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Below is a long list of various banks that you can choose from- best of luck in choosing, and thanks for your questionWhat bank has the best signing bonus?The 6 Best Bank Bonuses of 2019HSBC Checking: Up to $750. Courtesy of HSBC. ...Citi: Up to $600. Courtesy of Citi. ...TD Bank: Up to $300. Courtesy of TD Bank. ...PNC: Up to $300. Courtesy of PNC. ...Capital One Bank: $200. Courtesy of Capital One. ...Discover Bank: Up to $200. Courtesy of Discover Bank.34 Best New Bank Account Promotions & Offers – August 2019It’s possible to make $100s just by opening up a bank account. But sorting through the best offers can be tricky.At Money Crashers, we comb through hundreds of deals every month to find you the most lucrative sign-up bonuses – some worth up to $1,000. We also rank the best high-yield checking accounts, cashback credit cards, and more.Don’t want to miss out? Here are the best bank promotions for the month of August.Top Bank Account Promotions (August 2019)1. TD Bank Beyond Checking℠ – $300 Cash BonusApply online for a new TD Bank Beyond Checking account and you’ll get a $300 cash bonus once you receive direct deposits of more than $2,500 within 60 days. To qualify for this offer, you must be a U.S. resident and apply for the offer online. The Beyond checking account typically includes a $25 monthly maintenance fee, but it’s waived with monthly direct deposits of $5,000 or more, a minimum daily balance of $2,500, or a combined balance of $25,000 across your eligible TD accounts.This offer is available to residents of the following states: CT, DE, DC, FL, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA.Apply Now2. TD Bank Convenience Checking℠ – $200 Cash BonusAs an alternative to the TD Bank Beyond Checking offer above, you can apply online for a new TD Bank Convenience CheckingSMaccount, which has a much lower minimum balance requirement. You’ll get a $200 cash bonus once you receive direct deposits of more than $500 within 60 days.To qualify for this offer, you must be a U.S. resident and apply for the offer online. The Convenience Checking account typically includes a $15 monthly maintenance fee, but it’s waived if you keep a low minimum daily balance of at least $100. Students and young adults ages 17 through 23 qualify for additional perks, such as no monthly maintenance fee and no minimum balance requirements.This offer is available to residents of the following states: CT, DE, DC, FL, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA.Apply Now3. Simple Protected Goals Account – Up to $500 Bonus With Qualifying ActivitiesEarn up to $500 when you open new Simple.com Protected Goals Accounts (Individual and Shared) by August 31, 2019, with qualifying activities – that’s a $250 bonus on each new account.Here’s how to earn the $250 bonus for each new Protected Goals Account ($250 for Individual and $250 for Shared). First, open a new Protected Goals Account by 4:59 pm PT on 8/31/19. Deposit $10,000 or more into the new Protected Goals Account by 4:59 pm PT on 9/16/19 (the deposit must post by that time). Then, maintain a balance of at least $10,000 in the new Protected Goals Account through 4:59 pm PT on 12/31/19.If you meet the bonus requirements by the specified deadlines, you’ll receive a $250 bonus per account by 4:59 pm PT on 1/14/20. To receive the bonus, each account must be open and in good standing at the time of the bonus credit. You’re limited to one $250 bonus per Protected Goals Account.Apply Now4. Chase SapphireSMChecking – $750 BonusOpen a new Chase SapphireSMChecking account with qualifying activities to earn a $750 cash bonus.Here’s how. First, open or upgrade to a Chase Sapphire Checking account at your local Chase branch or online (for new Chase checking customers only). Then, within 45 calendar days of opening your account, transfer a total of $75,000 or more in qualifying new money or securities to a combination of eligible checking, savings and/or investment accounts, and maintain that balance for at least 90 days. Within 10 days of completing these qualifying activities, Chase will deposit the bonus into your Chase Sapphire Checking account.This offer is not available to exist Chase Sapphire Banking or Chase Private Client customers. The Chase Sapphire Checking account’s $25 monthly service fee is waived when you maintain a $75,000 minimum daily balance across any combination of your Chase Sapphire Checking account and linked qualifying Chase checking, savings, and other balances.Apply Now5. Chase Premier Plus CheckingSM– $300 BonusTo qualify for this bonus, open a new Chase Premier Plus CheckingSMaccount and have a direct deposit (electronic transfer for a paycheck, pension or government benefits) made to the account within 60 days. (You can either apply online using the link above or enter your email on the linked page to receive the coupon to take to your local Chase branch.) Once these steps are taken, you should receive the bonus in your account within 10 business days.Keep in mind that the Premier Plus account has a monthly service fee of $25. However, the fee is waived if you keep an average daily balance of at least $15,000 between all of your Chase accounts (checking, savings, and other balances) or you set up automatic payments to your qualifying Chase mortgage. There’s no minimum required an opening deposit. All balances yield 0.01% effective as of 6/14/19. Interest rates are variable and subject to change.Chase has ATMs and branches in the following states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MI, NV, NJ, NY, OH, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA, WV, WI. This offer is available nationwide, except to residents of AK, HI, and PR.Apply Now6. Chase Total Checking® – $200 BonusThere is a separate bonus offer of $200 for Chase Total Checking®, which is a step down from the Chase Premier Plus Checking account mentioned above. Open a new Chase Total Checking® account and make a qualifying direct deposit within 60 days. You’ll then receive a $200 bonus within 10 business days.There is a $12 monthly fee but it is waived if you meet at least one of the following criteria in each monthly statement period:Execute direct deposits totaling $500 or more made to the accountMaintain a $1,500 minimum daily balanceMaintain an average daily balance of $5,000 or more in qualifying linked deposits or investmentsPay at least $25 or more in qualifying checking-related services or feesTo receive this bonus, you can either apply online using the link above or enter your email here and take the coupon to a local Chase branch. Chase has ATMs and branches in the following states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MI, NV, NJ, NY, OH, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA, WV, WI. This offer is available online nationwide, except to residents of AK, HI, and PR.Apply Now7. Chase SavingsSM– $150 BonusYou can earn an additional bonus of $150 with a Chase savings account. Open a new Chase SavingsSMaccount, deposit at least $10,000 within 20 business days and maintain a $10,000 balance or more for 90 days from when the deposit was made. You’ll then receive a $150 bonus within 10 business days.You can avoid the $5 monthly maintenance fee on this account by doing one of the following each monthly statement period:Maintaining a minimum daily balance of at least $300Executing at least one repeating automatic transfer of $25 or more from your personal Chase checking account or Chase Liquid® CardHaving at least one account owner who is an individual younger than 18Linking the account to an eligible Chase Premier Plus Checking, Chase Sapphire Checking, or Chase Private Client Checking accountTo receive this bonus, you can either apply online using the link above or enter your email here and take the coupon to a local Chase branch. Chase has ATMs and branches in the following states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MI, NV, NJ, NY, OH, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA, WV, WI. This offer is available online nationwide, except to residents of AK, HI, and PR.Apply Now8. Chase Total Business Checking – $200 BonusIf you’re a business owner looking to set up a new account, Chase has you covered as well. Open a new Chase Total Business Checking account with a deposit of at least $1,000 within 20 business days. Then, maintain that balance for 60 days and complete at least 5 qualifying transactions within the same time period (debit card purchases, checks paid, and qualifying deposits). You’ll then receive the $200 bonus within 10 business days.To receive this bonus, you’ll need to enter your email here and take the coupon to a local Chase branch. Chase has ATMs and branches in the following states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MI, NV, NJ, NY, OH, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA, WV, WI. This offer expires on October 17, 2019.Apply Now9. Chase College Checking – $100 BonusThere’s a separate checking account offer just for college students. Open a new Chase College Checking account within an initial deposit of at least $25, enroll in paperless statements, and then complete at least 10 qualifying transactions within 60 days of opening the account. You’ll then be eligible to earn the $100 bonus within 10 business days.To receive this bonus, you’ll need to enter your email here and take the coupon to a local Chase branch. Chase has ATMs and branches in the following states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MI, NV, NJ, NY, OH, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA, WV, WI. This offer expires on October 18, 2019.Apply Now10. Capital One 360 – Up to $150 Cash BonusThis offer is made up of 3 components, which you can perform separately or as a combination.Open a new Capital One 360 Checking account with at least $250 and make at least 3 debit card purchases or Person2Person payments (can be any combination of the two) within 45 days of account opening. Your $25 bonus will then be deposited into your account on day 50.Open a new Capital One 360 Money Market account. If you deposit $250 to $9,999.99, you’ll get a $25 bonus. If you deposit $10,000 or more, you’ll get a $100 bonus, which will automatically be deposited into your account.Open a new Capital