Republicans, Right Wingers, Corporations, the Wealthy and "Small Government"

Government regulation?

I'm just glad they know what's important, aren't you?

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.

The Republican dream

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

A great way to spend 17 minutes

An education on the 2008 national and international near-total financial and economic collapse due to American bankers and banking and where we are now.

You owe it to yourself--and the nation, your country--to see this documentary: http://www.insidejobmovie.com.au/

Let's put into place the Robin Hood tax

To repeat, the Robin Hood Tax campaign is calling for a tax of less than one-half of 1% on Wall Street transactions that could generate hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

This tax on Wall Street could provide funding to kickstart the economy and get America back on its feet by creating jobs and strengthening public services like health care, education and infrastructure at home while tackling AIDS, global health, poverty and climate challenges around the world.

It's an idea whose time has long-since come.

Please support the Robin Hood Tax. Let your representatives in Washington, DC know you're for it.

What Americans don't know about their own economy

Bill Moyers, Matt Taibbi and Yves Smith discuss what the banks do and have done and why it's all so very criminal.
Things Americans aren't paying attention to and, it seems like, won't pay attention to, either.

On our--American's--foolish optimism (guest post)

We continue to think that Americans, no matter how crazy, should be able to buy guns, no matter how lethal. Columbine had no effect. Virginia Tech, no effect. Lunatic after lunatic, senseless murder after murder, nothing changes. Somebody like Jared Loughner, who doesn't appear to know whether he's afoot or on horseback, can wander into a sporting-goods store and stumble out with a semiautomatic weapon almost as easily as he can buy a sleeve of golf balls.

We continue to believe that business can regulate itself. Wall Street greedheads nearly blow up the world economy with their pointless, synthetic financial instruments, and we continue to believe that government regulation of financial markets would stifle innovation. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to try to fix the consequences of their most recent innovations, and yet we persist in the belief that regulating the industry would be un-American. We can't even summon the political will to pressure companies to reduce the salaries and bonuses of the most egregious malefactors.

We persist in throwing endless blood and treasure into the endless, pointless war on drugs. After 40 years, untold billions of dollars and countless lives wasted in prison, it's still easier for a teenager in Detroit to buy a bag of cocaine than a six-pack of beer. How much richer is organized crime as a result of the fact that drugs are illegal? How many children have been killed in this war?

We continue to believe — against all logic, all evidence and all experience — that giving money to the for-profit insurance industry is the way to provide healthcare for the poor and sick. There isn't enough money in healthcare for not-for-profit institutions to make a go of it, but adding a layer of investors to skim off the top will make it work.

We continue to believe in the fantasies of smart bombs, surgical strikes and limited wars.

And we continue to imagine that a government funded by corporate lobbyists and dedicated to no higher principle than lower taxes is going to be a guardian of the public interest.

These ideas are not working this time. They didn't work last time or the time before that. We have no idea why. And we all just stand here barking.

--Barry Goldman, arbitrator and mediator and the author of "The Science of Settlement: Ideas for Negotiators."

Link to original post:   http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-goldman-sphex-20110515,0,7387307.story  

Sure, we'll sue a German bank...

U.S. sues German bank over home loans

Deutsche Bank is accused of unfairly sticking American taxpayers with a monster tab.

To date, the U.S. government has brought few cases against big Wall Street banks in response to the mortgage crisis that nearly toppled the world's financial system almost three years ago. But the Justice Department today filed suit against Deutsche Bank for hundreds of millions of dollars, alleging that the banking giant unfairly stuck taxpayers with the tab for bad home loans it issued.

The complaint, filed in Federal District Court in New York, accused Deutsche Bank of failing to adequately scrutinize potential borrowers, then lying to government officials about its lapses of due diligence

Yeah, we'll jump all over a foreign, in this case, German, bank.  We'll sue them.  We'll go after them for lying to and cheating and stealing from Americans but an American bank?

Where are the lawsuits against Countrywide?

And since Bank of America bought Countrywide, where are the lawsuits against them?

And while we're at it, where are the lawsuits against Goldman Sachs for both pushing junk loans in one part of the company but then betting those same junk loans will fail in a different part of the same company, all to gain billions of dollars in profits?

Where are THOSE lawsuits?

We know the answer.

The people above pay their representatives "campaign finance" money--far better and more accurately known as bribes--to get whatever they want in the form of legislation and/or, in this case, just to be quiet and leave them alone.

Well, that and the fact that Goldman Sachs is IN the White House, has been for years and is having their way with us.

Quote of the day--on corporations paying taxes

When corporations like Bank of America don’t pay their fair share of taxes, we have to ‘cut’ teachers, firefighters, and public servants. Do you pay your taxes? So do we. Why don’t corporations pay their fair share, just like everyone else? Bank of America is Bad for America. Bank of America pockets Billions in profits and bailouts, but $0 in American taxes — that’s immoral and un-American.
--US Uncut

Link to original post:  http://www.disinfo.com/2011/03/ever-want-to-yell-at-300-billionaires-who-helped-wreck-the-economy-video/

From a friend today on Facebook, on the banks

His post: 

I would like to congratulate the banking industry for a job well done!



