Well, that was a bitch of a year, huh? No doubt, 2011 has been one seriously news-heavy, tumultuous 12-month period for Charlotte and, for that matter, the whole state. So much tumult and craziness, in fact, that our annual look at the passing year had to be stretched to two parts. This week, a recap of the two money-drenched enterprises that inflicted the most damage on Charlotteans: banking and state lawmakers.
Our Banks
Charlotte these days is like a kid on a swing who just realized that one of the chains has snapped. We don’t know what’s next, but we’re pretty sure the ride is over. The city’s most important industry now polls lower among Americans than body lice, and good news in 2011, for both the banks and the banks’ customers, was hard to find. As a parade of sordid revelations and management screw-ups vied for our attention, Bank of America’s stock prices continued to plunge, but not as steeply as the bank’s reputation.
The feds accused BofA and Wells Fargo of having defrauded taxpayers by falsifying claims to the Federal Housing Administration concerning foreclosures bought with government-backed loans. Worse yet, federal auditors found that BofA deliberately hindered that very investigation. In all, BofA and Wells, as well as three other mortgage firms, “earned” more than $20 billion by taking shortcuts while handling distressed borrowers’ home loans. In addition, BofA foreclosed on homes owned by military veterans and soldiers, some of them still in combat in Afghanistan. Oh, and here’s the bad joke of the year: Got a nickel? Then you have more in your pocket than BofA paid in federal taxes this year.
Then came the infamous $5 debit fee debacle, when the bank tried to restore the funds it had been gouging out of merchants — before Congress stopped it — by turning to (or against) its customers for the dough. Voila! — instant national infamy. That’s when BofA CEO Brian Moynihan decided to declare that he was “incensed” about all the criticism of his poor widdle bank, which, of course, added more, er, fodder to the world of shit he currently inhabits.
Some of the biggest banking news came from the now-defunct Wachovia, which — as detailed in The Observer — knowingly laundered $375 billion from Mexico’s drug gangs. Oh, you didn’t hear about that story? That’s because it was in the UK Observer, not the Charlotte Observer.
New Bosses in Raleigh
Things got so bad in the General Assembly in 2011, even people outside the state noticed. The lawmaking body made a “10 Craziest State Legislatures” list from Alternet. The New Yorker ran a lengthy article titled “State For Sale,” about Art Pope, the multimillionaire “power behind the throne” of the N.C. GOP, whose various organizations led the charge to elect a new Republican majority in Raleigh. Armed with pre-written bills from corporate-sponsored interest groups, as well as its party members’ own fresh, 1950s-era ideas, the GOP went on a destructive tear.
School funding was cut, costing tens of thousands of teacher jobs. Medicaid funds were cut, as was all state funding for Planned Parenthood, even though PP provides valuable women’s healthcare resources and uses zero government dollars for abortions. Meanwhile, women seeking an abortion in N.C. will now have to sit through a doctor-and-pony show describing her state-mandated ultrasound, and listen to beliefs of the religious right presented as gospel truth.
The GOP also rammed through a measure to bring back extortionate interest rates by payday lenders. It passed a constitutional amendment, to be voted on by citizens, to ban same-sex marriage, as well as domestic partner benefits, statewide (making it next to impossible for N.C. to recruit big-money corporations, most of which live in the 21st century). The new GOP bosses allowed companies to shift income earned in N.C. to other states, thus letting tens of millions of dollars flow out of the economy. They also made N.C. one of 16 states that don’t allow cities and counties to provide broadband services to citizens, thus protecting the profits of lawmakers’ big telecommunications contributors.
Finally, those rogue GOP legislators overruled local ordinances to give billboard companies the right to do pretty much anything they want, including — get this — installing up to seven electronic billboards per mile. They passed a voter ID bill, in lockstep with other, new right-wing state legislatures trying to repress the “colored vote”; luckily, Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed it. And, I almost forgot: They also made taxpayers fund environmentally destructive jetties for the wealthy owners of beach McMansions. Phew, that’s enough for now.
Next week: CMS rebellion, Chiquita, Occupy Charlotte, Sue Myrick, the Duke Energy merger, and Bill James’ weirdest moment.
This article appears in Dec 27, 2011 – Jan 2, 2012.
