Banker Crimes - Where is Andy When You Need Him???

"You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out." - Andrew Jackson, America's 7th President. He was a addressing a delegation of bankers. 

Yes, indeed, why couldn't Obama be more like Andy Jackson. Micheal Shedlock of globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com should obviously be  adulating  for this man. After all, it was Andy Jackson who abolished the Bank of the United States, which was the ancestor of America's current Federal Reserve. < Mr. Shedlock is an ardent advocate for abolishing America's current Federal Reserve. For the chances of this happening, read on this website dated Sept 18 - Don Quixote still Lives. >

Here is a short, but by no means complete list, of bank crimes against the public < The list is not complete partly through Guido's laziness, but mainly because most of them are still sub rosa, i.e., hidden from public knowledge. >

1. The change / waiver of public accounting or regulatory rules - The most flagrant example of this is abolishment of the mark-to-market accounting rule. The abolishment basically makes it unnecessary for banks to report "security" losses that actually exist. See our article on this website dated Sept 7 - See No Evil, Speak No Evil - for a detailed description. 

2. Waiving of Commodity Market Restrictions - Several large money center banks, Goldman Sachs being the most scandalous, have manged to have contract limits on commodity contracts removed for their firms, but not for anyone else. The purpose of contract limits in the commodity markets for any one commodity < like grains, oil, metals > , is to prevent artificial price manipulation in these commodities,  So with taxpayer money, Goldman and other investment banks are able to rig the prices of basic commodities like food and energy for their own profit. The losing end of this trade is the general public, who now have to pay higher prices for basic necessities. 

Please tell me how this can benefit the economy and the suffering American people?

3. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act - This law was enacted during the 1930s depression to prevent the current mess  that now exists. Bankers never liked the act, because it prevented them from gambling with the Federally insured deposits of everyday savers. In less then ten years after the laws' repeal, these same bankers have managed to do it again. We have another financial / economic depression - just like the 1930s

4. Cutting Credit off from Solvent Debtors - These aren't deadbeats that have been denied bank loans. But actual small businesses with perfect credit ratings. Not only are they being denied new loans, but existing lines of credit have been terminated. The banks don't really give any plausible reason for this. Perhaps they are just scared about the economic future. Perhaps they are broke due to all those losses they're not reporting < see Number 1 above >, and don't have any money to lend. Or perhaps they're just stupid < a high likelihood > and don't realize they are destroying their customer base. 

Whatever the reasons, if banks are so afraid for the economic future, why should we believe Obama and the media that everything economically "will be just fine". 

5. Abusive Use of Taxpayer Bailout Funds - Of course, the most egregious example of this is bank executive compensation and bonuses. They even recently had a G-20 summit meeting about it. And on this simple, obvious violation of the public trust, the politicians still can't decide what to do. 

The answer is obvious. Throw the bastards in jail. The reason why this isn't done is also obvious. Campaign contributions that have made these same elected officials wealthy. 

But this is only the tip of an iceberg of flagrant public fund abuse. 

"So what if it is. What're gonna do about it." - Boss Tweed's dismissive comment. Tweed was a former "boss" of NYC politics.