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craazyman's avatar

An excellent piece, Matt, and good example of what we all pay for each month.

I saw that Wall Street on Parade also picked up this story. They've done great work for years on banking/Wall Street corruption.

This is more evidence -- if we needed any more after the 08/09 debacle, which we don't -- of the culturally toxic effect of "too big to fail or jail" banks. If banks were smaller & more numerous they'd have a harder time buying politicians, and regulators could regulate effectively and shut them down without any excuse. If it came to it, regulators could:

1. fire all senior management,

2. fire the board

3. retain the workforce to the extent possible (in many cases it would be).

4. recapitalize the bank

5. re-open under a new name or merge with another bank if the combined bank would remain small enough.

If any bank's activity breached criminal thresholds, then prosecute whatever executives deserve it. Banks can afford good lawyers who should be able to keep honest bankers out of trouble. I'm not one who supports lynch mobs or malicious prosecutions. The laws should be made so clear that not even a greedy fool could make a mistake and do something illegal. Therefore, if illegality occurs, it has to be premeditated and willful.

I think the record at this point is clear as day -- the alleged "economic efficiencies" created by "systemically important" big banks are efficiencies for their politician friends (many of whom are Democrats who seem fond of social justice posturing as a diversion), big corporations, and bad actors only, not for Main Street or American society -- if we even have one anymore. Restore Glass-Stegal. End Too Big to Fail or Jail. Make America Great Again! [I had to throw in the last one for fun. hahaha. But there could be some causative truth in this context.].

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David Escandon's avatar

What’s to be surprised about here. First, this is exceptional journalism and I applaud the effort to uncover these schemes. However, we know the system is rigged against the little guy and will continue to be so until a reset occurs starting with the FED. I mean I deduct my office space on my taxes and the IRS is calling me in to audit a few thousand dollars of a legitimate write-off. That’s how screwed up the system is.

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