Bailout booth.

[OliX]

A mysterious man, giving out cash to strangers in New York, gives out bills from 50 dollars and up to anyone who asks for it. He's masked with sunglasses and a black cap. In front of him is a line with over thousand people who patiently waits in line for over hours to ease their situation from hard recession that hit them. Person says what he needs money for and he decides on how much will he give him.

Idea of this is to help a common man same way the government helped big companies with their bailout plan. He's planing to share 500.000$ in every city he visits. After NYC he'll be in Boston, Washington and Philadelphia. He's even got bodyguards in case someone thinks of robbing him.

In my life I've heard of good deeds that people made but this one amazed me. Thing that amazed me that he's doing thin anonymously for the sake of people and not for the publicity. What is his agenda? Why now? Who is he? We might know in near future but we may also never get to know who he is.

My guess is that he is someone well known to public, someone who recently went trough a big loss, probably a dear person or a family member. Someone who discovered that money can't buy everything.

Who are you? Bruce Willis, John Travolta, late Santa Claus...?

[OliX]

Forgot this.

http://bailoutbooth.com/

[Ajax Knucklebones]

Forgot this.

http://bailoutbooth.com/

I can't get on the site. What is it?

[OliX]

About what I wrote and more.... I can't get in either. He offers jobs, free advertisement and lot more. I'll let you all know when I finally get in again.

I want to hear from New Yorkers what they have to say about this.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

About what I wrote and more.... I can't get in either. He offers jobs, free advertisement and lot more. I'll let you all know when I finally get in again.

I want to hear from New Yorkers what they have to say about this.

He probably was visited by 3 ghosts.

[Amelia G]

Fuck, we live in interesting times.

The company which owns the bailoutbooth.com website is owned by a high end web marketing firm who lists among their corporate clients . . . wait for it . . . Bank of America.

If Bank of America were to give out $500,000 in whatever they consider the most major city in every single state in America, that would be a drop in the bucket out of the more than $100 billion they received in their own "bailout" and they could really just do it in half a dozen media cities like New York and then use that as the explanation for why a bunch of bankers can't "track" the money they got. Isn't tracking money the bulk of what bankers do for a living?

[Amelia G]

[Ajax Knucklebones]

Fuck, we live in interesting times.

The company which owns the bailoutbooth.com website is owned by a high end web marketing firm who lists among their corporate clients . . . wait for it . . . Bank of America.

If Bank of America were to give out $500,000 in whatever they consider the most major city in every single state in America, that would be a drop in the bucket out of the more than $100 billion they received in their own "bailout" and they could really just do it in half a dozen media cities like New York and then use that as the explanation for why a bunch of bankers can't "track" the money they got. Isn't tracking money the bulk of what bankers do for a living?

Isn't tracking money the bulk of what bankers do for a living?

Y-u-u-u-u-p.

They actually, along with 7 other big banks that got bailouts, are going before congress this week to tell them where all the money went. I'd like to see what they actually say.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

What I find very interesting, since I work in a small bank, is how FDIC steps in and shuts down small banks because TARP won't lend them money. Somehow though, these small banks that can't get TARP, get bought by banks that received oodles of money from TARP.

In my state, two banks that got shut down, were then bought through the FDIC by Fifth Third Bank. These small banks probably only needed less than $50 million( in terms of TARP money...That's not alot) to survive but no TARP for them. Fifth Third Bank though...Well they received $3.45 billion dollars.

In Florida which is one of the three biggest states for foreclosures, the entire state recieved only $170 million dollars out of the $350 billion dollars doled out. That's basically a 1/2 percent of the whole TARP fund for one of the biggest states with foreclosures.

Main street...Wall Street...My ass!

[Amelia G]

What I find very interesting, since I work in a small bank, is how FDIC steps in and shuts down small banks because TARP won't lend them money. Somehow though, these small banks that can't get TARP, get bought by banks that received oodles of money from TARP.

In my state, two banks that got shut down, were then bought through the FDIC by Fifth Third Bank. These small banks probably only needed less than $50 million( in terms of TARP money...That's not alot) to survive but no TARP for them. Fifth Third Bank though...Well they received $3.45 billion dollars.

