I have friends who grew up in Communist Viet Nam. One of the things that they hated about the Communist system is that whenever they wanted to withdraw money from the bank they had to explain what they wanted it for. Under Communism, after all, its not your money; its the states.

Every time my card gets frozen I feel like I've been put into Communist mode. Worse yet, I am about to go on a trip to LA and visit my sisters; it would have been really classy if I had to explain to them why I was spending an hour on the phone with the bank. (Which I fully expect to happen anyway once I spend money outside of my SF area.)

How's this for Fraud Protection: when you make a "wierd" transaction, why not get the fraud guys on the phone right away, at the register, to work things out so you never go into "blackout mode" in the first place -- and hey, with the security guards right there you might actually catch a few credit thieves!

God Save the Working Man

On the subject of banks: I think it is criminal that George Bush swoops in to save the banks without doing anything for the people being turned out onto the street. The vast majority of the people being turned out are working class families with a steady income and equity invested in their houses. I think it is time that the banks be forced to renegotiate the mortgages to terms that the average family can afford rather than evicting people.

It is disingenuous to evict people in the name of Capitalism on the one hand and subsidize the banks that made these loans on the other. It is based on ignorance of the fact that the foundation of America is not financial institutions, but real people. Everyone agrees that the housing crisis is "Regrettable" but I haven't seen anyone standing up to the institutions that created it and telling them to make it avoidable.