One 360 Saving account with an initial deposit of at least $250. Your $25 bonus will then automatically be deposited into your account.The total cash bonus amount is up to $150, depending on which account you open and how much you deposit for the Money Market account.Apply Now11. Wells Fargo Everyday Checking – $400 Cash BonusOpen a new Wells Fargo Everyday Checking account online or in-branch by November 27, 2019, to qualify for a cash bonus of $400. Here’s how to do it:First, check that the offer is available in your area using the ZIP code finder on the promotions page.Then, open a new Wells Fargo Everyday Checking account online or in-branch and make the minimum required an opening deposit of $25.Next, within 150 days of account opening, receive cumulative direct deposits totaling $3,000 or more each month for three consecutive monthsOnce you meet at least one of these requirements, you’ll receive a $400 cash bonus in your account within 45 days. Your account must remain open to receive the bonus.Note that qualifying direct deposits include salary, pension, Social Security, and other qualifying income. Direct deposits must be electronically deposited via ACH. Your account must have a balance of at least $1 during the entire qualification period.You can avoid the Everyday Checking account’s $10 monthly maintenance fee by doing any of the following:Maintaining a minimum daily balance of $1,500Completing 10 or more debit card transactions per monthExecuting direct deposits totaling $500 or more per monthIf you currently have an open Wells Fargo consumer checking account or have earned any other Wells Fargo checking account bonus within the past 12 months, you’re not eligible for this offer.Apply Now12. PNC Bank – Up to $300 Cash BonusPNC is offering two separate bonus opportunities, worth up to $300 when you open a new PNC Bank Virtual Wallet account:To earn the $200 cash bonus, open a new Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend and arrange total qualifying direct deposits of at least $2,000 to your account. Then, make at least 10 debit card purchases with the debit card tied to your account. You’ll receive the $200 bonus in your account within 90 days of meeting all conditions.To earn the $300 cash bonus, open a new Virtual Wallet with Performance Select and arrange total qualifying direct deposits of at least $5,000 to your account. Then, complete at least 10 debit card purchases with the debit card linked to your new account. The bonus should be paid within 90 days of meeting the requirements.These cash bonus offers to expire on September 30, 2019.This offer applies to residents of the following states: AL, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MO, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, VA, WI & WV.Apply Now13. HSBC Premier Checking – $750 Cash BackFor a limited time, you can snag a $750 welcome bonus when you open a new HSBC Premier Checking account and complete certain qualifying activities.To earn the bonus, open your new Premier Checking account by December 31, 2019, and set up recurring monthly third-party direct deposits totaling at least $5,000 to your HSBC Premier checking account(s) per calendar month. You’ll also need to receive recurring third-party direct deposits totaling at least $5,000 per month for 3 consecutive months beginning with your account opening month. Once you complete these qualifying activities, expect to see your $750 bonus in your Premier Checking account within 8 weeks.Moving forward, avoid the $50 monthly maintenance fee by maintaining the same direct deposit size and frequency or maintaining a combined minimum balance of $75,000 across all eligible personal and investment accounts.Apply Now14. Capital One 360 Money Market – $500 Cash BonusWhen you open a new Capital One 360 Money Market account and complete qualifying activities, you’ll earn a $500 cash bonus. While this bonus opportunity was set to expire on July 31, 2019, it remains active for a limited time – through Capital One could choose to alter or discontinue it at any time.To qualify for the bonus, open a Capital One 360 Money Market account using the promo code “SPREE500” and deposit at least $50,000 or more in new money from an external bank within 10 days of account opening. Maintain a minimum daily balance of $50,000 for 90 days. Capital One will deposit your $500 bonus within 60 days after the 90-day mark, provided your account remains open and in good standing.A yield of 2.00% APY applies to accounts with balances of $10,000 or more. Accounts with balances less than $10,000 yield 0.85% APY. This offer is not available to applicants who have or have had a Capital One savings product after January 1, 2016.Apply Now15. Discover Cashback Checking – Up to $360 Annual Cash BackWhen you open a new Cashback Checking account, you can earn as much as $360 each account anniversary year (12 billing cycles beginning with the cycle in which you open your account).Just open and fund the account in any amount, then use your debit card to make everyday purchases. You earn 1% cash back on up to $3,000 in qualifying purchases per month or up to $36,000 in qualifying purchases per year. Cash-like payments, such as ATM withdrawals and P2P payments, do not qualify for cashback.For more details on other account types and offers from Discover Bank, check out our Discover Bank review.Apply Now16. HSBC Advance Checking – $350 Cash BackOpen a new HSBC Advance Checking account and deposit at least $5,000 in new money to earn a $350 welcome bonus.Here’s how to do it. First, open your account by December 31, 2019, and deposit at least $10,000 in outside funds (new money) in combined checking and savings accounts within 30 days of your account opening date. Then, set up at least one recurring monthly direct deposit from a qualifying third-party payee for at least 3 consecutive months while maintaining a daily balance of at least $5,000 in the accounts for 90 calendar days from the deposit date. You’ll receive your bonus within 8 weeks after completing the qualifying activities.Moving forward, you can avoid the $25 monthly maintenance fee by maintaining a $5,000 daily balance and a recurring direct deposit into the account.Apply Now17. Citibank Account Package – Up to $500 Cash BonusWhen you open a new eligible checking and savings account in the Citibank Account Package by September 30, 2019, you could qualify for a cash bonus up to $500. Here’s how to earn the bonus:Within 30 days of opening your account, deposit at least $15,000 in new money (funds not previously held with Citibank or its affiliates) into your account.Maintain a $15,000 minimum balance for at least 60 consecutive calendar days. This qualifies you for a $400 cash bonus, which you’ll receive within 90 days of completing all required activities if you do nothing more.To earn an additional $100 bonus (for a total cash bonus of $500), arrange and complete at least one qualifying direct deposit per month for 2 consecutive months within 60 days of account opening.You’ll receive your cumulative bonus within 90 days of completing all required activities.The $25 monthly maintenance fee is waived when you maintain a minimum daily balance (average) of at least $10,000. This offer is available to new Citibank account holders only.Apply Now18. Citibank Priority Account Package – $600 Cash BonusCitibank has another generous account opening offer for new customers, though it requires a hefty initial deposit.When you open a new eligible checking and savings account in the Citibank Priority Account Package by September 30, 2019, you could qualify for a cash bonus of $600. Here’s how to earn the bonus:Within 30 days of opening your account, deposit at least $50,000 in new money (funds not previously held with Citibank or its affiliates) into your checking and savings accounts (cumulative).Maintain a that cumulative $50,000 minimum balance in your checking and savings accounts for at least 60 consecutive calendar days.You’ll receive the bonus within 90 days of completing all required activities.The $30 monthly maintenance fee is waived when you maintain a minimum daily balance (average) of at least $50,000. This offer is available to new Citibank account holders only.Apply Now19. Marcus by Goldman Sachs – 1% Deposit Bonus (Up to $500)New and existing Marcus by Goldman Sachs accountholders may qualify for a 1% bonus on new money deposits, up to $50,000 in total deposits and $500 total bonus cash. Qualifying deposits must be new money – internal transfers don’t count.To qualify for this bonus, open a Marcus Online Savings Account (if you haven’t already) and manually enroll in the offer on Marcus by Goldman Sachs’ website. Then, during the 10-day enrollment period, deposit at least $1,000 in new money. The total of all deposits made during this period is your Enrollment Account Balance.Following the end of the 10-day enrollment period, maintain your full Enrollment Account Balance for 90 consecutive days (the Maintenance Period). If your account is open and good standing at the end of the Maintenance Period, you’ll receive 1% of the total Enrollment Account Balance (up to $500) within 14 business days.All balances held in the Marcus Online Savings Account yield 2.15% APY. This offer is not available to new or existing Marcus customers currently enrolled in another bonus offer.Apply Now20. SunTrust Bank Advantage Checking – $300 Cash BonusNew customers can take “advantage” of a $300 cash bonus opportunity when they open a new Suntrust Advantage Checking account and complete the qualifying activities.Here’s how to earn the bonus. First, open a new SunTrust Advantage Checking account by September 30, 2019, with a minimum opening deposit of $100, using the offer code “Q319ADVCHKOL.” Then, complete at least $3,000 in cumulative direct deposits each statement cycle for two consecutive statement cycles within the first three full monthly statement cycles. Qualifying direct deposits include wage or salary, pension, Social Security, or other regular monthly income.Once you complete the offer requirements, you’ll receive your $300 bonus within eight weeks.This offer applies to new SunTrust checking customers (defined as customers without existing accounts or accounts closed within the past 180 days) living in states in