In Florida which is one of the three biggest states for foreclosures, the entire state recieved only $170 million dollars out of the $350 billion dollars doled out. That's basically a 1/2 percent of the whole TARP fund for one of the biggest states with foreclosures.

Main street...Wall Street...My ass!

What exactly is TARP vs. the FDIC? I'm guessing it is something that bankers have to deal with as such a fact of life that this sounds like asking what air is. Sometimes someone will ask me what a chargeback is and I'm like, for real, you don't know.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

TARP is basically the short name for the bailout.

FDIC is the insurance company that insures customer's money up to $250,000.00. FDIC decides what banks have failed and shuts them down.

The TARP money basically raises the company's capital. The higher the capital, the easier it is for banks to borrow from other institutions to lend out funds to customers. When the bank's capital ratio is too low, FDIC will go in and shut the down...(or if there's a run on the bank like IndyMac, FDIC will also shut them down).

So smaller banks can't get borrow the TARP money to raise their capital to stay in business, but bigger banks can and then the bigger banks, that borrowed the TARP money, buy up the shut down smaller banks as a fire sale (dirt cheap). The truth though is that TARP was to be used to raise capital, helping banks stay open, so more lending can be done...Not for bigger banks to use it to buy shut-down banks to become bigger.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

What exactly is TARP vs. the FDIC? I'm guessing it is something that bankers have to deal with as such a fact of life that this sounds like asking what air is. Sometimes someone will ask me what a chargeback is and I'm like, for real, you don't know.

Bank lingo is confusing and as a banker we're told over and over not to use bank lingo with customers, but because we use the terms so much, we forget. ALOT of my customers have no idea what a chargeback is. Kudos to you that you know.

[soma_stardust]

if only i had money... would i think to do something like this? would i build upon this guy's example and start handing out money? or would i donate annonymously to various organizations?
on the news, they were talking about how people who never thought they would stand in line at a food bank are now doing so....
the good thing about a bad economy is that i'm no longer a loser, just among the rest of the people who are all having a hard time.

[aXa]

i see what this guy is doing is helping out a lot of the folks who are getting missed by the "economic stimulus package"/checks. the ones who dont qualify, or are just barely getting by day-to-day. i could be wrong. what types of people are standing in his line? the unemployed, disabled, homeless, lowerclass poor people i hope.

[soma_stardust]

if i was there, it'd be me for sure.
that's why i'd like to think that if i had money, i'd do something like that rather than donating to some organization where the funds go toward running the organization itself, not to mention the people that get missed. nothing organized is perfect... so it seems like a good use of the money to give it directly to the people in need.

[OliX]

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Give a man man religion, he'll die praying for fish.

[OliX]

FUCK YOU!

I love you too

[DJ Bat]

Looks sorta like David Duchovny...




Still an interesting gesture - I sure know a lot of people out there who thought they would of never needed it are in desperate need now. After I was left with no choice but to close my gaming center/nightclub in Maryland after working my ass off to keep it alive 12-18 hours a day for 3 years straight, the banks looked at me and my partners and basically just said "FUCK YOU PAY ME OR YOU DIE". We got no bail out - no offer for financial help - nothing. If it wasn't for family, we would most likely be living in a cat-pissed apartment in a shit-part of town eating top ramen and acid to survive... and when I say family, I mean a roof over our heads and a means to try and get things back together while the loom of a $80K bill still forever hangs over my head. yea...

[nathanmbailey]

Nah, face is a little too fat to be him.

There's actually a listing of charities that lists what percentage of the donated funds go to running the organization and what percentage goes to whatever the charity is for. CFC is what it's called in the military, I'm not sure if it's the same on the civilian side. Some of the charities (such as St. Judes) have about 90% going to the actual cause. It really does help when deciding who to give money to.

Now, if you don't mind, I have to go to NYC and try to get me some cash...

[OliX]

Nose isn't the same.

[Amelia G]

What part of this is most likely a Bank of America marketing scam is eluding y'all? It is not just some really nice man who wants to help whichever strangers can tell the best stories.

[Amelia G]

TARP is basically the short name for the bailout.

FDIC is the insurance company that insures customer's money up to $250,000.00. FDIC decides what banks have failed and shuts them down.

