My conclusion of why you pay for Banksters crimes:
Big banks that assist the US Treasury in exchange for their implementation of financial policies overseas are almost universally held harmless in De Facto Immunity from prosecution for domestic and international financial crimes. In a clear case of what I think is a perfect “Quid Pro Quo” (“this for that”, in Latin) the bank personnel above the lower ranks are protected. The bank executives know they will not serve time and, in the worst case, only fines will be levied on the bank. Those fines are merely a cost of doing business, which are paid by the stockholders. From what I can tell the upper level employees have not even missed a bonus let alone suffered a felony conviction and imprisonment.
I think a clear picture of the problem emerged in the UK Telegraph’s article on April 16th, 2014.
“US Financial Showdown With Russia More Dangerous That It Looks”. by Ambrose Evans-Prichard on April 16. As the article quotes Newsweek: “The Treasury has deputized the entire US financial system to achieve its foreign policy goals”. Based on the recent book “TREASURY’s WAR” by Juan Zarate, former White House and Treasury Official, US Prosecutor, pretty much outlines the nature of the global nature of the effects of Sec 311 of the Patriot Act, designating countries, organizations, and individuals as money-launders.
Thus the banks become the infantry and artillery and special ops of the Treasury Department’s overseas activities. Several items in White House Peer Review papers suggest that these enforcement duties should remain governmental functions. In their desire to protect the US and extend the “Anaconda Strategy” developed by the North in fighting the US north-south Civil War, Treasury can designate a country, bank, or individual as a “Money Laundering Center”, with which everyone involved with them upstream or down, is then declared OUTLAW, persona non gratis, and more radioactive than Fukishima. No one, for fear of being barred from the lucrative capital markets in New York City, will deal with them. Their lifeblood– cash flow– stops. Without the likes of JPM, BOA, CITI, Goldman, and Morgan Stanley, very little money can be raised until other capital centers develop. That was a practical reason as well as symbolic reason the “911” attackers targeted New York and the Twin Towers. It is the beating heart of the capital markets.
All of us know who they are– the “Systemically Important” entities, critical to current US Global Strategy. Most Americans, if not people around the globe, are aware of the legion of unprosecuted crimes committed by Big Banks. But since they break laws with impunity due to their de facto immunity, a serious moral hazard has been created. Other bank executives are emboldened to new heights of criminal activity, and this creates more “unindicted co-conspirators”. I believe this is unconstitutional, bad practice, bad policy for the USA, and that it will have terrible long-term consequences, already showing in the huge loss of respect for the USA’s integrity of law.
For contrast, the NY Times notes that there were eight hundred forty-nine (849) convictions after the “Keating” Savings and Loan Scandal in the ’90s, and but only one (1) conviction since this meltdown began in 2006, and that was an Egyptian born Credit Suisse employee. None of the so-called TBTF bank personnel were imprisoned. I don’t think these banks are “Too Big To Fail,” however, they are “systemically important.” But that is not, in my opinion, the reason they will not be allowed to fail. As I see it the US Treasury Anaconda Strategy, cutting off cashflow to entities they designate as “Primary Money Laundering Centers”, is an effective short-term tactic but has serious negative long-term strategic implications for the USA. De facto immunity for big banks has, in my view, sent the current situation spinning out of control, like a loose cannon on a storm tossed deck, injuring friend and foe alike. The people of the US deserve a respected rule of law, not one for banks, and a different one for other people. IMO, injuries inflicted by Banker Crimes are legion, from false home repossessions to usury, to front running trades and rigging markets for their no-brainer profit trades. Do any readers NOT know someone so injured? Thus the actual financial fabric of our society is being rent for profit by the Banks, as such.
Of course the proof that the system still works will be the vigorous prosecutions of those banks whose crimes have not passed the statute of limitations. The old Populist slogan addressing low corn prices was: “Raise more HELL, and less corn”, which may be metaphorically the solution here. First it is clear the Big Banks and the Treasury, which is supposed to regulate them, must be separated, and the Banks and Bankers prosecuted for their crimes including jail time. Having Treasury depend on the Banks to enforce their rules seems unconstitutionally incestuous to me, and without checks and balances. An oligarchic state is ruled by Banks and other large interests, a Representative Democracy or Republic is not.
In my opinion what happens next is critical in determining who rules. Restoring enforcement to the Treasury of its regulations, foreign and domestic, and actual, real Regulation of the Banks and Financial Sector will do much to restore the respect to the US Financial Sector, which today, seems to be sadly lacking in that regard. They might be feared, but they are not respected, IMO. That could turn to contempt and tends to weaken the US Dollar in value and in status as a Reserve Currency. Myriad challenges to the US DOLLAR as a Reserve Currency are in progress as we read this, and actually putting our Financial Sector back under the Rule of Law, may in fact seriously retard, diffuse, and deflect some of these challenges. – D.G.