which SunTrust Bank has a physical presence, including AL, AR, FL, GA, MD, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, DC & WV. Check SunTrust Bank’s website for availability in your area.Apply Now21. Bank of America – Up to $300 BonusBank of America has two great account opening promotions that could net you up to $300 in bonus cash. Here’s how they work$300 BonusTo qualify for $300 in bonus cash, open a Bank of America AdvantageSafeBalance Banking, Advantage Plus Banking, or Advantage Relationship Banking account by August 31, 2019, using the link above. Then, deposit at least $4,000 in new money within 90 days. Once you complete this qualifying activity, you’ll receive $300 in bonus cash in your account within 60 days.This offer is only available to new Bank of America checking customers who have not had a Bank of America personal checking account within the past 6 months. There is a $25 minimum deposit to open a SafeBalance Banking account and a $100 minimum deposit to open the other two accounts.Moving forward, here’s how to avoid monthly maintenance fees on these accounts:Avoid the $4.95 monthly fee on Advantage SafeBalance Banking as a student under age 24 or by meeting Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards enrollment requirements.Avoid the $12 monthly fee on Advantage Plus Banking in any statement cycle during which you receive at least one direct deposit of $250 or more or maintain a $1,500 minimum daily balance.Avoid the $25 monthly fee on Advantage Relationship Banking in any statement cycling during which you maintain a $10,000 minimum combined balance across eligible Bank of America and Merrill Lynch accounts.Apply Now$100 BonusIf you can’t swing $4,000 in new money on short notice, opt for the $100 bonus instead. It’s good for longer and requires no non-payroll new money deposit.To qualify, open a Bank of America AdvantageSafeBalance Banking, Advantage Plus Banking, or Advantage Relationship Banking account by December 31, 2019, and receive at least 2 qualifying direct deposits of $250 or more within the first 90 days to earn a $100 cash bonus. You must use the link above to open your account.Once you complete the qualifying direct deposits, you’ll receive the bonus within 90 days. Like the $300 bonus, this offer is only available to new Bank of America checking customers who have not had a Bank of America personal checking account within the past 6 months. Minimum deposit requirements, maintenance fees, and maintenance fee waivers all apply.Apply Now22. BMO Harris – Up to $250 Cash BonusIf you’re a Bank At Work or Group Banking Services customer at BMO Harris, you can earn as much as $250. When you open a new personal checking account and meet the direct deposit requirements, you’ll receive $100. You get an additional $50 by opening a new Statement Savings Account with at least $1,000 of new money. Another $50 comes your way when open a new BMO Harris Health Savings Account. And you can add $50 by signing up for eStatements.You should receive your bonuses between 90 and 120 days of either account opening or meeting the requirements.Apply Now23. Elements Financial – $200 Cash BonusOpen a new Elements Financial High-Interest Checking account to qualify for a $200 cash bonus. Just enter promo code CHECK200 on your application, set up a recurring monthly direct deposit of $500 or more within 60 days of account opening, and keep your account open for at least 6 months. Existing Elements Financial checking and Health Savings Account customers are not eligible for this promotion. This offer is advertised for Indiana state government employees in their families, but non-employees may qualify as well.In addition to this promotion, you’ll also get one of the best checking yields around: 2.00% APY on balances up to $20,000 in any statement cycle during which you maintain a $100 minimum daily balance and make 15 qualifying transactions.Apply Now24. Citibank Basic Banking Package – $200 Cash BonusCitibank’s third new account promotion is it's most modest. When you open a new eligible checking account in the Basic Banking Package by September 30, 2019, you could qualify for a $200 cash bonus. Here’s how:Within 30 days of opening your account, deposit at least $5,000 in new money into your account.Maintain a $5,000 minimum balance for at least 60 consecutive calendar days.You’ll receive the $200 bonus within 90 days of completing all required activities.The $12 monthly maintenance fee is waived when you either:Receive at least one qualifying direct deposit per statement period and make at least one qualifying bill payment per statement period, orMaintain at least $1,500 in combined average monthly balances in eligible linked accounts.This offer is available to new Citibank account holders only.Apply Now25. BB&T Bright Banking Checking – $200 Cash BonusBB&T has another account opening bonus that, though less generous, is far easier to attain. Open a new BB&T Bright Banking® checking account by August 8, 2019, and complete one of the following qualifying activities within 75 days of your account opening date.Enroll in direct deposit and receive at least two direct deposits of $100 or moreActivate U by BB&T® bill pay and use it to initiate three online payments of at least $25 eachYou should receive your bonus within four weeks of completing these qualifying activities. You can avoid the $12 monthly maintenance fee in any statement period when you do one of the following:Receive at least one direct deposit of $500 or greaterMaintain an average daily balance of at least $1,500This offer is not available in PA or NJ.Apply Now26. Xceed Financial Credit Union – Up to $200 Referral BonusWhen you refer an eligible new customer to Xceed Financial Credit Union, you and the referred customer may be eligible to receive up to $200 each.New Member EligibilityAlthough Xceed Financial Credit Union’s branch coverage is limited to a handful of states, including New York and California, it’s easy for new members to join. You’re eligible to join if:You belong to any of Xceed’s nonprofit partner organizations, including Heal the Bay and Buffalo ZooYou currently work for or retired from work with any of Xceed’s dozens of for-profit partnersYou live in one of the communities directly served by Xceed$100 or $200 Bonus for Referring MembersTo qualify for the $100 referring member bonus, use the official bankingworthsharing.com referral website to submit your referral.If the referred customer opens a new Xceed Signature Checking account by December 31, 2019, and completes the qualification requirements described below, you’ll receive your $100 referring member bonus within 30 days after the referred member’s account has been open and in good standing for at least 90 days. If you meet the following requirements, you’ll receive an additional $100 bonus, for a total referring member bonus of $200:Have an active Xceed Visa® debit cardSign up for online statementsSign up for overdraft protectionReceive recurring direct ACH payroll deposits totaling at least $500 per month in an Xceed Signature checking account$200 Bonus for Referred MembersNew referred members qualify for a $200 bonus when they complete the following qualifying steps:Open a new Xceed Visa® Platinum debit cardSign up for online statementsSign up for overdraft protectionReceive at least two recurring direct ACH payroll deposits totaling at least $500 per month their new account within 90 days of account openingMaintain their new account in good standing for at least 90 daysAfter taking all required qualifying steps, the newly-referred member receives the $200 bonus within 30 days. There’s no limit to the number of referrals you can make or the total number of referred customers who can sign up using your referral.Apply Now27. Discover Savings – Up to $200 BonusDiscover Bank has two distinct offers for new savings account customers.$200 BonusThis is an attractive cash bonus offer for customers with funds sufficient to meet the hefty opening deposit requirement. To qualify, use the promo code “OBE819” to open your first Discover online savings account by September 9, 2019. Then, deposit at least $25,000 in new money by September 23, 2019. You’ll receive the $200 bonus by October 7, 2019.This offer is not available to anyone who’s previously had a Discover savings account. Your account must be open on the date you receive the bonus (at least through October 7, 2019).Apply Now$150 BonusThis savings offer is slightly easier to attain. Use the promo code “OBE819” to open your first Discover online savings account by September 9, 2019. Then, deposit at least $15,000 in new money by September 23, 2019. You’ll receive the $150 bonus by September 2, 2019.This offer can’t be combined with the $200 bonus offer and isn’t available to previous Discover savings account customers. Your account must be open through October 7, 2019, to receive the bonus.Apply Now28. Discover Cashback Debit – Cashback Match Up to $30 Per MonthDiscover Bank has a separate spending account promotion that’s definitely worth investigating. When you open your first Discover Cashback Debit account and spend up to $3,000 per month, Discover will match cash back earned on that spending through December 31, 2019. At a rate of 1% cashback, that’s a match of up to $30 per month, or $150 total if you open in August.You’ll receive all cash back earned during the promotional period by March 5, 2020. Once the match promotion ends, you’ll continue to earn 1% cash back on up to $3,000 spent each month, for a monthly cashback opportunity of up to $30.Apply Now29. Unify Financial Credit Union – Up to $150 BonusOpen a new checking account with Unify Financial Credit Union (excluding the Right Start Checking and Right Start Debit accounts) and complete the requirements to earn a cash bonus of up to $150. Here’s how:To earn a $50 cash bonus, simply open a qualifying new account with the minimum opening deposit and keep it open for at least 30 days. You’ll receive the bonus during your second statement cycle.Receive a further $50 cash bonus by establishing a recurring direct deposit of at least $500 per month within 60 days of account opening. You’ll receive the bonus during the following statement cycle.Receive the final $50 cash bonus by earning a $1 bonus for each Unify