The TARP money basically raises the company's capital. The higher the capital, the easier it is for banks to borrow from other institutions to lend out funds to customers. When the bank's capital ratio is too low, FDIC will go in and shut the down...(or if there's a run on the bank like IndyMac, FDIC will also shut them down).

So smaller banks can't get borrow the TARP money to raise their capital to stay in business, but bigger banks can and then the bigger banks, that borrowed the TARP money, buy up the shut down smaller banks as a fire sale (dirt cheap). The truth though is that TARP was to be used to raise capital, helping banks stay open, so more lending can be done...Not for bigger banks to use it to buy shut-down banks to become bigger.

Thank you. That's really interesting. I can see where the mechanism is supposed to work there. Even though of course we can all see how it is actually working, it is nice to grasp what the well-intentioned concept in there was.

[OliX]

What part of this is most likely a Bank of America marketing scam is eluding y'all? It is not just some really nice man who wants to help whichever strangers can tell the best stories.

I got it, my first thought was "this isn't right, people just don't do this" since I'm quite a skeptic, but then again I compare people to my self as most people do and since I WOULD do such thing if I was in his position I thought just maybe (I want to believe), he might be a good guy.

I know you said "most likely" and not "definitely" but what makes you think it is except the fact that company that does marketing for Bank of America owns that web page? Anyone with enough money can get their services.

[DJ Bat]

What part of this is most likely a Bank of America marketing scam is eluding y'all? It is not just some really nice man who wants to help whichever strangers can tell the best stories.

Excuse my ignorance... how or what does BofA have to gain by giving away money to elude tracking? If they got a bailout, how would throwing money away be an asset to their situation?

Makes sense that it would be Duchovny though -

http://www.picapp.com/PublicSite/Vie...ImageId=654815

The nose actually does look right - the angle of the nose on the mystery guy is just higher - It also matches location with current filming in the area for Californication (great series btw). Maybe was hired as part of campaign? Who knows...

[DJ Bat]

[UPDATE]
Actually, after going to the website and looking at the video - doesn't present like DD - although they don't look like the same person. Also... what's with the red old top part of an old ass 80's Princess Phone with no cord that he's fake-talking into all about? This site does smell pretty bad with 'scam' written all over it.... Snopes?

[DJ Bat]

Although now it seems like an internet pawn shop... just a method of advertising... instead of spending it on print / media / internet advertising which believe me, is nothing compared to viral word of mouth (learned that running CyberDen), they're just using that cash to create this media blitz - You'll get 1000 times the coverage then in any magazine. That's why our gaming center in a year had 3000+ members when the competition which was already open for two years had only 600 members.

Another story on NPR: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/02/

[soma_stardust]

What part of this is most likely a Bank of America marketing scam is eluding y'all? It is not just some really nice man who wants to help whichever strangers can tell the best stories.

let us poor naive people have our delusions....
it's just the idea that gives people hope.

[Amelia G]

Excuse my ignorance... how or what does BofA have to gain by giving away money to elude tracking? If they got a bailout, how would throwing money away be an asset to their situation?

Because the American people and the government have been asking banks such as B of A what the heck they did with all that money they took out of taxpayer coffers. B of A told them they don't really track money and couldn't say, which is pretty bizarre coming from bankers.

If push comes to shove, I can absolutely see how it would be beneficial for one of the bailed out banks to flamboyantly give away say $2 million out of the hundred plus billion they got and then claim that it was untrackable because they handed out so much in cash to people who waited in line in the street. They would sound like angels instead of thieves then.

Bank of America got approximately $150 billion from the US government and they basically went shopping with the money, acquiring Merrill Lynch and making it the American people's problem etc.

If you gave your friend $500 because they were broke and needed to pay rent, buy some groceries, move to a place where a decent job was waiting etc. (something I have done) and they spent the money on partying and new shoes (something I had one now-ex-friend do), you'd be pissed, right? Well, B of A basically went shopping with your money and they need something to cushion the feeling of being rooked.

Or it could be the viral marketing thing Bat said.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

If you gave your friend $500 because they were broke and needed to pay rent, buy some groceries, move to a place where a decent job was waiting etc. (something I have done) and they spent the money on partying and new shoes (something I had one now-ex-friend do), you'd be pissed, right? Well, B of A basically went shopping with your money

Thanks...From a small town banker. You pinned it exactly.