same as the fake accounts? No this is a totally different thing. These included everything from pet insurance to home warranties to legal services. All had monthly fees. All they just put on people's accounts. And then do people notice on their accounts or people are just... Yeah later you do. Right. Or you have a lot of money and you don't. Or you don't. Or you're like you have some money but you also just are sort of like I mean I like check it but I don't like check it check it. Yeah. A pet insurance what's that $30 a month or something crazy? Yeah. Sure. Who knows? Well that's the beauty of this process. It is what it is. That's what this process is. All of these things are...

All this money is being generated by small bullshit fees on people. But for poor people it's extraordinary. Yeah. Poor people like the disgraced CEOs. Yeah. Those poor guys. In February 2018 the Federal Reserve barred Wells Fargo from growing any larger until it cleaned up its business practices. So that's unprecedented. Wells Fargo is one of the biggest funders of the Dakota Access Pipeline, private prisons, payday loans, and currently funds Trump's immigration centers. Oh my God. At the time of this recording Wells Fargo has the highest market valuation among any bank in America worth just north of $250 billion. Berkshire Hathaway the investment firm run by investor Warren Buffett is the company's

biggest shareholder. Wow. When I moved to California in 2001 I opened a checking account with Wells Fargo. They said I would have... They said I could not open a checking account unless they also opened up a savings account. I told them I did not want a savings account because I would have... I like to have my savings account at a separate bank. They assured me there would never be a fee and then I had to open the account. Years later I discovered my empty savings account and it now had a deficit of around $70 because they were charging me a fee. Seattle and Los Angeles have voted to sever ties with Wells Fargo after their current financial services contracts end. Please contact your city about doing the same thing.

Some facts about how banks fuck over cities. In Los Angeles, 50% of all infrastructure spending, 50% of all infrastructure spending goes directly into a banker's pocket. Our tax dollars help finance legal pipelines, weapons, creators, private prisons, including the cages that children are being held in at the border. There's a proportion... There's a proposition in Los Angeles to create a public bank, Proposition B. Public banks are only for public money, things like tax dollars, electric bill payments and fees. Private banks use your money to pay politicians to skirt laws to put our entire economy at risk as we saw in 2007. They invest in tobacco companies, oil companies, weapons manufacturers. They're

helping destroy the planet and as we can see, they totally fuck over everyone and no one holds them accountable. A public bank would have to abide by strict rules about how it manages our money and we get the say in what it invests in. Loans made in Los Angeles would be for Los Angeles. This would be a great step in reversing the economic inequality that plagues our country. A public bank would save Los Angeles money. We owe $3 billion in debt service to Wall Street every year. A public bank would lower borrowing costs and much more of that money would stay in the city and be spent on the things we need. Vote yes on Proposition B.

I'm not sold. Now when people say that Obama was a great president, a great president does not allow criminals to fuck over millions of people and walk away with millions of dollars. And if you don't think that they were reverberated emotionally in every fucking person that voted against Hillary Clinton, you're wrong. People are mad and they're mad for a reason. There is no justice in a country that does that. And at the same time, people are being locked up for 20 years for smoking a fucking joint. So you wonder why people are angry. It's pretty fucking obvious.

Yes, exactly. I mean, truly. But you know, it really is like that's why like when there are little things you can do like vote yes on B. You have to. Because these chances come along not that often to actually do something that can make a difference and that could be a model for other places. And the companies are, they're machines that will never stop trying to take all the money that they can get. North Dakota has had a public bank since like 1910. It's great functioning. It's all good. If our government isn't going to hold these banks and people accountable, then we need to take the money from them. Yeah, that's it. There is no other solution.

Yeah, I mean, it is it's just it's the sopranos. Yeah, I mean, it's just like how the the No, this is what's the difference between this and the fucking mob? The in the the not that this is in is just I mean, everybody involved in that scheme at the top wins and then everybody below them. I mean, it really is all the employees. It's a it's a hidden it's a pyramid scheme that nobody ever sold to you. Yeah, all the employees got fucked. All of the all of the customers got fucked. Everybody got fucked. Politicians did not get fucked. The people running this game did not get fucked. They walked away with millions of dollars. I'm gonna put like so many whistles in a pillowcase and just go beat the shit

out of some of them. Huh? You blow whistles. Now you pitch. Huh? You like that? You motherfucker? Huh? Dude, I mean, you know, like we're in a we're in a a cannonball run to see which thing is going to screw us over the most. Yeah. But you know, I mean, if you have money coming into your city, your town, Los Angeles has 90,000 homeless people like being able to actually do some stuff towards that would be helpful. And the idea that you just get half that half of your money goes half of that money goes to the banks, right? I mean, it's just it's fee. What is that? So much money. I mean, it's just insane. They charge so much for fees and they do it to pension everybody. But everybody in every city should

be asking for a public bank now. This is the answer to what they're doing. Ask your city councils, your mayor, start pushing for public banks. This is the way to beat them. Yeah. Yeah. Well, cheerio. Anyway, I'm always good to have one of our little fiery afternoon conversations. All right. We still sign cars. Still happening. We signed a dude also. Yeah, we signed a man. We signed cars and men. So congrats to us. Yeah. All right. Well, well, bye. Bye bye. Bye bye.