debit card transaction greater than $5 within 60 days of account opening (maximum 50 eligible transactions). You’ll receive the bonus in the following statement cycle.This offer expires on December 31, 2019.Both accounts require a $25 minimum opening deposit, and applicants must be Unify Financial Credit Union members. Membership requirements vary by location, by any U.S. individual can become a Unity member when they join the Surfrider Foundation at no charge.Apply Now30. Regions Bank – Up to $100 Cash Bonus Each YearOpen a new checking account at Regions Bank, either online or at a branch. Then open a Regions LifeGreen Savings Account with an opening deposit of $50 or more. Then, set up a recurring monthly transfer of $10 or more from your Regions checking account to your LifeGreen Savings Account and complete at least 12 monthly transfers. Every year, you’ll receive a 1% savings bonus on your account anniversary date, based on your account’s average monthly balance for the preceding 12 months, up to the max annual savings bonus of $100. Your bonus should be deposited into your account on the business day following your anniversary date.Apply Now31. Charles Schwab – $100 Cash Referral BonusOpen a new qualifying Charles Schwab account with a qualifying referral from an existing Schwab client to earn a $100 bonus.To qualify, simply ask a friend or family member with a Schwab account to send you their unique referral code. Then, use the code to open a new Schwab account with no minimum deposit. You should receive your $100 bonus within 30 days. Monthly fees may apply.Apply Now32. BBVA Money Market Account – $100 BonusOpen a new BBVA Money Market account with a $25 minimum opening deposit and bring your total account balance to at least $10,000 by August 31, 2019. If your account balance is at least $10,000 on November 31, 2019, you’ll receive a $100 bonus within 90 days of completing the requirement.This bonus isn’t available to BBVA customers who’ve earned a banking bonus within the past 12 months. To avoid the $15 monthly service charge, you must either maintain a minimum balance of $10,000 or complete a monthly recurring direct deposit of $25 or more from a BBVA checking account into your BBVA Money Market account. This offer may not be available to customers in CA, TX, FL, AZ, AL, HI, and AK.Apply Now33. Citizens Bank – $1,000 Bonus for College SavingsCitizens Bank is currently offering a $1,000 bonus for those who sign up for a CollegeSaver savings account, an easy, manageable savings plan that will help you meet your college savings needs. It is an interest-bearing account, and if you open it before your child’s 12th birthday and save the monthly minimum amount every year, you’ll receive a $1,000 bonus when your child turns 18. Opening an account before your child turns 12 will only increase the savings.Apply Now34. BankDirect – AAdvantage MilesOpen a BankDirect Mileage Checking Account and earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles. You’ll receive 1,000 miles just for opening an account, 10,000 miles for initiating direct deposit, 5,000 miles for using BankDirect’s bill pay service for 1 year, 5,000 miles when you use your BankDirect Visa CheckCard (debit card) to make at least 12 transactions totaling $500 or more each month for 6 consecutive statement cycles, and 1,000 miles for referring a friend.There are other ways to earn miles as well, and some restrictions apply. Be sure to investigate the offer thoroughly for full program details. You can read our BankDirect review for more details about this and other offers, too.Apply NowFinal WordWhen choosing a bank, it’s important to find one that suits your needs – whether that’s favorable interest-bearing accounts, no fees, or online banking features. It’s also a big bonus when you can get great perks along with good banking. Be on the lookout for and take advantage of cash and giveaways, and your banking experience will be all the more pleasurable.Brian Martucci

This man. He took the Democratic Party and turned it into the Republican Party. Since that time there is no opposition to right wing policies in the United States. Clinton made decisions which would decimate the American people’s way of life, all to satisfy his lust for power and attention.Welfare to Work—Smashing the Social Safety NetPRWORA granted states greater latitude in administering social welfare programs, and implemented new requirements on welfare recipients, including a five-year lifetime limit on benefits. After the passage of the law, the number of individuals receiving federal welfare dramatically declined. The law was heralded as a "reassertion of America's work ethic" by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, largely in response to the bill's workfare component. Critics have argued that the law unnecessarily damaged the social safety net, increased the poverty rate, and pushed former recipients into low-paying jobs.[1]These “reforms” trapped millions on people into low paying jobs. As the number of applicants increased, employers could pay as little as possible because the labor pool increased so dramatically. It meant instead of being raised by their parents, millions of children were sent to daycare centers while their mothers worked, making just enough to pay for daycare. So the mother had to work to pay someone else to raise her child. Horrendous.Nothing could be more cruel than to destroy welfare to teach the mothers “tough love and personal responsibility.” Rather, this was a class war, and it was a tremendous blow to the most vulnerable of American society.Repealing Glass SteigelThe Glass-Steagall Act is a 1933 law that separated investment banking from retail banking. Investment banks organized the initial sales of stocks, called an initial public offering. They facilitated mergers and acquisitions. Many of them operated their own hedge funds. Retail banks took deposits, managed checking accounts, and made loans.By separating the two, retail banks were prohibited from using depositors' funds for risky investments. Only 10 percent of their income could come from selling securities. They could underwrite government bonds. Most important to depositors, the act created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.The law gave power to the Federal Reserve to regulate retail banks. It created the Federal Open Market Committee, allowing the Fed to better implement monetary policy.Glass-Steagall prohibited investment banks from having a controlling interest in retail banks. They had to find another source of funds separate from depositors' accounts.It prohibited bank officials from borrowing excessively from their own bank.The act introduced Regulation Q. It prevented banks from paying interest on checking accounts. It also allowed the Fed to set ceilings on interest paid on other kinds of deposits.The official name for Glass-Steagall was the Banking Act of 1933 (48 Stat. 162). The law was named after its sponsors, Senator Carter Glass, D-Va. and Representative Henry B. Steagall, D-Ala.When It PassedGlass-Steagall was passed by the House of Representatives on May 23, 1933. It was passed by the Senate on May 25, 1933. It was signed into law by President Roosevelton June 16, 1933 as part of the New Deal. It became a permanent measure in 1945.After the law passed, banks had one year to decide whether they would become investment or commercial banks.PurposeGlass-Steagall sought to permanently end bank runs and the dangerous bank practices that created them. Congress passed Glass-Steagall to reform a system that allowed the failure of 4,000 banks during the Great Depression. It had debated the bill during 1932. It redirected bank funds from fueling stock speculation to building industrial capacity.Since 1922, the stock market had gone up by almost 20 percent a year. Banks invested in the stocks. When the market crashed in 1929, depositors rushed to withdraw their funds. By March 8, they had withdrawn $1.78 billion in just four weeks. Others demanded gold in return for the money. The United States was still on the gold standard. But the demand was so high that the Federal Reserve was running low on its gold deposits.A bank run will put even sound banks out of business. Banks keep just one-tenth of their deposits on hand and lend out the rest. Most of the time, they only need 10 percent to fill depositors' demand. In a bank run, they must quickly find the cash.On March 6, 1933, President Roosevelt declared a four-day bank holiday. On March 9, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act. It allowed banks to reopen on March 13. Banks would no longer exchange dollars for gold. Instead, the Federal Reserve printed dollars to meet depositors' demand. The currency was based on the banks' paper assets. By March 15, most banks had reopened to find the bank run was over.EffectGlass-Steagall restored confidence in the U.S. banking system. It increased trust by only allowing banks to use depositors' funds in safe investments. Its FDIC insurance program prevented further bank runs. Depositors knew the government protected them from a failing bank.During the Reagan administration, the banking industry complained the act restricted them too much. They said they couldn't compete with foreign financial firms that could offer higher returns. The U.S. banks could only invest in low-risk securities. They wanted to increase the return while lowering the overall risk for their customers by diversifying their business.Citigroup had begun merger talks with Travelers Insurance in anticipation of Glass-Steagall. In 1998, it announced the successful merger under a new company called Citigroup. Its move was audacious, given that it was technically illegal. But banks had been taking advantage of loopholes in Glass-Steagall.RepealOn November 12, 1999, President Clinton signed the Financial Services Modernization Act that repealed Glass-Steagall. Congress had passed the so-called Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act along party lines, led by a Republican vote in the Senate.The repeal of Glass-Steagall consolidated investment and retail banks through financial holding companies. The Federal Reserve supervised the new entities. For that reason, few banks took advantage of the Glass-Steagall repeal. Most Wall Street banks did not want the additional supervision and capital requirements.Those that did became too big to fail. This required their bailout in 2008-2009 to avoid another depression.