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NEWS FEATURES COMDEB SCENE Student becomes homeless Henry Darger lunch and The party don’t start until What’s your embarrajam? to protest Res Life Housing lecture, marks opening of corporate donations walk in Ordinance the I.D.E.A. Space’s ‘Seeing Stories’ exhibit Bernadette Stocker 2 Sarah Albert 4 Nick Hawks 5 Samantha LaBue 11 Volume 40 No 14 Check out Nick Hawks and Ellie THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF COLORADO COLLEGE Wood In the quasi weekly “Brew HaHa” Page 11 February 5, 2010 Move Your Money - restoring catalystnewspaper.com trust in the American way > Piles of trash inform institution deposits. Think about that; 40% of can’t offer any of the conveniences that big Ben Quam all of the money deposited in American banks is banks allow, like free ATM withdrawals, free students of their daily Catalyst Columnist controlled by just four companies! And the most check cashing, internet banking, etc? Dennis waste production disturbing part about that is that they’re grow- Santiago with the Move Your Money campaign n his State of the Union address last week, ing; as recently as December 2007 the Big Four opened up several new accounts wrote, “What President Obama said that our govern- control just 32% of the market, and in 2000 I was actually waiting to confi rm was what I Iment faces a “defi cit of trust” with the they controlled only 21%. Their market share already knew. Most community banks con- Elizabeth Findell American people and that legislators need to essentially doubled over the course of nine years. tract with vendors that provide the consumer News Editor end the “deep and corrosive doubts about how If just one of these institutions falters, or takes “convenience” services you’d expect from a Washington works that have been growing for too many risks, it threatens the entire banking bank. These services are part of a mature and he picturesque Worner lawn became a years.” That acknowledgment may have been industry, and that in turn threatens our entire stable support industry that does most of the massive pile of trash on Tuesday, Febru- resonated with Americans more than any other economy. We’ve seen the implications of this under-the-hood stuff for the banking business. T ary 2nd, as CC students learned how part of his speech. There is a defi cit of trust with the current recession. Our economy simply This means that — in practical terms — there’s much garbage they cumulatively produce in a right now, but it isn’t just with Washington. The cannot be structurally stable again until the Big little, if any, loss in quality of service these days single day. Students donned plastic gloves and economic collapse and stagnation is Washington Four have been cut down to size. between a small and large bank.” So you can ventured into the 30 cubic yards of garbage to has left Americans feeling disillusioned about Apart from being too big for their own good, count on the same, or close to the same, level of dig through it and sort out what could have been our ability to create real reform, as well as one’s these four have shown they’re not interested convenience from smaller banks as you do from recycled, composted or reused. The Campus ability to fi nd a job, pay for college, or take out a in being any more sustainable than before the the Big Four. Sustainability Council organized the event, Trash loan. This common anxiety isn’t a partisan issue; recession. They have already gone back to the Whether you’re a Tea Party member or Den- Pile, as a way to kick-start a ten week college it helped Obama get elected president and it has same money making schemes that led to the nis Kucinich is your idol this movement has a Recyclemania contest. helped Tea Parties recruit thousands. Americans crunch in the fi rst place, and have dished out place for you. Liberals see it a chance to fi ght are searching for a way to take control again. CEO and other executive bonuses worth billions. back against corporate greed and exploitation It’s just getting in there The Move Your Money campaign is a grass- For example, at Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf that Washington isn’t responding to, and con- roots movement that has been gaining steam was paid “as much as $18.4 million for his ser- servatives consider it a way of wielding power and getting your hands in recent months because it targets the source vice in 2009,” and executives received bonuses as a consumer to disinvest from banks that “dirty. You become in tune of this anxiety: the big Wall Street Banks. The of as much as $5 million in stock options. Nou- waste taxpayer money on extravagant bonuses. with what you eat and banks that took the risks, brought our economy riel Roubini, award-winning economist at New Members of congress from both sides of the to the edge of ruin, had to get bailed out by York University, said last week, “We are back to aisle have endorsed the idea, including Congress- what you throw away. It’s taxpayers, gave the money to the CEO’s that business as usual, back to excessive and obscene man Bob Inglis (R-SC) and Congresswoman very eye opening to see messed up in the fi rst place, and now have bonuses, back to risky trading, leverage, and the Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). The Move Your Money gone right back to being too big, too risky and illusion that bank profi ts are driven by their own campaign isn’t ideological or partisan, it just that it’s not even a full too greedy. Move Your Money started with the intelligent action.” makes sense. day of trash. idea that the best way for people to challenge In addition to the satisfaction of fi ghting Wall Move Your Money is growing fast, already the “too big to fail” banks is simple: don’t do Street, individuals stand to gain personally from community banks across the country say they Molly Sinnott business with them. The best way we can make moving their money into a local bank or credit have felt the impact of the movement. And sure we aren’t held hostage by big banks is to union. As Move Your Money says, “Community it’s not just individuals getting in on the action, ” take our money out, and open up new accounts banks are more closely connected to the people businesses, churches and local governments are “It’s just getting in there and getting your in local community banks and credit unions. The and businesses who live near them, and they’re changing the way they bank. A bill is circulat- hands dirty. You become in tune with what you beauty of this is in its simplicity, it’s not only in more inclined to make loans they know will get ing right now through the New Mexico state eat and what you throw away,” said sophomore the nation’s interest for us to take our money paid back. In other words, they have the values government that would shift all $2 billion of the Molly Sinnott. “It’s very eye opening to see that out, but it’s in our personal interests as well. that more people would want banks to have.” states checking account to local banks across the it’s not even a full day of trash.” For starters, any objective look at the facts re- Community banks offer individuals a more state. The state currently uses Bank of Amer- Students were encouraged to grab a pair of veals that we’re just as much at the mercy of the personalized experience, you can literally look ica. Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Bill gloves and sort through the garbage to get a big banks as we were before the bailout. Right the owner in the face when you make a deposit Bradbury in Oregon has proposed a “Bank of sense of what percentage of the trash should now there are four major banks in the US, Bank or require a loan. Rates are often as low or lower, Oregon” that would be a “mechanism by which have been recycled. After the whole pile had of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and and don’t forget about all those free toasters the state government would deposit money in been attacked, they found that about 40 percent Wells Fargo, and between the four of them they when you open an account. local banks.” Obama of the total volume was recyclable. control about 40% of all FDIC-insured banking What about the argument that smaller banks Continued on page 2 Continued on page 7 2 February 5, 2010 News Campus Sustainability Council and EnAct take on trash and water bottles continued from page 2 capita and recycling rate to rank them. Recy- clemania participants include 607 schools in 49 states, D.C. and foreign campuses in Canada Though the Sustainability Council had intend- and Qatar. ed to sort only enough trash to get a general The Sustainability Council’s efforts this year idea of the ratio, students divided up the entire are focused on waste minimization. CC already pile and all the recycling was able to be isolated. does fairly well with percentage of waste that is recycled. The Trash Pile was intended to be If no one ever thought a real reminder of the amount of garbage the campus creates, and students agree that it was they could make a effective.

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