How 37 Financial Institutions Became Four (Graph)

This wonderful graph, which was originally shared by Lucas Rohenaz, has floated around the net for the last month or so.  It has been shared on Facebook alone nearly 13,000 times.  It shows how, since 1990, 37 financial institutions have merged into the four largest banks in the nation: Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

The most egregious of the Wall Street offenders is Bank of America, taking over twelve other banks in the course of the last two decades.  I worked for BofA in 1993, shortly after their buyout of Security Pacific Bank.  I was also employed by Chase Manhattan Bank (now JPMorgan Chase), shorly after their merger with Chemical bank in 1997.

Mergers are messy.  They are tumultuous for both customers and employees alike.  Upper management rarely gives a shit.  As long as stock value continues to rise, their yearly bonus increases as well.

Below is a clear example of why people are demonstrating in more than 80 cities nationwide.   These four corporations effectively control 40% of the nation's economy.  If that is not a motivation for action, I don't know what is.

Tea Baggers Criticize The Occupy Demonstrations

How ridiculous.  If you Google "Down With Evil Corporations", you'll see hundreds of Tea Party sites over the last week, which have posted this photo, criticizing the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Corporations are a necessity in a Free Enterprise marketplace.  They offer legal protections for the owners of a business that aren't available to a sole proprietorship.  Also, a business must be incorporated to offer stock options to interested parties.  They are a necessary evil.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters are not against corporations per se.  They are against exorbitant corporate greed.  When Bank of America institutes a $5.00 monthly fee to use your debit card, there is a problem.

When Wall Street rewrites qualifications for home loans, then plays the stock market to where they are essentially betting against your ability to make your mortgage payment, there's a problem.

When a company would rather lay off thousands of employees, than lose 3% profit for the year, there is a problem.

When teachers salaries have dropped 20% since 2008, but CEOs get wealthier, there is a problem.

There are ethical, moral corporations in the world.  There are many that are immoral.  Sadly, we cannot boycott them all.  We must clothe ourselves, eat, communicate and use transportation on a daily basis.

To suggest that since the Occupy demonstrators are rallying against corporate greed, that they should rid themselves of any corporate attachments is ludicrous at best.  A large part of the Republican right already thinks of those involved in the movement as "dirty hippies".  With this recent photo floating around Facebook, we're now made to look like corporate savvy hipsters.  Well?  Which is it?  What do they want from us?

Do they expect us to camp out in the streets naked, unshowered and without makeup?  Do they want us to communicate with tin cans and string?  Are we really supposed to buy this rhetoric?