[2]NAFTANAFTA destroyed the American Middle Class. It also destroyed the traditional farming way of life for Mexicans, causing the immigration problems America sees now. NAFTA was an opportunity for corporations to send factories overseas and save on labor, leaving American cities with millions of unemployed Middle Class people, the erosion of the tax base of many cities, causing financial problems, and the end of America as it was known.NAFTA is criticized for destroying half a million American jobs and lowering U.S. wages. In addition, NAFTA increased the U.S. trade deficit.How did NAFTA contribute to these problems? First, it cost jobs when manufacturers moved to Mexico to take advantage of lower labor costs. The four states that suffered the most were California, New York, Michigan, and Texas. Before NAFTA, these states had a high concentration of factories for motor vehicles, textiles, computers, and electrical appliances. Those were the industries most likely to move to Mexico.Lower wages in Mexico reduced U.S. wages and benefits. Workers in the remaining U.S. factories could not bargain for higher wages, according to Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University. Companies could now threaten to move to Mexico if labor unions negotiated too hard, as detailed in her report, "Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages, and Union Organizing," published September 6, 2000.Some accuse NAFTA of exploiting Mexico's workers, destroying its farms, and polluting its environment. Rural Mexican farmers could not compete with low-cost American subsidized corn and other grains. The Mexican farmers who managed to stay in business were forced to use more fertilizers and farm marginal land to survive. That created more pollution and deforestation.Labor in Mexico’s maquiladora program was cheap because workers had no labor rights or health protection. Thanks to NAFTA, almost a third of Mexico's labor force works in the poor conditions of these manufacturing jobs.[3]His “tough on crime” criminal reforms put millions of poor people in prison for minor crimes. The incarceration rate soared. America has the highest incarceration rate of any nation in the world. It is 5% of the world’s population with 22% of its incarcerated.The explosion of the prison system under Bill Clinton’s version of the “War on Drugs” is impossible to dispute. The total prison population rose by 673,000 people under Clinton’s tenure — or by 235,000 more than it did under President Ronald Reagan, according to a study by the Justice Policy Institute. “Under President Bill Clinton, the number of prisoners under federal jurisdiction doubled, and grew more than it did under the previous 12-years of Republican rule,combined,” states the JPI report (italics theirs). The federal incarceration rate in 1999, the last year of the Democrat’s term, was 42 per 100,000 — more than double the federal incarceration rate at the end of President Reagan’s term (17 per 100,000), and 61 percent higher than at the end of President George Bush’s term (25 per 100,000), according to JPI.Just before the New Hampshire primary, Bill Clinton famously flew back to Arkansas to personally oversee the execution of a mentally impaired African-American inmate named Ricky Ray Rector. The “New Democrat” spoke on the campaign trail of being tougher on criminals than Republicans; and the symbolism of the Rector execution was followed by a series of Clinton “tough on crime” measures, including: a $30 billion crime bill that created dozens of new federal capital crimes; new life-sentence rules for some three-time offenders; mandatory minimums for crack and crack cocaine possession; billions of dollars in funding for prisons; extra funding for states that severely punished convicts; limited judges’ discretion in determining criminal sentences; and so on. There is very strong evidence that these policies had a small impact on actual crime rates, totally out of proportion to their severity.There is also very strong evidence that these policies contributed to the immiseration of vast numbers of black (and also white) Americans at the bottom of the economic ladder, according to the well-known conclusions of journalists, academics and other criminal justice experts. Federal funding for public housing fell by $17 billion (a 61 percent reduction) under Bill Clinton’s tenure; federal funding for corrections rose by $19 billion (an increase of 171 percent), according to Michelle Alexander’s seminal work, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” The federal government’s new priorities redirected nearly $1 billion in state spending for higher education to prison construction. Clinton put a permanent eligibility ban for welfare or food stamps on anyone convicted of a felony drug offense (including marijuana possession). He prohibited drug felons from public housing. Any liberal arts grad with an HBO account can tell you the consequences for poor, black American cities like Baltimore. As Alexander writes, “More than any other president, [Clinton] created the current racial undercaste.”[4]Clinton balanced the budget on the backs of the poor and needy. His policies would in time prove to be disastrous, and the effects of his choices are being felt today, as children are held in concentration camps at the border. The effects were felt as the repeal of the banking regulations led to the 2008 financial meltdown and bailouts.On the foreign policy front his bombing in the former Yugoslavia made the situation worse, and inflicted unnecessary carnage. 20 years later, the effects of the bombing are still felt.On March 24th, 1999, NATO launched its 78-day round the clock aerial assault on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia without the approval of the United Nations Security Council. Over a thousand NATO warplanes delivered over 2,000 airstrikes in nearly 40,000 sorties, dropping over 20,000 bombs over the former Yugoslavia, killing thousands of civilian men, women, and children, as well as upwards of a thousand Yugoslav soldiers and police.NATO employed weapons considered criminal by international law such as depleted uranium and cluster bombs.The popular narrative is that is that the Western powers dropped these bombs out of humanitarian concern, but this claim falls apart once the distorted lens of Western saviourism is dropped and actual facts are presented. In truth, NATO intervention in Yugoslavia was predicated on the imperialist, colonialist economic and ideological interests of the NATO states, masquerading for the public as a humanitarian effort, that in fact served to dismantle the last remnant of socialism in Europe and recolonize the Balkans. This becomes apparent when the economic interests and actions of the NATO bloc in the decades leading up the breakup are analyzed, when what actually occurred during the intervention is further explored, and when the reality of life in the former Yugoslavia in the aftermath of the ‘humanitarian’ intervention is more closely examined. It becomes clear that the most suffering endured by the Yugoslav people since Nazi occupation was the result of the actions of NATO with the United States at its helm.As the Ottoman Empire crumbled in the late 1800s, the other empires set their eyes on Turkish possessions in the Balkan peninsula. The Slavs of the Balkans struggled for independence, aided by the Russian Empire. In response, the Western powers attempted to prop up the Ottomans to circumvent the growing Russian sphere of influence. Eventually the Great Powers called the Congress of Berlin to redivide the Balkans amongst themselves. Leon Trotsky wrote of this process:The states that today occupy the Balkan Peninsula were manufactured by European diplomacy around the table at the Congress of Berlin in 1879. There it was that all the measures were taken to convert the national diversity of the Balkans into a regular melee of petty states. None of them was to develop beyond a certain limit, each separately was entangled in diplomatic and dynastic bonds and counterposed to all the rest, and, finally, the whole lot were condemned to helplessness in relation to the Great Powers of Europe and their continual intrigues and machinations.Borders were strategically drawn across artificial ethnographic lines in a process that came to be known as ‘Balkanization’. The newly independent Bulgaria had its interests in Macedonia, which was still Turkish, whereas Serbia’s interests laid within Austro-Hungarian borders, and Romania’s to the north in Russia and Hungary. Therefore, Pan-Slavism was no longer a viable uniting force within the Balkans against empire. Nonetheless, leaving the peninsula in this semi-liberated state could merely delay the inevitable and eventually war would break out in the First and Second Balkan Wars, followed by the First World War. In the wake of these wars the first Yugoslavia would finally be born. It would last until World War II, when fascist occupation once again divided the Balkans. Many regions were annexed by the Axis empires outright, while Croatia was expanded and transformed into a Nazi puppet state. The Yugoslav people once again rallied behind the banner of Pan-Slavism and the dream of the re-establishment of a multiethnic state – this time led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, aiming to expel fascism and establish a socialist Yugoslavia. In 1945, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was built around six socialist republics and two autonomous provinces in Serbia. The right to self-determination of all nations was guaranteed. The state provided education, employment, healthcare and housing, and most importantly, ethnic tensions ran at an all time low as nationalism was stamped out in favour of ‘brotherhood and unity’ between nations. Unlike the Eastern Bloc countries, Tito’s Yugoslavia took a more open approach to foreign policy and established relations with the West and the capitalist bloc (at the expense of their relations with the USSR). This friendliness with the West would sow the seeds for the demise of Yugoslavia.The multiethnic and