I am a former bank executive. The day I had to foreclose on a guy who was 90 days behind on his mortgage was the day I knew I had to get out.

The guy was an Iraqi immigrant who owned an immigrants version of a "corner store" (if you are in the US you know what I mean). After we foreclosed there wasn't enough for him to get his money back out. He lost everything he had saved for his entire life. He had actually gotten behind on the house because of the war. Some of his family were refugees who had nowhere to go so he took them in. The extra mouths to feed and kids to put through school meant he had to choose between that and his mortgage. The bank didn't care. We had to foreclose.<br><br>At that point I knew the bank was taking advantage of people to get them into their branches, and then foreclosing on them at the first sign of trouble. It wasn't a bank at all, it was an investment firm that happened to have a bank license. It was run by people with no banking experience (just like all of the big US banks). It was run by people with a short term outlook who didn't care about long term relationships or the consequences of the products they were selling, so long as they could sell a lot of them. I got out shortly after that.<br><br>Fast forward a few years and the GFC hits. Suddenly everyone is talking about how terrible all US banks are, and how evil CDO's were. Honestly, I kind of got it, but I am in Australia and I kept saying "this isn't us, our banks aren't like that". I was told I was naive and that all banks are the same.<br><br>Fast forward another decade and Australia has it's own Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. The interference and corruption that was uncovered was massive. It went all the way to the top of government and the banks. Senior executives from all major Australian banks are facing criminal prosecution. As someone who used to work in that industry it makes me sick.<br><br>The Australian banks involved in this are Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Westpac, National Australia Bank (NAB), ANZ Bank, and Macquarie Bank. All of these banks are in the ASX top 10 and are seen as the blue-chip, low risk, Australian investments that form the basis of most Aussie's superannuation. By extension they are in just about every Australian's portfolio.<br><br>It's not just the banks either. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), the body who is meant to regulate the banks, was also complicit. Senior executives at the banks sat on the board of ASIC. They were meant to regulate themselves. It is utterly corrupted.<br><br>Ok, so why am I telling you this? I am telling you this because I don't want you to fall into the same trap we did. When the GFC hit the US a decade ago we should have taken it as a warning sign. We should have taken a good hard look at our banks and made sure they weren't doing the same thing. We didn't though. We said "it can't happen here" and low and behold it did. I don't want you to make the same mistake.<br><br>Have a good hard look at your banks. You are due for a recession and when it hits you need to make sure your banks will survive. It's too late for us. We will be economicallyulur damaged as a nation for the next decade because of the corruption of our banks and the people who were meant to keep them in check.<br><br>The US isn't like Australia though right? Wrong! If you think your banks are regulated better than ours you are wrong. It's been a decade since the GFC and there is still no regulation in place to stop it from happening again. Actually, it's worse than that. Since the GFC the big banks in the US have only gotten bigger. Since Dodd-Frank passed (the only real regulation that was meant to prevent the GFC from happening again) the big US banks have lobbied their way to water down almost every part of it. As of last week the last part of it has been gutted. There is absolutely no regulation in place to regulate the big US banks.<br><br>So who are these banks that will-bring down the US economy? They are; JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), and Citi Group (C). They are all in the S\&P 100 and are seen as the safe haven for investors to hide when everything else is going wrong. They are in every single index fund and target date fund in the US. By extension they are in just about every American's portfolio.<br><br>Just like Australia, the corruption of these banks goes all the way to the US government. The current administration in the US is utterly corrupt and complicit with the banks and Wall St. The current President doesn't even hide it. He has openly boasted about the money he has made corruptly through his dealings with bankers and Wall St. His closest advisors are all former Wall St and banker executives. He appointed former bankers to the regulatory bodies that are meant to keep the banks and Wall St in check. He has openly said he wants to gut all of the protections that were put in place after the GFC to stop it from happening again.<br><br>You need to take steps to protect yourself. The banks and government in the US have utterly and completely failed. They don't have your best interests at heart. They want to take your money and line their own pockets with it. They don't care if you get hurt.<br><br>The economy is about to turn and you need to protect your assets. Get out of the US banks and get out of the index and target date funds that are nothing but vehicles for the wealthy to get richer. Stop thinking that putting your money in the "market" is somehow smart. It just gives someone else your money and lets them make decisions with it that you have no say in. Actually learn how to invest your money yourself and stop relying on someone else to do it for you.<br><br>This has been a PSA from someone who used to be high up in one of the big bad banks. If you have any questions I'm happy to answer them.