Bank Of America Credit Cards To Illegal Immigrants

[EJ]

Bank Of America Credit Cards To Illegal Immigrants
February 13, 2007 (San Francisco Business Times)

Bank of America found itself at the center of the nation's immigration controversy following a report on the front page of Tuesday's Wall Street Journal that it's offering credit cards to illegal immigrants in Los Angeles.

In the wake of the media firestorm, the nation's second-largest bank told the Los Angeles Times that it complies fully with all banking and antiterrorism laws governing customer identification, which permit the use of individual taxpayer identification numbers, or ITINs, issued by the Internal Revenue Service.

AntiSpin: A clear sign of the top of any bubble? Manufacturers of the financial product which has become the center of the asset bubble de jour run out of new customers. At the top of the stock market bubble, this spawned the most extreme niching of markets, resulting in mutual funds specifically designed to meet the needs of women between the ages of 45 and 55 who live in warm climates, have kids, eat spinach, and have a name that rhymes with "spontaneous." Debt bubbles are a special case because continued sale of the product doesn't require an endless search for fresh suckers with money to spend. The challenge is to find people not to take money from but to give it to–people who, being hopeful, are willing to convince themselves that they may some day pay it back, even if they lack income, or, in the case of the latest desperate effort to paint the last debt free corner of the economy red, citizenship. Paid back with interest is nice, but the promise of any kind of eventual repayment will do at this point. Anything to keep the asset side of banks' balance sheets growing to fullfull the endless demand for purchases of credit securities.

The idea of giving terrorists the means to charge explosives on their new Visa card has a few Dept. of Homeland Security authorities' shorts in a knot. Always willing to lend a helping hand to the lending industry, we have a solution for Bank of America.

There are no fewer than 73 million dogs in the USA, according to the humane society. Why not get each of them a credit card? How about three? Think of it. Over 200 million charge cards wracking up balances of billions on milk bones and squeeky toys. Don't think their owners will do it? Of course they will! If owners will set up trust funds for their pets, they will absolutely fill out a simple credit card application form for Fido. All he has to do is sign it. Make the offer temping: a 4% interest rate guarantee for six months, transfers from other cards, and a squirrel to chase. They'll bite.

[Christoph von Gamm]

Re: Bank Of America Credit Cards To Illegal Immigrants

Where is the point? Friends of mine in southern Florida (renowned expensive district, SUV, Pool, condo flippers) have for this nice little dog named Fluffy a proper green credit card (company known) with his name on it.

To my knowledge, Fluffy has a credit limit of $ 15'000. I can testify the existence of such a credit card, I've seen it. Let's make a credit card company contest: all card companies are called to look after all Fluffy firstnames in their database registered... maybe they find an unusual young person (at least for human measures) with petfood and vet buying behaviours... the first one who can confidentially send me details on the dog gets an award in the form of a canned "M-Budget" Swiss Dog Food.

[DemonD]

Re: Bank Of America Credit Cards To Illegal Immigrants

Let me just say I am very, very glad that I currently do not hold and have not bought any bank stocks in my relatively short investing career.

Yikes.

[CanuckinTX]

Re: Bank Of America Credit Cards To Illegal Immigrants

Let me just say I am very, very glad that I currently do not hold and have not bought any bank stocks in my relatively short investing career.

Yikes.

How very anti-American of you.

Expect a knock at your door soon from some large men in suits and dark sunglasses, unless you quickly fill out 3 credit card applications for each household member.

[MrSaito]

Re: Bank Of America Credit Cards To Illegal Immigrants

Though I greatly appreciate your perspective and commentary in economic and financial issues, well here we have a divergent inerpretation of this story. Not in the opposition to Bank of America's policy of offering credit cards to illegal immigrants, which I oppose; but in your characterization of the policy as " The idea of giving terrorists the means to charge explosives on their new Visa card...". Most of the illegal immigrant community in Los Angeles, and in California as a whole, is Latin American. Perhaps I missed a report, but I don't recall a single member of the terrorist crew that committed the atrocities of 9/11 in New York being of Latin American origin. The Latin American illegal immigrant debate is of a political and economic nature; terrorism is just not a factor in that discussion and bringing it up in the context of this story implicitly suggests these issues are intertwined.

[EJ]

Re: Bank Of America Credit Cards To Illegal Immigrants

Though I greatly appreciate your perspective and commentary in economic and financial issues, well here we have a divergent inerpretation of this story. Not in the opposition to Bank of America's policy of offering credit cards to illegal immigrants, which I oppose; but in your characterization of the policy as " The idea of giving terrorists the means to charge explosives on their new Visa card...". Most of the illegal immigrant community in Los Angeles, and in California as a whole, is Latin American. Perhaps I missed a report, but I don't recall a single member of the terrorist crew that committed the atrocities of 9/11 in New York being of Latin American origin. The Latin American illegal immigrant debate is of a political and economic nature; terrorism is just not a factor in that discussion and bringing it up in the context of this story implicitly suggests these issues are intertwined.

Terrorism is in fact the headline issue in the story quoted. The folks from Brazil, Mexico, and so on are not the issue. The bad guys have learned how to get through the southern U.S. border along with them, and it won't take the bad guys long to figure out how to get a credit card like any other illegal immigrant.

Why are they coming to the U.S.? Because the countries they are coming from have failed the basic test of any nation's political economy: Are more people trying to leave than get in? Mexico et al are only too happy to keep a conduit open to the north to relieve some of the political tension created by their regressive economic system, which the U.S. is apparently attempting to emulate, but so far has only managed to produce a relatively rich poor class in the process, that is, U.S. poor are far less poor than Mexican poor. The conduit can be used by others who are not as well intentioned as Latin American illegal immigrants. In any case, my point is that it's no help to Latin American illegal immigrants to tie them into debt slavery before they get to save a dollar, and the fact that BoA is trying suggests we're in the final innings in the credit bubble, unless, of course, the dogs bite.