We seem to be getting more stupid, as a nation

I couldn't believe it when I read it:

Texas Teen Jailed For Sarcastic Facebook Comment

So bankers can take literally millions upon millions of dollars from people--stealing it, factually--and aren't even charged with a crime but let one teenager type something sarcastic on a social page and HE'S jailed?

Where on Earth are our priorities?

And that one, above, is on top of this one from the recent past:

Police arrest sidewalk chalk-drawers in LA Occupy protest 

We don't arrest the thieves and liars at Bank of America but we arrest the people outside their banks, writing on the sidewalks in chalk.

Does any of this make any sense at all?  To anyone?  

Well, except to the banksters.

How bad do banks have to get before we regulate them better?

First there was the 2008 financial, financial implosion of the banks that took place, nearly bringing down not just the nation's but nearly the world's economies, both, simultaneously.

Next we got Countrywide Financial cheating people out of millions or billions of dollars on their home mortgages with president, CEO and owner Angelo Mozilo getting away nearly scot-free.

Next up, we more recently had the Barclays Bank manipulation of the Libor interest rates, to our detriment and their benefit.

Fourth, we very recently--this past week--had Wells Fargo getting fined 175 million dollars for putting the financial screws to Blacks and Hispanics across the country.

Fifth, next, "Visa, MasterCard and major banks agreed to pay retailers at least $6 billion to settle a long-running lawsuit that alleged the card issuers conspired to fix the fees that stores pay to accept credit cards." Sick. We're being used and thrown to the dogs.

Now, we have JP Morgan saying yesterday that they lost not just 2 billion dollars but at least nearly 6 billion dollars--it may climb higher, they said--because they didn't have the proper people and procedures in place to protect their clients, themselves and the nation from this big a fleecing and scandal.

At what point do we recognize that we need to regulate banks better and more thoroughly?

Will it be when they collapse, completely?

Is that what it has to take?

Will we then have learned our lessons?

Do we have to wait that long?

Links: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/22/morganstanley.goldmansachs

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350_1877339,00.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9398723/Barclays-manipulated-Libor-submissions-to-fit-in-with-the-crowd.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/09/elizabeth-magner-new-orleans-wells-fargo_n_1412412.html

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/jpmorgan-reports-second-quarter-profit-of-5-billion-down-9/

http://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/07/13/9579/visa-mastercard-6b-settlement-over-card-fees?utm_source=iwatchnews&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=rss

This is WAY overdue

Finally, an SEC that is doing what it was created to do--protect the American public from thieves, charlatans and crooks.

Of course, it's way overdue but hey, we'll take it.

It seems the SEC is finally accusing Angelo Mozilo, the former head of the now-defunct Countrywide Financial, of securities fraud and insider trading.

We all know Countrywide and Mr. Mozilo as the scumbag organization and the scumbag, respectively, who brought so many billions of dollars of bad mortgages to the country. In the meantime, Mr. Mozilo lined his pockets with many billions of dollars.

In referring to Countrywide's products, Mr. Mozilo called the loans "toxic" and "poison". His own words.

It's been common knowledge from coast to coast, that Countrywide and Mr. Mozilo were dirty and had run an illegal, shameful operation but the SEC hadn't done anything yet.

The time has finally come.

Thank goodness.

Great news on an otherwise bad business news day.

In the meantime, there are stories out right now about the banks who have been in so much financial trouble and who brought the country to the current financial crisis and nightmare we're in, still being in control of their friends up in Washington (read: the Senate and House) and that Senator Max Baucus isn't letting single-payer lobbyists in the health care field into his negotiations over our health care system.

We're screwed.

Link to stories:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/business/05insider.html?_r=1&th&emc=th#
http://www.propublica.org/ion/bailout/item/another-tale-of-successful-bank-lobbying/#10943
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/business/economy/05bankrupt.html?em
http://www.truthout.org/060509K

The original "Piggies", from the Beatles, dedicated to the new "business piggies" of today

Dedicated to AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their former leaders, Angelo Mozilo (former head of Countrywide Home Loans), Bernard Madoff, Former Vice President Dick Cheney, John Thain (former head of Merrill Lynch) and all the Wall Street fat cats who've been cleaning this country's clock, financially, unregulated, for so long. This includes, of course, all the Republicans, in office and out, who've also made this all possible.

Again, have a great weekend, y'all.