Too Big to Jail?

. . . where are the progressive Tea Party?

Maybe it's time for someone to print up some "Listen To Me" signs and get out on the streets?

Not that the media would cover the demonstrations, of course, unless people started chucking rocks and getting arrested. It just doesn't fit the media template.

The Masters of the Universe would have us understand that income is distributed as it is because of forces beyond our understanding. How unequal in understanding are we that it should come at such cost to almost everyone’s health and future?

Just this once I have to dispute the " —we all played along as if the good times would never end." It is simply not true, not even close to accurate.

Many of us -individual American citizens- have endured the derisive comments and social ostrcism that was common for years that came of being frugal, careful with how we handled money. We never reaped the benefits of the "good times" and so never had the option of spending like there was no tomorrow. We didn't personally get slammed by the stock market "correction" (what a silly euphemism!) because we never made enough money to do more than pay our bills, and pay them we did. We never pretended that the stock market, and consequently the joke of 401ks as reliable retirement planning and so forth are, was anything more than a guessing game and we passed on it just like we pass on lotteries. But we were sucked deeply into the vortex created when the market fell so spectacularly.

We are the first to be made to pay the bills that others can't or won't. Since we tend to be low on the ladder in employment, we are the first to get laid off. We have the thinnest margin between us and economic disaster, so even though we had proper mortgages and never made a late payment we have the prospect of losing our homes hanging over us like the sword of Damocles.

We did not all contribute to what has happened, and continually saying we did aids and abets those who are most responsible in their getting away with it.

Kevin,

I saw your appearance on Bill Moyers show, but due to an untimely phone call that I received I didn't get to listen to much of the program. I intend to read your featured story.

One point that I would like to make about Wall Street is that the truth has been revealed. Most pundits and the media want to say how these bankers have gotten away with something when in reality they haven't.

The world knows what happened regardless of how strong their grip is on Washington. The real question is how strong is their grip on the American people? The pot of water is slowly coming to a boil. Change is in the air.

Great article, and the appearance on Bill Moyers was even better. Along with the piece in Rolling Stone Magizine “The Great American Bubble Machine”, it does not look good for the home team (the average American). In face, I personally think that the average American (of which I am one), doesn’t stand a chance in hell to rectify this and change the System. Human nature being what it is, those in power will not go easily, and are VERY GOOD at usurping any and all efforts to unseat or dislodge them. The statement made by Matt Taibbi in the Rolling Stone’s article “Organized greed always defeats disorganized Democracy " rings all to true, and has been the case in this country and the world throughout history.

Although I am not a defeatist, I am certainly telling my son, who is a Junior in college majoring in Business, to make sure that he gets his piece of the pie! That is one of the pillars of Capitalism isn’t it? I guess that both Democracy and Capitalism in their purist philosophical sense neglected to take into account the all to common human character flaws of Greed, Corruption, and Power Mongering. I’m sure you can think of more…………………….

PS: This doesn’t mean that I won’t volunteer and join the good guys to fight the forces of evil, but as a pragmatist and realist, it's hard to see us winning this one any time soon.
"

Now what? We know that Congress is embedded with lobbyists who purchase friendly legislation that costs taxpayers trillions and is bankrupting our country and is harming average American citizens. Much of the American public seems clueless, unable or unwilling to act, or overwhelmed with their own personal struggles. How can we end the congressional corruption? What will it take for the American public to wake up and get actively involved to change this disgusting and cozy practice of congressional influence peddling. How can we restore some integrity to our system of government?

A point well made by MoJo on the Moyers Journal regarding the Carried Interest whereby the compensation paid in the hedge fund industry is taxed as capital gains rather than ordinary income. Additionally, please note these guys do not share in any of the losses they incur but pass these along to investors. I suspect financial institutions own a shadow interest in these funds with loans at very attractive rates and therefore can not afford to loan to main street and create jobs.

"... consumers seem to be the only ones learning their lesson."

Well said!

How else could Bank of America Merrill, Wells, and Citibank raise $60 billion from the public in Nov/Dec, to pay back the public (TARP) to pay themselves big bonuses? Watch would the public DOES with their money, not what they SAY.

Best, Sam

Too Big to Jail,
There is virtually nothing to say that hasn’t been discussed months or even years ago. Dr. Stiglitz’s write up is typical: That moral and ethical bankruptcy is the modus operandi of our economic “leaders”, bankers, and Wall Street operators has been clear for decades. If Dr. Stiglitz really is interested in doing something about it, he could stop writing and talking about it, and start at home by cleaning up his Business School and Law College, both of which primarily teach people how to lie, cheat, obfuscate, hide, and otherwise “game” the system, and justify it as long as it’s legal! Ethics, morality, and concern for the common wealth be damned! Indeed, most of the Professors in these esteemed institutions are themselves rich “consulting” on the very practices he describes. Human beings in power will always justify themselves no matter how great their moral and ethical failures or how many lives they destroy. And help from Professors never hurt them!

Victor J. Hruby
Regents Professor
Tucson, Arizona

From a Secretary of the Treasury who is a Wall Street insider and tax cheat?. But I DID expect better from Obama. I guess I was naive. And what can we do about it? Write hate mail to the comments section of Mother Jones, that's all. Meanwhile they laugh all the way to the bank....

I can guarantee they wouldn't be sitting here opining about who is too blame, and why nobody else is doing anything about it. They realized that sometimes authority must be questioned with retribution. They took matters into their own hands. They didn't like the way that the East India Co. was receiving tax breaks from the Brits, so they stormed their ships and threw the tea into the harbor. They had to work outside the law. They had principals, and they acted on them to protect themselves from tyranny.

We cannot rely on the people who caused this disaster, and their buddies, to hold themselves to account for their indiscretions. It may sound horrible, but the pain that the banksters have inflicted MUST be repaid with damage to them on a personal level. No amount of legislation, nor cushy club fed jail time, will stop these criminals from using and discarding us again. They MUST feel, on a personal level, the pain they have caused others. The "authorities" are just paid guard dogs of the banksters. It is far past time to punish these criminals.

"Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government."
James Madison

"As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also."
Thomas Jefferson

Barney Frank and Chris Dodd should spend the rest of their lives in maximum security prison.

Isn't financial reforms under Obama's bail out kings - former and still Goldman-Sachs affiliates/employees is a bit like asking the public to ignore that the SEC is considering indictment?

For most, it should be the ultimate in insults after already being ruined by the post-Glass Steagall repeal that takes the cake.

For others, common sense suggests that no meaningful reform can come from such close intimacy except that which serves ill gotten gains, and illicit dealings - to the detriment of the public.

For envisionists, it is but the ploy of a financial plot to secure advantages where there should be none, and at a time when most of Congress was already plotting about how to acquire the privilege of limiting social security while accessing the majority of wealth under baby boomer pensions for a massive wealth redistribution without liability.

The dangers of financial reform at this time far exceed the benefits, though it may be necessary. Real reform after such a collective global plunder would be to reinstall Glass Steagall and add reforms to it, not take away the protections that already existed, and did not need modification.

These Congressional antics have been similarly vibrant throughout the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations - and Americans should have had enough of it already. As Bush exclaimed repeatedly, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."

Since all bankers are already familiar with Glass Steagall, replacing it can only mean greater privilege, not lesser privilege to bankers. Why else would bankers hire lobbyists to get the rewards they want?

After Madoff and the SEC hearings on the bail outs, all should be wary of passing "new found reforms" cast as cures that cannot do the job. Americans need the spine to demand Congress reinstall Glass Steagall and add reforms to it in exchange for not putting the thieves in jail like Madoff.

If Americans don't deserve it, who does?