Why banks needed a bail-out

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It's no wonder taxpayers are having to bail out the financial industry: they're stupid. They over-centralized their operations 'in the name of efficiency' and try to get the lowest paid people possible to do the job.

Case in point: I'm working with a family on an estate. I routinely verify all debts of the decedent that could be a claim against the estate and send a letter to each creditor (a) informing them that the individual died, (2) asking for certain information and (3) providing information about when (or even if) the account might be paid.

HSBC (Household Savings Bank) responded "In order to make changes to the cardmember's credit bureau we need written authorization and a signature from (the decedent). Then there's a "please refer to reference number 6781-07JUL09".

I faxed a Rossiferous response, as follows:

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IT IS OBVIOUS YOU DO NOT EMPLOY PEOPLE WHO
UNDERSTAND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

My original letter dated June 15 is attached. Your 7-10-09
letter, attached, asks for her signature; she's dead so you
can't get it.

Your letter mentions her credit file; she's dead and doesn't
care.

I suggest you have someone with a high school diploma or
better re-read my original letter and provide an intelligent
response.

No wonder financial institutions need a bail-out. They
either can't read or are stupid.

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Given my past experience with HSBC, I vote the latter.

It'll be interesting if they respond to my fax

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Gov Maintenance needed.

I know it's been a while. Been busy and on vacation. However, I just saw a quote from a friend of mine on a user-group I participate in (www.chaosfanatics.com).

It's a shame we can't maintain our government the same way we do our PCs. I'd start off with a full malware scan and then do a deep defrag with full optimization. If that didn't help I'd wipe it and re-install. It'd be well worth the downtime. "JustDave"

Couldn't have said it better myself.

The shame is that I feel the majority of Americans don't like their government in its present form. And it's getting too big for its britches.

I discovered 'science fiction' while at Woodrow Wilson Jr. High School and have read bunches of it. What's interesting is that a lot of things written 30-40 years ago are becoming reality now. The late Isaac Asimov wrote of a bloated Galactic Empire bureaucracy in the Foundation Trilogy (later series) and I'm seeing alarming parallels with Washington now. The problem is that there's no one able to fix it.

The Government needs 'down time' to reboot.