I guess I was a little slow with keeping up on world affairs. I guess my problem was my inherent trust in the leaders of my country and honesty in corporate America. I naively expected fair treatment and consideration.

For instance, I just found out that much of this country's banking has been outsourced to the Asian continent. The report is from 2003. The claim is to cut costs to make up the shortfalls and losses they had because of such scandals as Enron. The report below is incomplete because of its length, but can be accessed at www.crn.com/it-channel/1882-1786 - or just google bank outsourcing and you will find many such sites.

Bank Outsourcing

Almost within days of each other, J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America, among the largest banks in the world, inked multiyear outsourcing deals valued at an estimated $5 billion and $4.5 billion, respectively. JPM Chase is in the process of transitioning its data center to its new outsourcing partner,IBM (NYSE: IBM) Global Services (IGS), while Bank of America is turning over its network operations to EDS (NYSE:EDS).

Other giant banks in recent weeks and months have announced outsourcing or services arrangements as well, such as ABM Amro with EDS, Deutsche Bank with IGS, and Fleet Financial with AMS, though on a much smaller scale. But the Bank of America and JPM Chase deals, along with last year's gigantic American Express $4.5 billion outsourcing pact with IGS, underscore a new wave of services arrangements, where banks are hoping to score more variable, usage-based pricing to their data centers rather than fixed IT costs.

"As our business fluctuates by region [and] by business, we will be benefiting from the variability within this agreement, more so than if we had done the work ourselves," says JPM Chase managing director Michael Sztejnberg, who negotiated the deal with IGS.

Banks, in particular, are demanding such variability given the undeniable pressure they're under to reduce operational costs and risk during the economic downturn. That pressure has increased because financial services firms have had to write off huge losses on bad investments, such as debt issued to Enron and WorldCom, leading to significant earnings declines and, as a result, erosion of share prices during the past six months. JPM Chase, specifically, has been trading in the mid-20s of late, down from the mid-30s last year.

Overall, financial services outsourcing started picking up a year ago, says Coley Clark, president of EDS Global Financial Industry Solutions. This year, external IT spending will grow from nearly $50 billion to $60 billion within three years, confirms the TowerGroup, an IT consulting firm focused on banking and securities. Globally, it will grow from $120 billion to $142 billion over that same time period, according to TowerGroup.

So, we have outsourced our manufacturing - of all types of products, including food. Our telemarketing, our help desks for our computers, and now our banking. They claim it is safe from identity theft, et al. Do you really trust anyone nowadays to keep you safe?

Here is a little bulletin: Sometime during this coming year, they also expect to start outsourcing our publishing businesses. I think they will probably expect us to supply the pulp at little cost, so we may have something to sell - no trees - but something to sell.

Can we not do anything for ourselves anymore? We were once a self-sufficient nation that found pride in taking care of ourselves. Is the rest of the world so much better at doing things than hardworking American citizens who only want a good life for their families? Will the burdensome greed at the top of the ladder someday become too heavy for us to bear?

In effect, our leaders and corporations have turned every aspect of our lives over to foreign countries. When is the time to say, "NO MORE!"? If we could package our leaders' greed, we would indeed be a rich nation.