25.6% of U.S. households use conventional banks little or not at all… And Sheila Bair wonders why…

Read the whole LA Times article about citizen’s decline in the use of banking system.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fdic-unbanked3-2009dec03,0,487549.story

Many households seemed to have made a conscious choice to shun conventional financial services, FDIC Chairwoman Sheila C. Bair said.”Access to an account at a federally insured institution provides households with an important first step toward achieving financial security — the opportunity to conduct basic financial transactions, save for emergency and long-term security needs and access credit on affordable terms,” Bair said.

Since so many banks have been “seized ” in the last year and a half, why not just spend your money, and forget about the banks?  The economy will benefit & you will have something you have wanted or needed and no cash to lose that way…Except you’ll lose your mind when you need the money for something, like a MORTGAGE payment, like HEALTHCARE, like a TAX BILL, like your child’s EDUCATION, all of which are becoming further out of reach for the middle class.  Which was why we all  put money in an institution, which assured us of our safety, since it needed our cash, despite its lack of survival.

OneWest bank continues to post PROFITS after acquiring INDYMAC assets.

See article:  la-fi-fdic-unbanked3-2009dec03,0,487549.story