socialist Yugoslavia achieved a life expectancy of 72 years, near full literacy and averaged 7% GDP growth in the 60s.Free medical care and education were provided, as was the right to an income and housing. Yugoslavia was temporarily tolerated by the west as a buffer between the Soviet sphere and Western Europe, but in 1984, the destabilization of Socialist Yugoslavia and the imposition of the market became official U.S policy with National Security Decision Directive 133.After the failure of the Vietnam War, U.S foreign policy avoided direct intervention and instead opted for the funding of contras or the imposition of market reforms and ‘shock therapy’ via U.S dominated institutions such as the World Bank or IMF. Fortunately for the US, Yugoslavia’s ‘non-aligned’ stance in the Cold War meant it had been taking on IMF loans since the end of WWII, and by 1981 the SFRY had racked up nearly $20 billion in foreign debt. The IMF and World Bank demanded an economic ‘restructuring’. Neoliberal austerity reforms were imposed on Yugoslavia – wages were frozen, state subsidized pricing was abolished, worker-managed enterprises were dismantled and social spending was cut. The national wealth was directed towards debt payments as unemployment skyrocketed. The economic reforms “wreaked economic and political havoc… Slower growth, the accumulation of foreign debt and especially the cost of servicing it as well as devaluation led to a fall in the standard of living of the average Yugoslav… The economic crisis threatened political stability … it also threatened to aggravate simmering ethnic tensions”.Growth in industrial production shrank from 7% to negative 10% by 1990 as foreign capital and imports flooded the republics, smothering domestic production. In 1989-1990 alone the World Bank created 600,000 layoffs; an additional hundreds of thousands of Yugoslavs worked without pay for months at a time.The IMF froze wages as inflation skyrocketed and by early 1990 real wages had dropped 41%.Overall the IMF and World Bank programs greatly undermined the federation and fuelled ethnic tensions and secessionist movements which would tear Yugoslavia apart, namely by freezing transfer payments from Belgrade to the republics.As the IMF took control of the Central Bank and rendered the federal government almost completely powerless, secessionist movements began gaining traction in the republics. Germany, a NATO member, backed these secessionist movements in Slovenia and Croatia.This included arms shipments and training.Slovenia and Croatia were among the richer republics, and as the IMF imposed economic crisis worsened they became increasingly opposed to having to subsidize the poorer republics. In 1991 they both declared independence and were immediately recognized by Germany. The leader of the newly independent Croatia was one Franjo Tudjman, who wrote in 1989 that there was a need to “be rid of the Jews” and that Holocaust death tolls had been inflated.The Western backed leader went as far as to hail the fascist Ustaše (Nazi collaborators, who established the first independent Croatia during WWII) and apologize for their crimes – namely the ethnic cleansing of Serbs.The Krajina Serbs inside Croatia made clear that they wished to remain a part of the Yugoslav federation – they were not recognized by any NATO members. Tudjman’s Croatia followed in the fascist Ustaše’s footsteps and between 1991 and 1995 the US backed Croatia drove out half a million Serbs. In 1992 Macedonia also declared ‘independence’ and accepted occupation by US troops. In the same year fighting broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the situation was more complicated – no single nationality held a majority. Nonetheless, the United States and Germany backed the Croatian and Bosnian separatists, providing training and arms, and thus fanning the flames of the conflict.The Western-backed leader of the Republic of Bosnia & Herzegovinawas Alija Izetbegović. Unlike Tudjman, he did not simply apologize for fascists; during WWII he joined the Young Muslims, a group which advocated for an Islamic Bosnia and collaborated with the Nazi SS.He did not hide his desires for an Islamic state and declared “[t]he media should not be allowed… to fall into the hands of perverted and degenerate people who then transmit the aimlessness and emptiness of their own lives to others. What are we to expect if mosque and TV transmitter aim contradictory messages at the people?”.Foreign Islamist fighters flooded the country, with passports provided by the Bosnian government. The only thing that was missing was Osama bin Laden himself – one Bosnian newspaper noted that “If bin Laden does not have a… passport, then he has only himself to blame. He should have asked for it in time”.In 1992, the Carrington–Cutileiro plan proposed a degree of autonomy to the Bosnian Serbs in order to prevent war. After a meeting with US ambassador Warren Zimmerman, Izetbegović was convinced to withdraw his signature, and the Bosnian war broke out.The NATO powers (namely the U.S) had facilitated Slobodan Milosevic’s rise to power as president of Serbia in 1989 to further open up the Yugoslav markets, but the Milosevic leadership and the Yugoslav people refused to completely dismantle Yugoslav socialism in Serbia – as late as 1999, as much as 75% of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s (FRY)basic industry remained publicly owned.Over half a million Serbian workers engaged in massive walkouts and protests against IMF restructuring – often joined by Croatian, Bosnian Muslim, Roma, and Slovenian workers.In Bosnia, a large number of Muslims refused to give up on the Yugoslav idea – rightly believing it was only way to keep the Balkans free from conflict.Bosnian and Croatian Serbs clung to the Federation when Croatia and Bosnia declared independence. In the West this was spun as Serbian expansionism – Western media often parroted the claim that Milosevic wanted a “Greater Serbia”. In fact, the Serbs were simply holding on to what remained of Yugoslav socialism while the Federation was being ripped at the seams by foreign powers and their proxies. It became clear that socialism in Yugoslavia was resilient and was withstanding IMF restructuring and the conflict that came with it, NATO intervened militarily. 1992’s ‘humanitarian’ UN sanctions on Yugoslavia isolated the country economically. Per capita income fell to $700 per year, unemployment rose to 60%, Serb civilians endured a 37% increase in infectious fatalities and their caloric intake fell 28%. Most astonishingly, inflation reached 363 quadrillion percent.No sanctions were placed on Tudjman’s Croatia, which in the same time period, with the support of private military companies composed of U.S veterans, ethnically cleansed nearly 200,000 Serbs through rapes, executions, and shelling.When starving Yugoslavia didn’t end the conflict, NATO began bombing Bosnia into peace in 1994. The U.S brokered the Dayton Peace Accords in late 1995 between Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Croatia – without the Bosnian Serb leadership present. Milosevic made many concessions – willing to do near anything to end the isolation of Yugoslaviaand agreed to the partitioning of Bosnia into a Muslim-Croat Federation and a Serbian Republic – both became IMF/NATO neocolonies with a non-Bosnian “High Representative” appointed by the US and EU with full executive authority.Radovan Karadžić, president of the Serb Republic, who still opposed secession, was forced out of power. A right-wing monarchist took his place and promptly purged the army, police, and government of any anti-NATO or leftist Serbs. Dissident radio stations were shut down and protests were suppressed with NATO armour.With all dissent crushed and the state purged of any officials not approved by the West, the transformation of Bosnia into a NATO colony was complete. A similar fate awaited the autonomous Serbian province of Kosovo. The ‘Kosovo Liberation Army’, which was recognized by the US State Department as a terrorist organization, received British and CIA training and arms.The group received the majority of its funding – and many members – from the Albanian diaspora, Islamist fundamentalist groups, and the international drug trade. The KLA relied on drug trade, assassination, intimidation (of not only Serbs but also ethnic Albanians who opposed them), destruction of Serbian property (namely homes and churches), and other acts of ethnic cleansing of non-Albanians. The Milosevic government was provoked and cracked down the KLA terror, in turn it was portrayed as genocidal against Kosovar Albanians. At this point, the Yugoslav federation was still suffering from economic collapse and had no interest whatsoever in another war, let alone more NATO bombs.Allegations of mass expulsions of the Albanian population by ‘Serbian’ (Yugoslav forces) began to surface, but a OSCE monitor reported no international refugees and only a couple thousand internally displaced before NATO bombing. Hundreds of thousands of Albanians would be displaced by NATO bombs, as were 100,000 Serbs (who were supposed to be the perpetrators of the genocidal ethnic cleansing).One Albanian woman crossing into Macedonia put it bluntly and told a news crew “There were no Serbs. We were frightened of the bombs.”Allegations of systematic, mass rapes and ‘possible sites of mass graves’ were made. One NATO spokesperson alleged that the 200,000 Albanian women in refugee camps amazingly gave birth to 100,000 babies in the span of 60 days, apparently due to ‘Serbian mass rapes’. Genocide allegations were popular; vastly different figures of 100,000, 500,000, 225,000, and 10,000 dead or missing were made by the U.S, NATO, UN, Kosovo and various NGOs. The FBI carried out an investigation across the “largest crime scene in the FBI’s… history” in June 1999. They found not hundreds of thousands of bodies, but 200 total across 30 sites.Of course, the Yugoslav army, and especially Serbian paramilitary groups did carry out massacres and rapes – but nothing on the level of the systematic and genocidal allegations that were made to justify bombing. In fact, NATO committed a slew of war crimes in the 1999 bombing campaign – the bombing was illegal from the very beginning and was launched without