Juggling Dynamite

Further to the revelations last fall that US bank Wells Fargo was driving its employees to cross-sell customers debt and risk products to their financial ruin, we noted that Wells was not unique in its predatory business plan. It is an entire industry of sales-obsessed investment firms/banks posing as “financial advisors” which have increasingly gutted households from the inside out over the past 2 decades.  Today, we have news from whistle blower employees inside Canada’s TD Bank.  See: “I will do anything to meet my goal: TD tellers says customers pay price for ‘unrealistic’ sales goals.

Three TD Bank Group employees are speaking out about what they say is “incredible pressure” to squeeze profits from customers by signing them up for products and services they don’t need.

The longtime employees say their jobs have become similar to that of the stereotypical used car salesman, as they’re pushed to upsell customers to reach rising sales revenue targets.

They say there has always been a sales component to the job, but the demand to meet “unrealistic” quarterly goals has intensified in recent years as profits from low interest rates have dropped and banks became required — after the financial meltdown of 2008 — to keep more capital on hand to protect against a downturn in the market.

Here is a direct audio link to the report on CBC radio today.

This story doesn’t even touch on all the harmful ‘investment’ products and services that are relentlessly cross-sold as recommendations and advice to vulnerable customers through an army of funds, online, retail brokerage and private client services offered by the banks. As we have warned for years, customers are seen as the low-hanging fruit, distribution channel for everything the firm needs to pump and dump for all the corporations they do underwriting work for. And when the products tank each market cycle, the banks then say they were only acting as sales people and the client must bear their own risk and losses. Customers take ‘advice’ from these financial sales conglomerates at great personal peril.

In today’s low yield environment, now more than ever, people are being seduced by the promise of better returns, without appreciating the significant capital risk involved. Although, it may look great for a while, this approach usually ends badly in due course.  We must steel ourselves against financial sales people and products promising returns far above ‘risk-free’ rates today.  When 1-year investment grade bonds, GICs and Certificates of Deposit are paying less than 1%, securities offering multiples of that, are doing so at much higher and, in many cases, inappropriate capital risk.

Unfortunately, a great many people are being sucked into scams and schemes that will harm them, and negative outcomes are more common than many realize.  In many cases, it is not actual fraud, but simply reckless salespeople and gullible savers that end up in ruin. Either way, people near the end of their working career, or already in retirement, have very little tolerance for capital risk, because they have insufficient time to wait for rebounds or replenish savings lost.  And yet, we are bombarded daily by financial propaganda promising to boost returns, “play” or “trade” our way to riches.

This recent story from Canada is a sad example of outright fraud.  See:  Binary options-the latest investment scam.

Canadian securities regulators have started a task force to raise awareness and protect Canadians from the latest investment scam, so-called binary options that can cost investors everything they have — including their lives.   Here is a direct video link.

Last night we caught the first episode of the new series “The Good Fight” from the producers of the long running “The Good Wife”. I thought it was excellent, timely, and a worthwhile warning to everyone about the proliferation of financial scams in the world today. Here is a direct video link.

Note to President Trump and co: this is what smart business looks like. Free, direct, clean energy, with zero transport (no pipelines, no trucks, or trains) and no emissions. Anyone who can’t see the obvious brilliance here, is just not looking.

Large technology corporations are some of the biggest energy users on the planet. Huge data centers and massive buildings are usually very costly to maintain and power, but Amazon is now boarding the green energy train. They have announced plans to install rooftop solar systems on at least 50 of their fulfillment centers across North America. By the end of 2017, they expect to generate up to 41 megawatts of solar energy.

Amazon already has wind and solar farms in Texas, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia that help power AWS data centers. The new installations will generate more than ten times the power of those current projects though.

Depending on the weather conditions and installation specifics, the solar panels could produce up to 80% of the annual energy for a site. This free energy will go towards powering the countless little sorting robots that make each fulfillment center work.  Here is a direct video link.