Now we have all the clowns in Washington in the same car. They want to reward you on putting 1 in 5 Americans on unemployment. Taking the whole global economy to it's k...nees. Your unbridled greed in the commodity markets have caused many a parent worldwide to worry on how they can fed their children. Playing with grain futures that is so you after all. Those end of year bonuses do look good, don't they. After all you do have to spend more time in the Hampton's, too get away from all the slums in the city.


Taking peoples nest eggs and a making an omelet out of them.


Now they want to give you total control of the housing market. So here's your reward Fannie-Mae and Freddie-Mac. Come on how can you mess up the housing sector.


Good job bankers keep up your contempt of those around you and I hope that someday not to repay you for your actions.


--From a taxpayer in need
 
My response:
 
AND they're still fighting to be totally, completely and utterly unregulated, as they are right this moment---and they have the Republicans fighting for them so it doesn't happen!! What a great bunch of people!

That whole "dust up" in Wisconsin over private sector pay?

So Governor Walker, in Wisconsin, thinks collective bargaining should be thrown out and done away with for whatever reason, as though the public sector makes so much money?

As was so well pointed out last evening on "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO, the bankers took us all, nationally and internationally, to the financial cleaners, nearly taking down the entire world economy, while making off with billions of dollars for themselves, but we want to balance the books on the backs of the teachers, police and fire departments in the country, as is so well shown in Wisconsin right now.

So much for the public sector being paid more than the private sector:

May 20, 2010


Another Wage Gap: Public Sector vs. Private Sector

A report released in April 2010 reveals a continuing gap between the wages paid to employees in the public sector compared to those working for private companies. That's not news. But interestingly, the report found that, even when benefits are factored in, public sector employees still earn less than their private sector counterparts.
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Commissioned by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS), “Out of Balance? Comparing Public and Private Sector Compensation over 20 Years,” examined pay data over 2 decades and found the gap wider now than in years past.


Among the findings:
Public sector jobs typically require more education than private sector jobs. About 48% of public sector employees have completed college, compared to 23% of people working in the private sector.


When comparing employees with comparable earnings determinants, such as education level and work experience, state workers earn about 11% less than their counterparts in the private sector, and local workers about 12% less.


The pay gap has increased over the last 15 years.


It is generally accepted that public employees earn less because their benefits tend to make up the difference. “For a long time,” says Beth Almeida, NIRS executive director, “there has been a trade-off in public sector jobs—better benefits come with lower pay as compared with private sector jobs. This study tells us that this is still true today.”
But the report adds another facet. “What’s striking is that, on a total compensation basis—looking at pay and benefits—employees of state and local government still earn less than their private sector counterparts.” The report found the difference to be 6.8% for state employees, and 7.4% for local employees.
“The picture is clear,” according to Keith A. Bender, a co-author of the report and an associate professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “In an apples-to-apples comparison, state and local government employees receive less compensation than their private sector counterparts.”
Could that be a reason some public sector jobs remain chronically unfilled? It might be, said Elizabeth K. Kellar, president and CEO of the Center for State and Local Government Excellence. “Hiring managers told us (in another recent study) that, despite the economy, they find it difficult to fill vacancies for highly-skilled positions such as engineering, environmental sciences, information technology and healthcare professionals. The compensation gap may have something to do with this.”

Why are people not pissed off at the bankers?
 
Why have we not thrown any of those people in jail already?  The did, in fact, break laws and it's verifiable.
 
God, we're a stupid people.
 
Link to original post:  http://compensation.blr.com/Compensation-news/Compensation/Administrative-Exemption/Another-Wage-Gap-Public-Sector-vs.-Private-Sector/

Wal-Mart, your local banker, redux

I wrote about this last year--Wal-Mart, huge retail everything company, next up to take over cheep banking. Don't say you weren't warned. Wal-Mart Isn't A Bank. Yet. July 6, 2010 by JACOB GOLDSTEIN Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart, will work with a finance company to offer loans of up to $25,000 to small businesses, the company said today. It's the latest in the company's move into the world of finance. When Wal-Mart applied for a bank charter a few years ago, regulators said no. A charter would have allowed Wal-Mart to take deposits and make loans. But that rejection hasn't stopped the company from significantly expanding its financial offerings. The actual lending in the new program will be done by Superior Financial Group, a federally regulated lender. But Sam's Club is promoting the loans, and members will get a discount on the application fee and on the interest rate. And Sam's Club may expand the types of loans it offers through third parties, the New York Times reported over the weekend. One company, over all, indivisible. Shut up and eat. Link to original post: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/07/06/128333221/wal-mart-isn-t-a-bank-yet-but-it-s-getting-there