the approval of the UN Security Council.The 1995 and 1999 NATO bombings aided ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Cluster bombs were dropped on highly populated urban areas. NATO estimated 350 would be killed in the bombing of an office building in Belgrade housing TV and radio stations, and political parties – the bombs were dropped anyway. NATO insisted afterwards that the civilian deaths were ‘unintended’. NATO jets bombed a refugee convoy, killing dozens of non combatants, first trying to pin the attack on Yugoslav forces before retreating and claiming it was an ‘accident’. When a hospital was bombed, the only excuse NATO could muster was that it was actually a military barracks. Journalists who visited immediately after found only the remains of civilians and a hospital in ruins.State owned and only state owned firms and factories were bombed, as were state owned housing projects, water supplies, railroads, bridges, hospitals and schools. This amounted to “privatization by bombing.”A Spanish NATO pilot confirmed that NATO jets were “destroying the country, bombing it with novel weapons, toxic nerve gases, surface mines dropped with parachute, bombs containing uranium, black napalm, sterilization chemicals, sprayings to poison the crops and [more]”, going on to call it “one of the biggest barbarities that can be committed against humanity.”The situation in the former Yugoslavia has not improved since the NATO’s ‘democracy’ bombs were dropped. The FRY finally collapsed in 2006 and the Balkans have been Balkanized once again. ‘Yugonostalgia’ has swept across the Balkans – many remember the days of the SFRY as ones where they lived better.As many as 81% of Serbians believe they lived best in the age of socialism.Similar trends exist in Slovenia, Bosnia, and Macedonia.A ‘Yugoslav’ identity persists in the Balkans.In the wake of the tons of depleted uranium dropped on the former Yugoslavia, there has been a spike in leukemia and cancer.Serbia is still host to hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced peoples. The neocolonial protectorate installed in Bosnia has proved hugely unpopular – many call it a ‘failed state’. Corruption is rampant and economic growth is slow. In a 2013 survey, half the respondents chose the word “lethargic” to describe their current state of mind – less than 15 percent used positive words such “optimistic” or “content”.The citizens of Bosnia and Kosovo see their governments as corrupt, and worse still see government efforts to curb corruption as essentially useless. The anniversary of Milosevic’s death is still honoured across Serbia – he is seen as a man who stood up to the NATO forces that would soon destroy their country.Anti-NATO demonstrations in the country gather thousands, if not tens of thousands in the streets.Many Serbs still wish to see NATO punished for war crimes during the bombing campaigns – it seems NATO imposed democracy has not been accepted with open arms in the Balkans.By the year 2000, Yugoslavia had been ripped apart with NATO bombs, IMF restructuring and ethnic conflict. Serbia was destroyed and the rest of the republics were transformed into neocolonies of the Western powers. The most popular narrative is that the West intervened in the region out of humanitarian concern – to stop genocide. However, this claim doesn’t hold up when actual facts are brought into play. In reality, the NATO intervention in Yugoslavia was not a humanitarian one; it was instead motivated by the colonial-imperialist, economic and ideological interests of the member states of NATO – namely the United States and Germany.Although the bombing was dressed up as ‘humanitarian’, all it really served to do was dismantle all that remained of socialism in Europe and once again ‘Balkanize’ and colonize the Balkans. This truth becomes obvious upon a principled analysis of the economic interests and actions of the NATO bloc before formal intervention, an investigation into how the actual intervention was handled, and a look into the current state of the former Yugoslavia. The ‘humanitarian’ and ‘democratic’ bombs dropped on Yugoslavia resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in economic damage which dramatically reduced the living standards of the Yugoslav people – the most damaging in the region since the Nazi occupation during WWII. The strategy of Balkanization and ‘humanitarian intervention’ has become the West’s (often through NATO) modus operandi; the same strategy of partitioning unified economically nationalist and independent states first exercised over Yugoslavia has also been practiced in Iraq, Libya, and now Syria. The results are always the same – a drop in living standards, a huge resentment towards the West and NATO from the populations of the targeted countries, and a profit for the imperialist powers.[5]Bill Clinton poured gasoline on the house, lit the match, and played his saxophone, quietly exiting the building, while the whole damn thing burned down. Was it all his fault? Of course not. The path of neoliberal destruction was first set by Reagan. He is the grandfather of the destruction of the American Middle Class. Clinton is the father. Bush Jr. and Obama just heaped more coals on the inferno. The rich have become super rich, rich beyond anything anyone could dream. The understanding between corporations and labor under FDR was that the spoils of capitalism would be shared to some degree with those who worked to produce them. That agreement was shredded by Reagan.The effects are catastrophic—massive income inequality. Deregulation, privatization, cutting taxes for the rich, destroying social programs, free trade, and offshoring have hollowed out the American Middle Class. The U.S. is done. Game over.Thomas Picketty documented this well:In this week’s magazine, I’ve got a lengthy piece about “Capital in the Twenty-first Century,” a new book about rising inequality by Thomas Piketty, a French economist, that is sparking a lot of comment and debate. (Brad DeLong has a useful summary of some early reviews.) I’ll go further into that discussion in future posts, but first I thought it might be useful to portray the gist of Piketty’s story in a series of charts.The charts aren’t merely illustrative: they are an essential part of Piketty’s contribution. Fifteen or twenty years ago, debates about inequality tended to be cast in terms of clever but complicated statistics, such as the Gini coefficientand the Theil entropy index, which attempted to reduce the entire income distribution to a single number. One thing that Piketty and his colleagues Emmanuel Saez and Anthony Atkinson have done is to popularize the use of simple charts that are easier to understand. In particular, they present pictures showing the shares of over-all income and wealth taken by various groups over time, including the top decile of the income distribution and the top percentile (respectively, the top ten per cent and those we call “the one per cent”).The Piketty group didn’t invent this way of looking at things. Other economists, such as Ed Wolff, of New York University, and Jared Bernstein and Larry Mishel, the creators of the invaluable State of Working America series, have long used similar charts and tables in their publications. But partly by using new sources of data, such as individual tax records, and partly by expanding the research to other countries, Piketty and his colleagues have deployed their charts to reshape the entire inequality debate.For a long time, that debate was almost entirely focussed on what was happening to median incomes. That inevitably led to discussions of globalization, skill-biased technical change, and policies focussed on education and retraining. Now, thanks to Piketty et al., the remarkable gains of those at the very top can’t be avoided. And this means that the issues of politics and redistribution can’t be avoided either.The first chart is a simple one, and it concerns the United States alone. It tracks the share of over-all income taken by the top ten per cent of households from 1910 to 2010. Broadly speaking, it’s centered on a U shape. Inequality climbed steeply in the Roaring Twenties, and then fell sharply in the decade and a half following the Great Crash of October, 1929. From the mid-forties to the mid-seventies, it stayed pretty stable, and then it took off, eventually topping the 1928 level in 2007. (The chart shows the share of the top decile falling back a bit after the financial crisis of 2007 to 2008. New figures for 2012 from Saez, which came out too late to be included in Piketty’s book, show the line hitting another new high, of more than fifty per cent.)The second chart shows the share of income taken by the one per cent over the same period, and the teal line, which includes income of all kinds, has the same U shape. (Once again, the 2012 figures, which aren’t included, show another step up.) The top percentile hasn’t taken such a large share of over-all income since 1928. Interestingly, the recent rise in its share is a bit less dramatic when the analysis is confined to wage income. The difference between the bottom line (wage income) and the top line (total income) is accounted for by income from capital—dividends, interest payments, and capital gains. Because they own a lot of wealth, the one-per-centers receive a lot of their income in this form.Chart Three expands the analysis to what Piketty calls other “Anglo-Saxon countries”— Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom—and it confirms that rising inequality is a global phenomenon. Since 1980, the share of over-all income going to the one per cent has risen sharply in those three nations, too. However, the United States still comes out as the winner of the inequality race. That’s perhaps not too surprising: we tend to think of the United States as a very unequal country, but it’s worth noting that this perception wasn’t always accurate. The chart shows that, ninety years ago, the United States and Canada had roughly the same amount of inequality, according to this measure, while the United Kingdom was a markedly less equitable place. Today, though, the U.S. has few challengers. Even in terms of income generated by work, Piketty notes, the level of inequality in the United States is “probably higher than in