The author (Andrew Ross Sorkin) does not expressly “judge” the big Wall Street bankers, investors and brokers who brought America to near financial ruin. And he manages to do this, even as he details the backroom conversations which led to the biggest taxpayer funded bailout, since the deregulated Savings and Loan tragedy of the mid-1980s.

Mr. Sorkin simply and objectively helps you understand the “culture” of Wall Street, as he chronicles the fall of Lehman Brothers, who was one of the ten big Wall Street Investment Firms.

As I read the book, it became abundantly clear that Wall Street bankers do not think like the rest of Americans. These bankers have more in common with international financial institutions. And their salaries are so out of proportion to the average American, they have literally ”lost the value of money.”

I believe this is the root cause of why their quarterly reports evaluated their corporate assets at unrealistically high and unsustainable levels. But this is how they got Americans (and other countries) to listen to their marketing advice and then continue to invest in their corporations. And as time has shown, such investments were only good on paper, not reality.

I personally believe that bailing out the big Wall Street financial institutions, potentially could have worked in favor of the American people and economy. But the reality is that the bailouts failed to help Main Street America.

Why? The few government conditions placed on the banks receiving the money was the first mistake.

Taxpayer money could have been spent with a detailed tracking system to ensure the banks made loans to small businesses, and provided widespread residential loan modifications (at lower interest rates) to stop the sub-prime mortgage foreclosure crisis.

Some people may assert that even with a detailed tracking system, the Wall Street Firms could have figured out a way to circumvent those government imposed conditions. And based on the unrealistic and inflated quarterly reports by these institutions, it would be a very good argument.

Wall Street’s track record for honesty and transparency is poor. This is true especially after Congress deregulated them in 1999, by repealing the final few regulations, then in effect, of the Glass-Steagall Act.

In short, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve made the mistake of “trusting” that banks would funnel this money back into the American economy. This misplaced trust was all the more evident, after the big Wall Street firms had “promised” to invest in Main Street.

Instead, the banks made few commercial loans or residential loan modifications; and instead used the money to acquire other smaller banks (assets); pay off global investors on bad debts incurred (liabilities); and gave themselves huge bonuses.

The end result, is that these big banks betrayed the American people and economy; indeed, the very people who have enabled them to become national and international financial giants.

It is also important to note that since bank deregulation, many small banks maintained wise lending policies. They were deregulated like Wall Street, but chose not to engage in reckless loans, investments or the mantra of Wall Street, credit default swaps.

It is a matter of record, that these small banks required no bail out funds, simply because they did not need the money. Even through the deregulation process, they remained solvent.

With the above information in mind, I joined a group of Americans who started an organization called Move Your Money Project. This organization is a nonprofit, which started in December 2009, in reaction to the bailouts.

Its guiding principal is simple: If you bank with one of the big banks, move your money to a smaller, locally owned bank or credit union. Moving your money serves a few purposes:

1. Your financial support, currently provided to big banks, instead now goes to local institutions who make residential and business loans which support the community economy;

2. It is a statement to big banks, that their actions in choosing not to support the American economy with our bailout money, was irresponsible;

3. It shows the big Wall Street banks that their attitude in believing they are too big to fail, lacks integrity and is unworthy of any American business; and

4. The decision made by Americans moving their money to local institutions, shows they still believe in banking, but do not want to engage in business with big banks, who have lost the value of money.

You can access the Web site at www.moveyourmoneyproject.org. Once there you can input your zip code and access the names of smaller local financial institutions with a triple A credit rating.

The Web site further explains how they came into existence, and chronicles the success of this grass roots movement.

And not only individual families and businesses have moved their money. Local governments (city, county and state) like the city of Los Angeles and the state of Massachusetts have divested their money from big banks, and now do business only with small, local financial institutions. It is a growing trend.

So ultimately, who will decide which banks survive? At this time, Congress appears reluctant to reinstitute the Glass-Steagall Act, which would re-regulate big banks to prevent another possible financial meltdown.

So it is up to the American people to act independently, and place their money with more responsible financial institutions accountable to local communities.

We can decide which corporations succeed. Take your financial power back. Nobody is “too big to fail.”

Anna Rose Ravenwoode lives in Kelseyville, Calif.

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Written by: Anna Rose Ravenwoode

Published: 14 June 2011