David Graeber On Fees and Penalties!

The idea that profit is end of all measures is the cause of what happens when the ignorance is not decoupled from means of production.. that's the point. "Money changers"

I miss him so much.

Gone but not forgotten.

I have a lot of time for Mr. Graeber, but this is silly—to the point of being disingenuous: —firstly, “non-interest revenue” includes BAU income from the many banking business lines that do not involve outright bank lending: for example, commissions and fees earned in brokerage, asset management, trading and investment banking activities (which are by and large generate quite a lot more revenue per account than consumer lending, to which Dr. Graeber alludes. —Secondly, overdraft penalties are only a small fraction of that. —Thirdly, overdraft penalties are not some trick to squeeze more money out of you: all you have to remember to do is clear your balance on time. —Fourthly, customers who are late clearing overdraft balances are actuarially more likely to fail and, by definition, would cause the bank an outright loss. —Fifthly, even setting aside the above, I don’t believe the overall percentage of non-interest revenue was anything like as high as 85%.