"Bankistan Vanquishes America"--(Ruthless Criminal Enterprises)
(He's talking about the latest scandal from J.P. Morgan and Jamie Diamon which is subject of Levin Hearing on Capitol Hill Today)
Bankistan Vanquishes America
Barry Ritholtz
Can you — finally — admit that our bank-created financial crisis of 2008-09 has led us to where we are today?
Do you understand the only options presented as a result of that — either corporate bankruptcy and nationalization or a completely artificial Fed driven recovery? (The third option was a Japan-like multi decade recession). Do you realize that the feeble recovery, the slow, deleveraging-driven process of gradual economic healing was the result of how our policy makers chose?
Do you recognize that the world of banking is divided into two camps?
On one side, there are those who understand that the giant banks must be broken up. They are dismayed at the large banks under-capitalization, over-leverage and opacity. These folks have figured out that these banks are not only too big to fail, but are so large that they are too big to succeed, and that the best route is to let insolvent banks fail. They are unhappy that our finance sector is a trillion dollar black box. They know that the majority of giant banks’ profits come from bailouts, and subsidies. This group is dismayed at the corruption of our political system by financiers. They understands huge banks are anti-competitive, a blaspheme against capitalism. They are shocked about corruption of even the most fundamental measures of interest rates such as LIBOR. They are stunned that bankers have overturned a bedrock, fundamental principle of our society — the rule of law rule — with the threat of disrupting the world’s economy if prosecuted for their crimes.
On the other side lay the bank apologists, corrupted politicians, and crony capitalists. They advocate the Big Lie of the financial crisis. They choose to ignore the facts and data that disprove their narrative. They continue to push the lies that the bailouts were a good investment. (They weren’t). They work against the Bipartisan consensus that the giant banks should be broken up. They ignore the many former bank CEOs who call for the break up of “Too Big to Fail” banks. They mandated that GSEs were banned from Lobbying, but they made sure that the big banks retained their influence peddling and hold on Washington DC.
They no longer represent the voters of their districts, but instead are the elected representatives of Bankistan.
And unless we do something — and soon — they will vanquish America.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/