I am sure our legislators thought about this before the bill was drafted since they are acting in the public interest. USAA must be mistaken. The New York Times will outraged about this when they find out.
For those who stood tall for this country and for their families,
we stand ready to return the favor.
Dear Customer:
Rarely in our 87-year history have we turned to USAA members to weigh in with elected representatives on an issue of great importance. But, we are now.
The U.S. Senate currently is considering legislation (S.3217) that would impose new rules on the nation’s financial services industry, including USAA.
As the leading provider of financial services to America’s military community, USAA supports financial services reform.
However, the current Senate bill would disproportionally impact USAA because we are a unique and fully integrated association. USAA is not like the banks and other companies that helped bring down our economy, and we never took a penny of TARP funds. We do not engage in the harmful practices this legislation seeks to resolve.
If unchanged, the bill would:
- Prevent USAA from managing the association’s portfolio as we have for the past 87 years.
- Jeopardize our ability to continue offering many of our competitive products.
- Limit our ability to return money to our members. Last year, USAA returned $1.2 billion to our members in the form of distributions, dividends, and bank rebates and rewards.
So, we are asking all USAA members and employees to urge their U.S. senators to amend a portion of the bill, known as the “Volcker Rule,” to eliminate its effect on a company like USAA. Please know that this legislation does not impact individual member’s investments.
Regardless of the outcome of the legislation, USAA will remain a unique and enduring association that’s all about you — the military and their families.
Please take action on this matter by immediately contacting your U.S. senator. You may click here to access a special website that will enable you to quickly send an e-mail message to your senator.
Thank you for your help and support,
Josue (Joe) Robles Jr.
Major General, USA (Ret.)
President and CEO
Hat tip to Sourdough Jim
I guess even The General thinks the bad guys should be controlled/regulated, etc. and that there should be some “reward” for a company that exists only to serve its customers. Couldn’t agree more. BUT, that also means that the Congress, in its infinite wisdom, [hmmmm] should really deal with those bad guys in a way that prevents them from doing what they have done ever again. Support reliable and effective reform. Free market economics may be a good issue to argue about; but if it allows a few to impact global millions, then restraints are necessary. Hopefully, that will be done…but I’m not optimistic.
Free market economics had nothing to do with this crash. First, it isn’t a free market. The financial industry is already heavily regulated. Economically, Too Big Too Fail is an incentive to allow financial companies to take risks they wouldn’t if they knew no one would bail them out. You’ve been reading this blog long enough to understand this argument. You have to think beyond the obvious and ask why these things happened. And I can tell you the reasons aren’t what you hear from the Conventional Wisdom. Without reforming the government policies that fueled this crisis and reforming the Fed who caused the crisis, nothing will change. The point of the article is that the law of unintended consequences will result in good companies like USAA being harmed.
Quote from Jeff Harding: “The point of the article is that the law of unintended consequences will result in good companies like USAA being harmed.”
The real result will be that all companies will be considered bad until they provide an adequate amount of tribute to whatever thug (I mean politician and/or bureaucrat) happenes to be in power at the time. This is about power and money for Washington. All other explanations are ignorant or self-serving.
You should add the spy novels of Charles McCarry to balance LeCarre’, whom I also like.
“Any government solution to a problem, is usually worse than the problem.” This is the classic example. “No good deed goes unpunished.”