When Free Market Means Whatever You Can Get Away With
Wouldn't it be nice to have access to zero cost loans? Wouldn't it be nice to receive $14 trillion in guarantees and direct money? Wouldn't it be nice to have the freedom to raise credit card rates as high as you want with no explanation, and charge exorbitant fees to people for breathing the wrong way?
Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture asks a very good question in his post Record Bank Bonuses Based On Record Bank Fraud:
Ask yourself how hard it is for any finance firm to make money — risk free! — when they can borrow from the Federal Reserve at a rate of zero, and then turnaround and “lend” that same cash to the Treasury (buying bonds) at 3% ?Banks Set for Record Pay
Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their people about $145 billion for 2009, a record sum that indicates how compensation is climbing despite fury over Wall Street's pay culture.I think we forgot that banks are supposed to support we, the people, not the other way around.
An analysis by The Wall Street Journal shows that executives, traders, investment bankers, money managers and others at 38 top financial companies can expect to earn nearly 18% more than they did in 2008—and slightly more than in the record year of 2007. The conclusions are based on an examination of securities filings for the first nine months of 2009 and revenue estimates through year-end.
Interesting link:
Lawsuit filed against Presidents Bush, Obama, Treasury Secretaries, and all 50 governors, accusing them of aiding and abetting in mortgage fraud against the people of the U.S.
PAUL L. MUCKLE, Plaintiff Vs. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Former President George W. Bush; President Barack H. Obama; Treasury Secretaries John W. Snow, Henry Merritt Paulson, Jr., Tim Geithner; SEC Chiefs William H. Donaldson, Christopher Cox; The governors of the following states or their current successors
2 comments:
The media is focusing on the $750 billion bailout because that is all the banks want us to know about. In reality, taxpayers are on the hook for $13 billion and $7 billion of that disappeared into thin air. And now GS has payed back their $10 billion share of the bailout and claim they deserve huge bonuses even though they still have $300 billion of our money.
$14 trillion could have bought every mortgage and student loan in America while still leaving enough to pay for universal health care. We've already spent far more than that would have cost WITHOUT EVEN FIXING THE PROBLEM
This is why this Enron-level accounting control fraud that took place all throughout the financial services industry and continues as of today, is so egregious.
Trillions (thousand billions in a trillion) of dollars that should be leveling the playing field for we, the people, is either lining the pockets of the banksters and/or lost or wasted forever.
Bernie Madoff's major crime may be providing a red herring for banksters, more than the crime of stealing $50 billion, when you consider how small that amount is when compared to the trillions of dollars the financial services industry stole with the aid of the US government.
And the other huge red herring was all the fuss made over the loan to the Big Three automakers who were asking for one-third of what Madoff stole.
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