Process/Product
Hi, I'm Keenahn. You may have heard of me. I'm kinda a big deal.
Archive for February 8th, 2009
Sunday, February the 8th, 2009
039 - The BofA Saga, Part 0: The Seed
“Yeah, yeah… I’m not too worried about it. I’ll look into it,” I told my mom.
“Ok…” she said, “But you should do it soon.”
My mom called today to remind me to move my money out of Bank of America. My mom has a habit of taking the news very seriously, while I understand that fear mongering gets ratings, and thus pretty much abstain from watching televised news. My mom also has a habit of getting kind of worked up over things that I don’t think are too scary. I’ve thus trained myself, for better or worse, not to take her fears very seriously. The problem is, when she warns me, in hushed tones, about everything ranging from artificial sweeteners and sunblock, to mercury in tuna, horrific car accidents, and the implending collapse of the global economy, I don’t know what to believe. She has proclaimed the sky to be falling so many times, and I used to cling to every word, I just grew sick of living in fear. I made a decision to not be a codependent to her anxieties.
This information, though, she assured me was from a trusted source; she even sent me some supporting documents to read. She gave me a very descriptive Ragnarok-like prophecy in which mighty gods fell, and all humanity was destroyed. Soon, people would be lining up around the block to withdraw their money. Those who didn’t make it would have their funds tied up for months as they tried to collect from the FDIC. The only logical escape from this nightmare scenario was to move my money to safer institutions, like under my mattress.
I didn’t buy it.
Bank of America going bankrupt? That’s just crazy talk! Of course, she cited Washington Mutual, the so-called “largest bank collapse in United States history.” In my relatively sheltered ignorance, I in turn cited anecdotal evidence that my friends, who held accounts at WaMu, still had access to their funds. I didn’t really believe anything bad would happen.
I wanted to draw my own conclusions, so I told her I’d do independent research and get back to her.
In the meantime, I had far more important things to worry about, like getting a damn haircut.