any other society at any time in the past, anywhere in the world.”Chart Four shows what’s been happening in six developing countries: Argentina, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, and South Africa. Once again, we see the familiar U shape: during the past few decades, more and more income has been accumulating at the top. In most of these countries, however, the share taken by the one per cent is quite a bit lower than it is in the United States. The one exception is Colombia, where the figures are broadly comparable. (Compare Chart Four to Chart Two.) It barely needs noting that Argentina, Indonesia, and South Africa are highly stratified and grossly inequitable nations. But, according to this measure, anyway, they have less inequality than the United States does.Despite the recent growth of a big-spending nouveau-riche class, the same is true of China.The fifth chart switches the attention from income to wealth, and it takes a long-term perspective. For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the class-bound societies of Western Europe were dominated by a landed and monied elite that owned much of the land and the wealth. The United States had rich and poor, too, but the wealth was still spread around a bit more widely. In 1910, for example, the one per cent in Europe owned about sixty-five per cent of all wealth; in the United States, the figure was forty-five per cent.In recent decades, the roles have been reversed. The U.S. monied elite has outstripped its counterpart on the other side of the Atlantic, and wealth has become even more concentrated in the United States than it is in Europe. In 2010, the American one per cent owned about a third of all the wealth: the European one per cent owned about a quarter. Citing figures like these, Piketty warns that “the New World may be on the verge of becoming the Old Europe of the twenty-first century’s globalized economy.”The last chart is a bit different. It concerns Piketty’s theory that capitalism has a “central contradiction”: when the rate of return on capital exceeds the rate of economic growth, inequality tends to rise. (That’s because profits and other types of income from capital tend to grow faster than wage income, which is what most people rely on.) The purple line shows Piketty’s estimate of the rate of return on capital at the world level going back to antiquity and forward to 2100. The yellow line shows his estimate of the global growth rate over the same period.The important point to note is this: setting aside the period from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century, which is roughly what we would call modernity, the growth rate has been below the rate of return, implying steadily rising inequality. The twentieth century, far from representing normality, was a historic exception that is unlikely to be repeated, Piketty argues. In the coming decades, he says, the growth rate will most likely fall back below the rate of return, and the “consequences for the long-term dynamics of the wealth distribution are potentially terrifying.”Source: Piketty’s Inequality Story in Six ChartsHis destruction of Haiti’s economy:His “help” at the instigation of US big Agribusiness dumped tons of free rice on the Haitian economy. This has three immediate impacts:it bankrupted local farmers, since they could not compete with giveaways.It distorted the Haitian diet, reducing the vitamins and nutrition consumedIt increased a culture of dependence on foreign aid, leading to abuses in child services and crime rates[6]If you live in a neighborhood with a mansion and a shack the average wealth is going to be high compared to a neighborhood with 3 bedroom homes with comfortable but average values. Which neighborhood would you rather live in? That is what we have in Cuba. People live simply, but they have what they need. Healthcare is provided to all, regardless of ability to pay. Education is provided, regardless of ability to pay. In Cuba we put people first. In America it is everyone at each other’s throats.Sad. I feel bad for Americans, I really do.Footnotes[1] Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act - Wikipedia[2] This 1933 Law Would Have Prevented the Financial Crisis[3] Fast Facts About the World's Largest Trade Agreement[4] The Clinton dynasty's horrific legacy: How "tough-on-crime" politics built the world's largest prison system[5] NATO & the Humanitarian Dismemberment of Yugoslavia[6] http://Tim Shimeall

I am Ukrainian, who went to the Maidan (Independence Square in downtown Kyiv, the center of Kiev), on the evening of 21 November 2013 when President Yanukovich did not sign the EU association treaty. I went there because it is the usual place where people go when they want their views to be heard in a peaceful demonstration. And yes, it was a peaceful demonstration, with NO political support or agenda, mostly included students and young folks who clearly chosen democratic pro-western values over the USSR anachronism. I was there untill around midnight, and there were around couple thousand people present. Closer to midnight, the opposition leaders decided to try and speak to the students, but nobody really listened to them. This is how EuroMaidan started. After that there were hundreds of thousands protesters outside (shootings of civilians, etc.,) and as you probably know, what started as peaceful protest, ended up with almost a hundred people dead, several dozens still missing, ex-President fleeing the country, new government appointed by the Parliament and current invasion of Crimean peninsula by Russia.The day-to-day life, though, has only partially changed.1. Latest news monitoring. What usually took me about 10-20 minutes a day to glance over the latest news, now is an ongoing permanent process. The number of news sources I read, listen, watch, and monitor on a continuous basis has increased tenfold. You name it: facebook, twitter, Financial Times, a dozen of Ukrainian county-wide and regional newspapers, couple Russian news sources, the Economist. As I write these words, I am listening to the Hromadske TV (means Civic TV, as it was made by independent journalists on donations). It is basically, one of the most reliable and fastest news sources at the moment, as the journalists just go to the places where anything happens and stream live the events, sometimes themselves being under fire. Also, with high level of Russian propaganda, extra time is taken to verify the news.2. Increased awareness on issues of personal security during the days of intense fighting. When titushki (paid thugs) were in Kyiv, extra measures were taken make sure that none of my family members traveled alone, and visited places where the titushki could attack you. Also, a significant number of locals joined forces in community patrolling, and ultimately within two days the titushki threat was significantly diminished.3. Increased sense of helping each other. When EuroMaidan activists asked for help with food, or medicines, or anything else, lots of people regardless of their age and social status, brought whatever needed to the EuroMaidan. People volunteered to help on EuroMaidan, in hospitals, in civic patrol, other. The sense of unity has greatly increased today, as there “an enemy at the gate”. The sense of unity today has wiped away whatever difference in views people had. The level of general politeness has increased manifold.4. Food and supply. There was only a day or two, when some people panicked and started stacking basic food such as cereals, canned meats, etc. This panic, however, did not last long, as there are no interruptions in food supply all over Ukraine. I bought the same groceries from the same store as did month ago, or year ago (my Italian coffee, Norwegian salmon, Ukrainian tomatoes and cucumbers, Belgian beer, hand-made bread). Nothing changed. There was a gasoline panic due to rumors, but it also lasted just one day. People drive cars as usual.5. Business. Most of the business works as usual. Salaries are paid, banks work. There are some limitations on the banking transactions, cash withdrawals and foreign currency exchange, but nothing scary. No queues in front of the banks. Those who wanted to take out their deposits had plenty of time to do it before. In this respect, I personally have high uncertainty at work, as the company I work in is controlled by one of the closest allies of the former President. However, I am confident that if fired, I will ultimately be able to find a job, though it will probably take a while to find a well-paid one. But, again, my position is not unique, there are thousands and thousands of professional employees who have been working full time on one of the oligarch’s business and supporting the EuroMaidan protests after work. And yes, the local currency declined by around 30% to the dollar, however, most of the people expected it sooner or later, and it was accepted without panic.6. Preparations to war. Apparently, with ongoing military intervention by Russia in Crimea, the country has greatly united and takes measures to defend itself. Military reserves are being formed and a general military alert has been made. The moment the alert went out, the local military conscript offices were filled with volunteers who were willing to take up arms to defend Ukraine. The most surprising thing (to Russian Federation, most probably) is that this high level of responsibility from civil population has taken place both in Western Ukraine and Eastern and Southern parts of Ukraine. Also, in Crimea, where military intervention takes place, civil people actually go out to the streets and stand between the Russian military and Ukrainian military as not to allow any direct military confrontation to take place.7. High hopes for international support in all possible forms. Regardless of pro-EU or other views, there are high hopes for active EU, US, UN, OSCE, NATO or you-name-it involvement in soling the crisis by peaceful diplomatic means. Even the anti-NATO skeptics are now talking about NATO as a necessary step in the future. The number of those who actually were pro-Russian (I mean those people who favored deeper economic and political ties with Russia), are now taking a very pro-Ukrainian (one-country approach) and condemn the military intervention.