They say great minds think alike, but I doubt that when "they" say it, they're very often referring to Eric Cantona and myself. Be that as it may, today is the day the French (and others throughout Europe) are to launch a Tank-A-Bank style run on the banks as a means of popular protest. It's 10:30 in the morning here in Paris, and so far all's quiet across the street at BNP Paribas.
Admittedly, I live in a conservative, old money area of Paris, so I'm not surprised not to see lines out the doors of the banks. In fact, most of my neighbors have told me they think Cantona is crazy (while politely ignoring the fact that I proposed the exact same thing to destroy an American bank). I haven't heard or read any reports of major disruptions at the banks so far, so I'm guessing the whole thing will amount to a tempest in a teacup.
Regardless of whether Cantona's proposed run on the banks is the least bit successful, it forces an important discussion to the forefront. Namely, it is only through massive, coordinated public protest that anything about our current financial system will be changed.
I knew Tank-A-Bank would never happen in the U.S. (although an anonymous party has purchased the domain name), but that doesn't mean it isn't a good idea. To that end, I've taken Arianna Huffington's advice and, over the past year, Moved My Money.
At the beginning of the year, I had deposits and banking relationships with all four of the TBTF banks I targeted in my plan. I've managed to pare those relationships back until my last remaining banking relationship with them is with JPM Chase. I'll be closing my Chase accounts when I get back to New Orleans next week (and not a moment too soon, if the potential reaming they're about to take in the silver market happens). It might be a small thing, but I'm glad I've done it.
So I'll keep you guys posted on today's bank run. I don't expect much from it, but you never know. At least it got people talking.
By the way, hat tip to Real Economics for connecting my plan with Cantona's.
Anyone wanna bet the owner of TankABank.com is one of the big banks? Or maybe the Fed?
First casualty: Bank of Ireland ATM machines and online transactions go down system-wide:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/pan-european-bank-run-day-starts-bang-…
Bonjour Eddie, N'est-il pas environ 1h à Paris? If s*** were to hit the fan, wouldn't there be a whole lot more that BoI having troubles at this time?
How organised is this movement?
Merci,
Max
I can't believe Cantona is running this thing, you got to love it. In other news, Assange just got arrested and is in the process of being extradited to Sweden for... rape.
SB for Kung-Fu Cantona! Gotta love this guy
+1 for any Eric the Great references, one of the few Frenchman alive today General de Gaulle wouldn't bitchslap.
As much people may hate bankers and others seeking to find their alpha, its people like this Contona guy and others like Assange dude who only inflame situations and often receive emotional kneejerk reactions from the already sedated massess so they can feed their king maker status attention whoring lifestyles. I really would like to understand what do guys like them get from overly playing the villian card without any ROI. Do people actually get off from ¨attention¨ only!
Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea who Eric Cantona is? Get off your high horse brah, you should be ashamed for putting him next to Assange.
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