Feb 9, 2011

Making a Fortune Off of American Poverty

Profiting on Poverty
In these hard times, some 43 million American families rely on food stamphttp://www.economiccollapse.net/wp-content/uploads/food-stamps-chart.jpgs. To the surprise of many, JPMorgan Chase is the largest processor of food stamp benefits in the United States. The bank is contracted to provide food stamp debit cards in 26 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Earnings and bonus reports are rolling in and the big, bailed-out banks are back in the black.
 In 2010, total compensation and benefits at publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms hit a record of $135 billion -- up almost six percent from 2009 according to the Wall Street Journal. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon may take home the biggest bonus check, an eye-popping $17 million. 

While the Wall Street economy is booming, the real economy is in a dead stall. Only 36,000 jobs were created in January 2011. A roundup of recent headlines shines a light on how big banks like JPMorgan Chase make their big bucks.

The firm is paid per customer. This means that when the number of food stamp recipients goes up, so do JPMorgan profits. Talk about perverse incentives. JPMorgan is taking its responsibility to keep the U.S. unemployment rate high by offshoring the servicing of many of these contracts to India, according to ABC News.

Michael Snyder of the Seeking Alpha blog put it best:
"There are just some things that are a little too creepy to be outsourced to private corporations."

Read full at AlterNet