Posted on 02/24/2009 2:33:53 PM PST by An Old Man
A.P. Giannini, the man who founded Bank of America in the early 1900s, likely is "rolling over in his grave" over how the company he built has been managed, hypothesizes his granddaughter.
Virginia Hammerness, the 75-year-old heiress to the family’s banking fortune and a big stockholder, told CBS 5 in San Francisco (via Huffington Post) that the bank’s current "idiot" managers’ actions are "totally repulsive." More than that, they’re ruining her family’s legacy
Giannini founded Bank of America (originally called Bank of Italy) in San Francisco’s North Beach in 1904 because he was upset that banks then usually only lent money and did business with rich clients. He wanted a place where the city’s immigrants could bank, as well. How did he judge each loan candidate? Not on their credit history, for sure. But rather, their character. Back in the good old Giannini days, she said, a mere handshake could secure a bank loan — and guaranteed repayment in full. Those days are clearly over.
Hammerness also had something to say about the $121 million in bonuses Merrill Lynch paid its executives just before its merger with Bank of America. Her family, insisted Hammerness, should have known then and there not to get involved. "Bank of America should have said ‘forget it," she said. As a side note, a judge on Monday said former Merrill CEO John Thain can disclose the names of people who got bonuses at that time, after New York Attorney General went to court to force him to give the information.
Actually the Bank of America founded by her ancestor doesn’t exist any more. Hugh McColl of NCNB/Nationsbank acquired the venerable company primarily for its name. Which is why it is called BofA today but headquartered in North Carolina.
Giannini pingi!
My daughter went to A.P. Giannini Middle School in San Francisco. The Giannini Foundation still gives kids at that school personal agendas every year.
Too bad the new owners are scum.
"But Hammerness wondered aloud whether she would even be able to get a loan today from Bank of America."
"If i just went in as Mrs. Hammerness, I don't know, I might not be able to," she observed. "It's just bad, it's greed, greed, greed."
Like the U.S. government and their supporters: Keep those borders open for that never ending line of low wage labor.
Profits regardless of consequences.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
“A.P. Giannini gave away millions, but died with an estate of only $500,000. He turned down a $1.7 million dollar bonus that the bank wanted to give him, saying they should use it to help their customers instead”
Attitudes have definitely changed.
I'm just sayin'...
I agree with her 100%.
What isn't mentioned here is that Giannini was confident about the prospects for this new type of "middle class" banking for one very important reason: He believed this country's most valuable asset was the Protestant work ethic of its citizenry.
Those days are long gone, folks.
“He believed this country’s most valuable asset was the Protestant work ethic of its citizenry.”
This still exists, but it is given no credit or validation or support from the elites, the govt or the culture.
It is no suprise, since most banks, such as Bank of America, Citi, Chase seem to only hire new young exec’s to be rewarded for finding new ways to add fees and charges to their customers; in lieu of designing new and better services for the banking public.
They seen to think we are just their suckers that have no choice but to submit to their newest charges!
It is my sincerest belief this is the root of their downfall. No business can succeed that trashes it customers.
The Protestant work ethic of the Italian immigrants at whom he aimed his services?
Go on, tell me another, and please let Max Weber rest in peace.
Ken Lewis is a (otherwise intelligent) hick retailer who doesn’t know how to be a financier or run a brokerage. He should stick to giving out toasters and hiring ex-Ms. Cotton’s to say “bless your heart” while doing so.
Just sayin' (as an atheist).
BTW: The wealthiest ethnic groups in this country (Japanese, Jews, Persians, Greeks, East Indians) don't tend to have lots of Protestants. Appalachia is filled with tons of Scots Irish Prods who don't have much of a work ethic.
I know I am tired sick of meeting young people in over their heads in credit card debt because the commercial bankers pushed easy and big lines of credit on 17, 18, 19 and 20 year olds with no experience in real life, much less understanding of the long term. It was insane banking, and easy for any one of even a little history to see what the upshot would be.
The usury laws — preventing rates over 12% and other predatory practices, and restrictions against those under 21 signing for major contracts were a learned social wisdom. What the Austrian school misses, is the same thing modern sexual libertines miss when the push sexuality on the young. Credit is predatory by default human interaction, just as sex is. It needs strict established rules and regulations, otherwise that hormone called greed rules most crudely. Just as that hormone called lust rules in the sexual arena.
My anthropologist professors would, perhaps link that natural potent greed to the “territorial imperative” — the lust of power over the “other”.
Which I suppose is why we are not having a recession and why property values are stable and why there is not a great deal of unemployment and why refugees are fleeing the northern wastelands and taking up residence here
By the way....East Tennessee FReeper meet on or about April 18th ....Yaalll come!
What the moutaineers did not have much of was the constant stressful social interaction of the city and town. No matter what good ethos they had by inheritance, without constant practice and testing — that ethos, that moral code languished. Jerusalem is a City, not some minor hamlet in the woods.
I was referring to places like SW WV and rural eastern Kentucky, two places I am familiar with.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.