One Answer to Why People Hate Banks

My last post mentioned a column by Joe Nocera on debt collection practices. Nocera's column is entitled "Why People Hate the Banks," and it appears on the penultimate page of the national print edition of today's New York Times. In a moment of sweet, sweet irony, Citi provides another reason to hate the banks just by turning the page.

The last page of the New York Times national print edition has a full-page color ad touting the achievements in the bank's 200-year history. The print ad evokes the same idea as currently appearing on the Citi home page, but the print ad has a more detailed time line:

• 1812: Citi opens in New York
• 1866: Citi funds the first transatlantic cable
• 1904: Citi funds the Panama Canal
• 1948: Citi supports the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe
• 1956: Citi backs uniform cargo containers
• 1958: Citi backs the commercial jetliner
• 1977: Citi pioneers the ATM
• 2011: Citi is the first card in Google Wallet

Exactly. For the first 150 years, the bank helped build infrastructure that made the U.S. the largest economy in the world. For the past 50 years, it has been figuring out how to get fees out of consumers' wallets and pocketbooks.