Somehow I knew in my heart of hearts, that the financial meltdown would never be addressed in our own nation, because of the simple fact that as we have all learned the hard way: The Banks are in Charge, and Wall Street 'owns' our entire government from top to bottom.
The corruption in our own nation has now reached a critical mass, and now that AIG has announced that it will pay out about $100 million in a fresh round of bonuses to employees of its financial products division, (the unit whose risky bets helped sink the company leading to a $180 billion government bailout,) in addition they are also due to pay out tens of millions of dollars more in March, mostly to former employees who did not agree to the 'certain' concessions. - Somehow we are supposed to believe the new Pay Czar, Kenneth Feinberg can do 'nothing' except sit 'helplessly' by and talk about 'outraged' he is.
Outraged? I don't think so. This is simply more the same that is proving to be over and over again, that our own nation is being held hostage by a group of 'insiders' who have taken over our government at the highest levels and are getting away with economic terrorism, while any decent financial reform is continually being 'gutted' by our bought and paid for Congressional Whores.
"...the AIG bailout, a hideous political contrivance that ranks with the great acts of political corruption and thievery in the history of the United States."
Remarkable that in light of the massive failure of the Executive and Legislative Branches of the United States Corporatocracy to protect and defend the public from the outrages being committed by the FIRE sector, the Judicial Branch is providing a haven for the rights of the people under the Constitution.
Can this be due to the fact that federal judges do not require huge campaign contributions, which Wall Street doles out like a foreign power to the craven denizens of Foggy Bottom?
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot...
It is a very sad day in America, when the only public servants we can depend on are the local federal judges who do not require campaign contributions who are now standing up for the American people in several cases, where the 'predatory lending' and 'controlled fraud' that is has brought our nation to it's knees are the being ignored by government officials at the highest levels in our country.
Yes, indeedy....business has been very good for the 'new proud owners' of our nation:
The CEO of Goldman Sachs could get a bumper bonus of up to $100 million for 2009, London newspaper The Times reported Monday, quoting bankers in Davos, Switzerland.
Lloyd Blankfein and other top Goldman Sachs bankers were set to receive the biggest ever bonuses awarded at the world's richest investment bank, according to the bankers.
http://www.cnbc.com/...
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., the nation’s largest lender, will pay investment-banking employees bonuses of about $4.4 billion for last year, or an average of $400,000 each, a person close to the bank said.
So, today it was good to see, that at least the country of Italy has had enough of the blatant fraud that is taking place in our own nation, and is ready to fight back, unlike our own government who just 'continues to look the other way' and feign there continual 'fake outrage' while millions suffer due to lost jobs, homes, retirement savings and lost home equity that may never return due to Bernanke's 'popped bubble' that he allowed to occur.
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Italy’s financial police are seizing 73.3 million euros ($102 million) of assets from Bank of America Corp. and a unit of Dexia SA as part of a probe into an alleged derivatives fraud in the region of Apulia.
The police are sequestering a further 30 million euros that the municipality was set to place in a fund managed by the banks on Feb. 6, according to an e-mail from the prosecutor’s office in Bari today. The prosecutor also asked that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America be banned from doing business with Italian municipalities for two years. A hearing is slated for next month. Prosecutors allege that when the banks arranged swaps and created a fund that invests money the region set aside to repay 870 million euros of borrowings due in 2023, they misled the region about the economic advantage of the package. Banks skewed the swaps to their advantage to hide fees, the prosecutor said.
Apulia, located in the heel of Italy, joins more than 519 municipalities that face 990 million euros in derivatives losses, according to data compiled by the Bank of Italy. In Milan, prosecutors seized assets from four banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS AG and requested they stand trial for alleged fraud. Hearings started in Milan this month...
I personally hope that this is 'just the beginning' of European nations finally doing what our own government refuses to do, and if that means seizing control of every single penny in all of the American Banks, or any Banks that are guilty of selling 'worthless paper' to make a quick buck off of the backs of decent hardworking people, then I welcome these actions.
Why is this happening?
Bank of America just announced they will be paying, on average, a $400,000 bonus per employee for this year past. Any fines or penalities that are incurred from offenses are treated as a cost of doing business. Crime does pay in the short term. Especially if you can buy off the government and co-op the regulators of a major developed nation. When someone succumbs to fraud, there is a tendency to blame the victim. The purpose of the law is to protect the weak. Perhaps they could have been more vigilant, but this in no way diminishes the guilt of the perpetrator, and the likelihood that this is something they have been doing in many places over a period of time, with a growing level of sophistication.
People argue that if a nation sets rules for banks, they will just move offshore and keep doing business in any way that they please. This is intended to undermine any reforms and the rule of law. It is possible to ban a company from doing business in your nation if it engages in unlawful practices. As noted here previously, Citi was engaging in trading practices in Europe and Japan that put them on the receiving end of bans for fraud. Globalization is used as a rationale for stripping nations of their sovereign rights, and the people from their ability to rule and protect themselves in accord with their own beliefs and preferences.
Why people accept this nonsense when it applies to the financial sector is amazing. Well perhaps not, given the force of a steady propaganda that has been promoting it for the past twenty years. The truth is ugly when you see it in plain black and white. The US is a relative safe haven for multinational corporations that engage in various forms of fraud and market manipulation around the world, like modern day privateers. It appears unable to regulate them because of widespread political corruption and the self interest of its monied elite. Corporate privateering in partnership with the state has been a perennial problem in developing nations, especially in South America and the western Pacific. But the economic hitmen are ranging further and wider these days, in search of greater profits and new fields of plunder, and in developed nations. Iceland and Greece are one thing, but if a G7 nation like the UK falls prey to the banks, the reaction may be severe. This theme of national sovereignty versus corporatism will gain more traction over the next five to ten years.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot...
Imagine this theme really finally taking flight - national sovereignty versus corporatism, and imagine if you will, that it could in fact be Europe and other countries that actually end up 'banning' our own Wall Street/Banking 'Hitmen' from their nations simply to protect their own people and wealth.
That it has come to this is absolutely disgusting. That we have come to this place where other nations are having to 'point' the American people at the horrifying ugly truth, that our nation has become so entrenched with corruption through Wall Street and our key financial sectors that these countries are ready to 'seize' these banks holdings, just to protect themselves, from what our own government refuses to protect us from, makes my heart sink.
Thanks.
UPDATE: Viva Italia! Thank you to the Italian people for 'showing us the way' to conduct 'real reform'....freeze the bastards assets and ban them from doing business in their country. Hat tip to silla.