There are corporations that work hard at providing excellent goods or customer services in order to increase their profits through excellence...and then there are the banks.

Via:

JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to cut 3,000 to 4,000 jobs in its consumer bank in 2013, representing about 1.5 percent of the company's overall workforce, as the bank tries to improve the profitability of its branches.

The cuts will come mainly through attrition, spokeswoman Kristin Lemkau said. The bank's branches have 63,500 employees, representing about a quarter of JPMorgan Chase's total employees.

JPMorgan is one of the few big U.S. banks that is still adding branches to its network, but to boost profit it plans to scale back the tellers it has on hand for routine transactions and to add some salespeople for products and services like wealth management that can boost revenue.

Do you think they will return those annual subsidies provided by our tax dollars if they become more profitable? Nah, didn't think so.

Guest-post by Aaron Kraeger, Cross-posted at AaronKraeger.com Photo and video footage by Aaron Kraeger.

Guest-post by Aaron Kraeger, Cross-posted at AaronKraeger.com

GE CEO Jeff Immelt heard the voices of the 99 percent this morning as he started his prepared remarks at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) World Congress Tuesday morning in Detroit. A half dozen people interrupted his speech to deliver a message of paying taxes and stop dodging them through tax loopholes. Outside in the hallway another two dozen people played a game of tax dodger ball.

Over the last decade GE paid an effective tax rate of just 2.3 percent while the marginal corporate tax rate is 35 percent. Shyquetta McElroy, a mother of two from Milwaukee attempted to present Immelt with a tax bill of $26.5 billion that the company managed to evade.

“Mr. Immelt, when are you going to pay the $26 billion in taxes,” asked McElroy at the beginning of his speech. “I pay my taxes year after year – why doesn’t GE?”

Immelt tried to continue his speech but could not resist saying the company paid 29 percent in taxes last year. While technically true the rate represents a global tax rate and GE actually paid 25 percent in federal taxes for 2011. The most the Fortune 100 company paid in the last ten years while making billions in profits, cutting 32,000 jobs since 2004, and holding more than $94 billion in offshore accounts.

Those questioning Immelt were escorted out of the room by security still wanting answers.

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By March 20, when Greece has a big bond redemption to make, the IMF has demanded that the Greek government slash its public investment budget by $530 million “through cuts in subsidies to private investments and nationally financed investment projects.” The new austerity measures also impose a 22 percent reduction in the minimum wage, which will remain frozen for the next three years and require that collective bargaining be completely cut. The result? Fifteen thousand public sector workers will be laid off and 150,000 jobs will be destroyed due to the non-renewal of the contract.

In short, the IMF is demands that Greeks who are struggling the hardest do the most to prove that the country is worthy of another round of bailout money.

The Greek 99% are taking to the streets to protest these unfair policies, and members of the global Occupy Wall Street movement held a day of action to show their solidarity.

Feb.18th, people of cities across the world took to the streets in solidarity with the Greek protesters who have occupied their workplaces and public spaces to resist economic injustice. Demonstrations are planned throughout Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portgual, the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, and more.