is that we no longer enforce antitrust regulations on the banking industry. The fact that they can jack up fees whenever they want and invent new ones on a whim is clear evidence of lack of real competition in the banking industry. In a competitive market, consumers would leave the banks charging the highest fees but they have no alternative, because every other bank that can service them is also charging those fees. Not to mention that "too big to fail" leads to taxpayer bailouts and excessive risk to the economy - the largest banks are basically able to hold the economy hostage in order to extort money from taxpayers when they take bad risks. Too big to fail is too big period, and the ability to set rates higher than your competitors is clear evidence of too much market power. The biggest banks should be forced to split up. Instead, they continue to merge - Capital One just took over Chevy Chase Bank, the largest regional bank here in the DC area. The mergers have to stop and the breakups have to start if we are ever going to be able to limit the control of banks over the economy and stop the price gouging.

The bigger the banks get, the more money they pump into the top politicians of both parties- so the more ex-bankers get appointed to cabinet posts- and the richer the top bankers get, the easier it is for them to win Senate seats, like Goldman CEO Jon Corzine.

The days of independent and powerful statesmen who could bust the trusts, like Teddy Roosevelt, are gone.

Only violent revolution can stop this - and I am not sure I want to be there if and when that happens. As a prerequisite, the populace will have to tire of reality TV, and be homeless en masse.

Not really.

Why should I choose this bank over that one on the basis of what the "foreign ATM fee" is? I'm not going to pay it at either bank.

Why should I choose this bank over that one on the basis of what the "overdraft fee" is? I'm not going to pay it at either bank.

The reason these fees don't drive away (nearly all) customers is because very few people actually pay them, and even fewer *believe* that they will pay them.

You can certainly call every bank in town and select the bank with the lowest fee, and you will find some differences, but the vast majority of people figure out how to avoid paying these fees in the first place, and so they simply don't CARE. It would be like deciding where to buy your next basic used car based on which dealer provided the best service for the moonroof that your car isn't going to have.

Every adult needs an emergency cushion. You build it up through the usual blood, sweat, tears, and self-control that any savings it born out of. It means saying NO to every even slightly optional purchase. It sits in your checking account -- just in case you make a mistake -- and you ignore its existence. One person I knew, when she got $100 saved, changed her check register so that no one would know that there was another $100 in the account. That emergency cushion is what keeps you from bouncing checks. It's also what keeps shoes on the kids' feet and buys the fuel pump for the car when these would have otherwise been disasters.

Don't tell me that it can't be done: I've done it, and I've seen others do it. I've seen people trying to raise kids on barely more than minimum wage move from "wolves at the door" to long-term security. All it really takes is wanting this bit of security more than any *thing* in the world -- every single day, for a long time. It took me almost two years to save the first $85. Two years after that, I had five times that amount. If I'd ever stopped wanting it, it could have been gone the same day. If I can do it, you can do it -- if you want to.

I've also seen people not do this. They're the ones who can't say NO when the kids want fancy T-shirts, who "need" cable television, who "have to" go out to eat, and who "just this once" indulge in an expensive coffee drink. They're also the ones that come around crying at the end of the month because they're flat broke and the electricity's about to be turned off. Again.

News flash: You get to pick which category you want to live in. Make YOUR choice, and quit blaming the bank for YOUR choice.