Old Glory Bank May Be More Necessary by the Day

A customer counts his cash at the register while purchasing an item at a Best Buy store in Flushing, N.Y., March 27, 2010. Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

Commentary

After writing about the Old Glory Bank and referencing it again in an interview I did with country star John Rich, who along with Larry Elder and others is one of the original supporters, I would like to take credit for the bank’s success, but that would be a hunk of ... well, you fill in the blank.

And, no, I’m not their publicist and, as of this moment, I don’t have an account.

Nevertheless, in a recent telephone interview and some subsequent emails with its chief strategy officer, Eric Ohlhausen, I learned more reasons why people might want to open accounts at this bank that says they won’t let you be canceled financially.

“We stand for you,“ they write on their website. ”No matter where you stand.”

This seems particularly important on Dec. 18, the day The Federalist’s Sean Davis wrote on X that the administration is taking down the Reconciliation Memorial (that celebrates national unity post-Civil War) at Arlington National Cemetery—yet another sign, as Mr. Davis puts it, “The modern American left has zero interest in reconciliation with anyone in this country who opposes their political agenda.”

No doubt.

So mind your money. They could be coming for it next in a variety of ways.

Which leads me back to the Old Glory Bank.

But before I get into the latest additions to their offerings, I have to be clear that I immediately asked Mr. Ohlhausen about what many regard as the most perilous financial danger of all—the looming specter of digital currency, under which the government could arguably monitor and control all our spending.

The answer, unfortunately, was they were unable to do anything about that—thus far, anyway. It would have been a big ask for any private party.

On the positive side, however, there is this to report.

Old Glory now has a “Cash-IN” program through which, using their mobile app, one can deposit cash as much as $2,000 per day at any of 90,000 retail locations across the country (Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Dollar General, and others).

Mr. Ohlhausen argued this makes them considerably more convenient than traditional banks. The top five branch banks in numbers—Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, PNC, and U.S. Bank—have fewer than 20,000 locations where cash can be deposited.

This should be particularly useful to those who earn significant portions of their income through tips, the gig economy, and so forth.

Regarding those big banks, there is much about which to be concerned. According to the New York Post (May 2019), JPMorgan Chase has been accused of purging the accounts of conservative activists Enrique Tarrio, Joe Biggs, Laura Loomer, and Martina Markota.

The same bank canceled well-known activist and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza’s business credit card.

But it’s more than Chase. Citigroup and Bank of America have cut ties to the gun industry.

A yet bigger problem may be the vaunted PayPal, which is nearly ubiquitous.

Three of its hugely successful entrepreneur founders—Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks—have turned critical of the platform they helped invent, and for good reason.

According to Rupa Subramanya of the Free Press, PayPal has been canceling such accounts as Freedom Phone, various COVID-19 and gender critics, including Gays against Groomers. I no longer use PayPal myself.

Old Glory Bank has come up with a solution, initiating its own system: Old Glory Pay. It’s a closed-door loop, peer-to-peer payments platform for Old Glory Bank customers with no other financial institutions involved.

As the bank expands, and it is, nationally, this will become increasingly useful as no industries are excluded, as PayPal does with firearms manufacturers.

This system may end up the most important contribution of Old Glory Bank.

Mr. Ohlhausen reassured me his bank is doing the other normal things that banks do—make small-business loans, have various checking and savings accounts, write mortgages, and so forth.

Regarding the mortgages, I was told their rates were “competitive.”

No help there, alas.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.