SMELL THE GANGRENE!
WHY EXACTLY DO WE LET THE BIG BANKS—AND OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS—GET AWAY WITH IT?
Some poor unfortunate minority gets caught with drugs on him and gets sent away to prison for years.
In horrific contrast, JP Morgan Chase is caught rigging the electricity markets, is fined a token $410 million (token in the context of its financial strength) and no Morgan Chase employee suffers at all. In fact the corporation does not even have to admit to any wrongdoing for stealing from tens of millions of people .
This is injustice on a truly gargantuan scale, and it makes complete nonsense of the much touted concept that the U.S. is a nation of laws. It is a travesty of justice.
If offences like market rigging were rare, it would bad enough; but, in fact, criminal behavior by the banks, and financial institutions in general, on a massive scale, is so routine that scarcely a week goes by without an announcement similar to the JP Morgan Chase affair—and here we are are talking only about those who get caught (and most are not).
To the big banks, penalties are just a cost of doing business. The American people may suffer; but they, the major financial institutions, don’t care—and they are blatant about it. They have a predator culture, and since there is no real penalty for blatantly criminal behavior, they do it because they can, because they are incentivized to do it, and because it pays massively.
As from 2011, JPMorgan has paid nearly $7 billion in penalties for a whole string of offenses, but has made over $50 billion in profit. That scale of egregious behavior projects a picture of an organization that regards itself as above the law because it has the financial muscle to buy whoever and whatever it it needs—and it does just that. Why not indeed! It has assets of well over two trillion dollars. Now that is power. But it is a scale of power that demonstrably corrupts.
Since the major financial institutions and other corporate interests are Congress’s paymasters, I’m far from sure how we’re going to get out of this mess—or whether we ever will. The U.S., as we have known it, may just be vanishing behind a façade of delusion, distraction, and dissuasion.
Will the American people rise en masse and put a stop to this corruption?
Don’t hold your breath. The system has us within its grasp and it has all the necessary tools to keep us in thrall. 9/11 provided the necessary excuse and it was seize upon with gusto. We are now a surveillance state which it is very hard to oppose—even in an entirely legal, democratic, and righteous way.
I have long believed that no foreign enemy could ever defeat the U.S., but that we have every reason to fear rotting from within.
That is exactly what is happening.
LET ME END ON A CHEERFUL NOTE: Fan mail has the habit of arriving at just the right time—and cheering me up greatly. Such e-mails are deeply appreciated.
Are you planning any new books. There is a vacuum out there for your type of books. If you do please ensure that it is available in e-reader format as well.
Thanks
Jim Edge
It appears I have my marching orders. The answer to the two points raised in this note is YES! And the books are written with more on the way.
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