Banks Still Ripping Us Off & Weak (if anyone cares)

Promised links:

William Black's excellent article entitled "How the Servant Became a Predator: Finance's Five Fatal Flaws"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-k-black/how-the-servant-became-a_b_3180...

His appearance on Democracy Now:

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/15/black


Nomi Prins' talk - It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses, and Backroom Deals From Washington to Wall Street

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2009/10/6/nomi_prins

Collection of Recent Reports/Studies on the Bailout on Nomi Prins' website:

http://www.ask.com/bar?q=Nomi+Prins+It+Takes+A+Pillage&page=1&qsrc=12...

Headline from Democracy Now:

Geithner Aides Made Millions from Wall Street Firms

Meanwhile, newly released disclosures show some of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithners closest aides have earned millions of dollars from bailed-out Wall Street firms. Last year, Geithner adviser Gene Sperling made over $887,000 from Goldman Sachs and another $158,000 in speaking fees, mostly from financial companies. Another aide, Lee Sachs, made over $3 million from the New York hedge fund Mariner Investment Group.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• banks
• fraud
• lack
• of
• regulation
• derivatives
• finance
• 401k
• risk
• Geithner
• Frank

[funkalunatic]

Part (not all) of the problem can (from a libertarian perspective) be formulated as a monopoly-on-capital problem. If it was feasible to conduct transactions in non-fiat commodities, printing money for the rich wouldn't be worth anything. There's a business opportunity for organizations rich enough to build vaults and issue credit cards, but unfortunately there's more incentive for banks to collaborate to maintain their oligarchy than compete to serve the customer. Anybody wanna barter?

[FeelFreeToArgue]

It's no surprise that the modern smear campaign was developed to stop Upton Sinclair's depression era run for governor under the banner of "Production For Use." The idea behind PFU was to staff govt seized industries w/ the unemployed, creating a shadow barter economy, w/ unneeded leftovers being sold on the open market to finance further development or provide wages. It was an idea potent enough to get him the Democratic nomination for governor in a surprise victory - but then he was crushed.

[Z200a]

Too bad for American that people with your viewpoint only account for about one third of 1% of the population. If more people knew what you know, and cared, we might have a chance. But alas, they do not.

[FeelFreeToArgue]

It's because of 2 things. First, the info people need is rarely presented in a unified fashion by members of the mainstream media. So people who don't watch alternative media need to try to cobble together pieces of information dropped here & there and read between the lines to construct a counter narrative. Secondly, people do not approach the whole issue of our system of govt & commerce critically, either by nature or lack of training, or perhaps out of sense that such questions are taboo.

[Z200a]

Yes, I think that's right. And there's a third reason: deference to authority. As the work of Robert Altemeyer (among others) shows, at least half of Americans are committed authoritarian followers, which means they are likely to defer to the "expertise" and "authority" of the bankers and the other authority figures telling them that they have figured out that looting the country is really what's best for everyone. This isn't even trickle down; it's outright pillaging!

[FeelFreeToArgue]

I really liked how John Dean used Altemeyer's work in "Conservatives Without Conscience" - truly one of the must read books to understand the modern political climate. In it, Dean uses modern insights into psychology & sociology to explain the ascendency of the worst of the worst within the Republican party.

There's a lot of psychology at work in modern politics, in modern life in general. I hope people are developing mental defenses commensurate with this threat, but I don't think they are.

[joneselius]

One can gain all the economic knowledge one needs from the Miises Institutes piece with Marcuse.

Austrian economics, money as a commodity - regulated by the free market, and not monopolized by central interests.

[55ella2007k]

Matt Taibibi has a brilliant expose up regarding this bullshit. The whole thing was and IS a fucking scam. Nothing will change, until people take to the streets and shut this country down. But once again, the outrage over this is not nearly enough. People will remain complacent until they are literally pushed into destitution. Nobody at my work is even talking about this, and when I mention it, I'm told that I am too gloomy. Welcome to serfdom folks, because this is what it looks like.

[TheBigHo111]

***** unreal

[czarwright]

Its just like a board game Of the rich and powerful. it can't keep going on like this or can it ?

Have a Great weekend, Zach.

Peace =)

[billybobhobnob101]

I'm sure there are some decent people in both parties and my advice to them is leave these two corporatist parties- most people think their Representative is a decent guy and our congress stands today as a result of people voting for their decent guys.