William Greider at
The Nation asks
What’s the Difference Between Sheldon Silver and Jamie Dimon? An excerpt:
I have a legal question citizens of New York might wish to ponder. What is the difference between Sheldon Silver and Jamie Dimon? Representative Silver is speaker of the State Assembly in Albany, and federal prosecutors want to put him in prison for taking kickbacks for doing political favors. Dimon is CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, which has richly rewarded him for political manipulations that saved the megabank billions in regulatory fines for defrauding investors and saved fellow bankers from criminal prosecution.
Something about this comparison doesn’t smell right.
“Shelly” Silver is accused of steering plaintiffs to two law firms who sue big companies in behalf of people injured by asbestos or other cancer-causing substances. He arranged state research money for a couple of nonprofit health projects that deal with such issues, In return, the indictment charges Silver received $3 or $4 million spread over ten or fifteen years. As political corruption goes, this is pretty small beer.
Jamie Dimon, by contrast, is political nobility, a leader of the Wall Street gang that raped the nation (financially). Trillions were lost by millions of families in the mortgage-securities racket that brought down the US economy. Dimon’s kickbacks were from his board of directors, grateful that he used his skill and influence to dodge the legal consequences.
Yet when it came time to punish financial wrongdoers, the scandal did not go before a grand jury. Dimon instead sent squads of corporate lawyers to negotiate with the government on how much the bank was willing to pay for its misdeeds (Dimon called them “mistakes”). When the negotiations stalled, Dimon traveled to Washington for a personal conversation with the attorney general. The final deal announced by Eric Holder was a bit fraudulent itself. Holder claimed to have won a record penalty of $13 billion, but lawyers who read the fine print and did the accounting said it was actually closer to $6 billion—a pittance compared to the horrendous damage Wall Street bankers profitably did to the nation.
The sordid mismatch of crime and punishment was displayed in the pages of The New York Times, though the newspaper seemed unaware of its contradiction. The Times editorial page demanded Representative Silver’s immediate resignation, never mind the trial and jury verdict. US Attorney Preet Bharaha accused Silver of holding “titanic political power.” The Times wanted a prompt hanging. Silver did not resign but did agree to delegate leadership to senior assembly members on a temporary basis. “I hope I will be vindicated,” he said.
Meanwhile, on the same day back in its business section, the Times was reporting that for his efforts Dimon would get “a sweeter pay package in 2015.” The board of directors decided Dimon’s total compensation would remain at $20 million and he would get $7.4 million in “easier-to-access cash” rather than restricted stock shares.
The business story said, “Among the directors, the people briefed on the matter said, Mr. Dimon has been bolstered by a widely held view that he took on a crucial role in JP Morgan’s settlements with the federal authorities.” The story said directors “see the government’s extraction of money from the banking industry as driven more by a desire to take a tough line against Wall Street than any actual problems at the banks.”
In other words, the boys at JPMorgan did not learn their lesson. […]
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—State of the Union: Taxes and Jobs:
One investment in the future that the President mentioned tonight, and will be speaking about in detail Thursday in Tampa, is the high-speed rail effort. Sadly, the Tampa to Orlando route will take a big chunk of the pitiful $8 billion that Congress has appropriated. A noted earlier today, a far more visionary plan is what's needed in this realm, with 25 times the federal investment and triple that, at least, in state and private investment. But it is what it is for the moment and the President's announcement of the grants for 13 high-speed rail corridors is excellent news.
And it ties into the President's line about America not being in "second place." But while his talk about making trade policy more fair was good to hear, missing was any focus on a desperately needed industrial policy. He spoke adamantly about getting the Senate to get cracking on putting job legislation on his desk along the lines of the $155 billion bill the House passed in December. That's a needed push, too. But missing was any plan for the direct creation of jobs through a modernized Civilian Conservation Corps or Works Progress Administration. With 8 million jobs lost in the past two years - not 7 million - and many more people working part-time or dealing with mandated furloughs, the current jobs bill will not be enough to make more than a dent, and it will not produce results soon enough.
Tweet of the Day
Rick Perry doesn't trust Texas' criminal justice system? He probably should have let us know that when he was busy executing 250+ people.
— @LOLGOP
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show, it's the day after a blizzard that wasn't everything it was cracked up to be.
Greg Dworkin checked in with a polling update. Also: the rent really was too damn high; Scam PACs; accumulating evidence that
King v. Burwell is crap; the Obama popularity game; losing parents to Fox; Mike Pence says he'll get his own damn press; Iran sanctions; GOP tries to pin inequality on Obama; and a collection of articles on the anti-vaxxer backlash. From the intersection of surveillance & technology: the license plate scanning database and the White House drone crash.
Armando discusses the hollow
King reasoning & the political SCOTUS.
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