Comment by peteretep

    > Do you know of a bank that has robbed from the small
    > people? I work in finance

There was that whole subprime crisis thing.

Now you could split hairs here, and say that rather than technically robbing their clients, the banks involved merely cheated them, but as you follow with:

    > there's tremendous protection for the small people
    > in everything we do

I'm guessing you're not going to do that.

Matt Taibbi sums it up nicely, so rather than paraphrase him, I'll just quote him:

    > > about two-thirds of all subprime loans between
    > > 2000 and 2007 were made to people who already
    > > owned their homes. The targets were often
    > > elderly, in particular men and women of color.
    > > Visiting loan officers convinced these borrowers
    > > to use the homes they'd poured their savings into
    > > their whole lives as ATM machines.

    > > The pitch was: refinance your home, and get a
    > > little extra spending money each month! Lots of
    > > people went for it. But there was mischief hidden
    > > in the fine print of many of these "refi" deals,
    > > which often quickly exploded. Before long, the
    > > now-departed agent's promises would evaporate into
    > > a toxic quicksand of debt, unforeseen penalties
    > > and foreclosure.

As the same article goes to point on, Wells Fargo paid a $175,000,000 settlement for this shit. From the Baltimore Sun[1]:

    > > "80-year-old African-American resident of the
    > > Baltimore area with a 714 credit score and a
    > > rock-solid credit file who received a subprime
    > > loan instead of a prime loan, and who was not told 
    > > that she may have qualified for a prime loan with
    > > better terms."
    > > "By the time she realized she had an
    > > adjustable-rate mortgage, and not the fixed rate
    > > she thought, it was too late,"

Does it get worse? Of course it gets worse, we're talking about a bank! Not content with merely going after vulnerable people with predatory lending practices, they made to sure to refer to the POC they lent to as "mud people"[2]

Tell me again about those protections for the small people? They sound great.

[0] http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-line-that-may-...

[1] http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-07-12/news/bs-md-ci-we...

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/07baltimore.html