Jail the bankers!

What's a guy to do?  With your eye on a new truck and needing a fast buck, you decide to turn to crime.  You walk into a business, demand money, then walk out with $1000. You get caught and the judge fines you $200 and sends you on your way.  That's it.  

Hmm....at that rate you can net $800 every time you visit your local liquor store, 7-11, or Walmart.  If you need $1600, just be sure to steal $2000.  Need $3200 for your Black Friday midnight run?  Steal $4000.  The fine is just a cost of doing business.  

It's not your money....what do you care how much the fine is?  What's the downside, except for that pesky little part about eventually going straight to hell?  Sure beats working 40+ hours a week at the sawmill.

That's essentially the way our large, prestigious (?) banks do business these days.  Today's paper reported that a number of big banks have once again been fined, this time $3.3B for manipulating the foreign exchange (currency) markets while enjoying a windfall of untold billions of dollars in "profits" in the process.

In the last few years the "Too Big To Fail" banks, the ones you and I (the taxpayers) bailed out after their greed f__ked up the world's economy back in '08, have collectively paid $251B in fines for....let's just call it what it is....THEFT.  And they're still reporting record profits!  That's just a portion of what they made off their crime spree.  The rest they've already spent, some of it going to themselves as a thank-you bonus for their "hard work".

And to rub our noses in it, just know that it's the SAME banks that keep committing these crimes over and over again.  They've learned that crime DOES pay!

Wanna stop 'em in their tracks?  JAIL THE BANKERS!  Put them behind bars.  Put them on a bread and water diet.  Put them to work busting rocks in the hot sun.  Turn 'em over to that Hang 'Em High Sheriff fella in Arizona for a year or two. 

But as long as we keep electing politicians who are also profiting from this behavior (via political campaign contributions from the bankers) nothing will change.  We the sheep will still be led to slaughter. 

*this is insane*

S

And nobody saw this coming? Really?

Once again it has been brought to my attention that the world's economy is royally screwed up.  This time it's the tiny island/nation of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean that has imploded.  It seems Cyprus and its banks have become a major tax safe-haven for the world's oligarchs, particularly the newly-rich Rooskies.

Except, as with banks almost everywhere, the Cypriot banks didn't have enough safe places to invest their depositor's money.  Instead they chose the high-yield but also high-risk route and invested in Greece.  Yes, THAT Greece.  

Here's the problem in a nutshell:  There is too much money concentrated in the hands of too few people.  The wealthy have already bought essentially everything they want....homes, islands, exotic cars, planes, trains, jewels, art....and they still have trillions of dollars left over. Their excess cash just piles up and they often have no where but high-risk places to put it.  That's a disaster just waiting to happen.  

Meanwhile, with too much of the world's wealth in the hands of too few, there isn't enough left for the masses to buy enough of the things that spurs production and creates jobs.  That's why unemployment is so high worldwide.  The wealthy simply can't buy enough "stuff" to keep the rest of the world busy producing it.

So how do you fix it?  No, you don't just pull a "Robin Hood" and confiscate money from the rich and drop it on the poor.  That's a double-bad move.  The rich won't have any incentive to work because they'll just have their gains taken away from them, while the poor won't have any incentive to work because they'll just be handed a windfall for doing nothing.  

So what then?  Level the playing field.  We need a new tax code written on a clean sheet of paper and not just another band-aid on what we have now.  Start right now phasing out all the hundreds (thousands?) of tax credits and deductions and subsidies that are increasingly making our "free-market" economy anything but.  

The idea that we need to give all those loopholes to the wealthy so they can have more money to "invest" in the economy is bull!  They have several trillion (with a "T") dollars on the sidelines right now doing very little.  (And let's be honest....it isn't just the wealthy that benefit from loopholes.  We all benefit from a few....it's just that the rich's are bigger.)

Without special favors for a few I think you'd see in short order income becoming more equal based on the efforts of those working and not just flowing one-way to those who know someone important or can afford a lobbyist.  

The rich can still work and get richer, but it will be due to their superior intelligence or by the sweat of their brow and not by just knowing a congressman willing to sponsor their heavily camouflaged loophole.  More well paid workers = more  consumers = more production = more tax revenue.  See how this works?

It's called "growing the economy", and it's not a new idea.    We've heard a lot of talk about it recently, but very little movement towards it.  That's because some toes will have to be stepped on for it to work.

Finding someone willing to do a little "toe stomping" is the first challenge.  Any volunteers?

S

An offer they can't refuse....

Good morning world!

I heard on the Happy News this morning that men are helping out around the house more these days.  Not much more, but more than the 0% from days past.  The report said that women spend 52 minutes a day doing housework while men do 16 minutes a day, and women do 70% of the laundry, too.

Another advantage to downsizing to a much smaller place....there's less to clean.  I make up the bed 'cause I'm the last one up.  K does 90% of the cooking, while I do 90% of the clean up.  The laundry is pretty much 50-50.  A housekeeper every other week for a few hours does the heavy lifting.  We could do it ourselves, but after all these years Geneva is like family.  She stays.  

How about at your casa?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's see....first there were the Castelano's, the Gambino's, and the Bonanno's, and now we have the USB's, the RBS's, the Citi's, the JPMorganChase's and a bunch more, too.  The list of mafia outfits grows every day.  HSBC just paid a $1.9B fine for money laundering.  (They helped Iran and the Mexican drug cartels.)  A dozen other banks are ratting on each other over their interest-rate-rigging scandal in the UK.  (Their defense....the others were more guilty than they were.)  

Now there are a combined TRILLION dollars in claims pending against BofA, JPMorganChase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and others over their fraudulent mortgage securities businesses.  The banks will probably settle for something like $400B.  (Does this mean they'll get away with the other $600B?  How is that fair?)  

The only thing missing from this organized crime drama is some executive "whacking" in broad daylight while they're eating their spaghetti dinners.  (Personally I'd classify that as "justifiable homicide".)

First we had "too big to fail".  Now we have "too big to indict".  It seems the Feds are offering plea bargains to the banks rather than indicting their ivory tower Dons because they're afraid a guilty verdict in court would scare away investors and the banks would go belly-up.  Then us taxpayers would get stuck with the clean up.

The message here....if you're gonna commit a crime, make it a BIG ONE!

Now, unless you're a banker....have a nice day.  :)

S

You can't bullshit an old bullshitter

The world's toughest job?  Being the public relations guy for a bank.  This was a tiny little article in today's paper:

Greece offered universal health coverage until an agreement with its international lenders (banks) stipulated the unemployed must pay for their own treatment.

Isn't this just bringing the unemployed into line with the banking policy of charging customers a hefty fee for bouncing a check?  They're just charging you more of what they already know you don't have any of.  Duh!

A close second might be the PR guy representing Foxconn, the huge Chinese electronics contractor who employs hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers to assemble iPads for Apple.  (Their motto...."The beatings will continue until morale improves.") 

"They actually like working 18 hour days, on account of there isn't anything to do back in the dorm with their 250 roommates."

The Feds are suing Bank of America, accusing them of making home loans without ever even checking borrower credentials, a policy known mockingly within the company as "the Hustle".  They then sold the loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, where they mostly went straight into default.  

The taxpayers had to assume the loss when Fannie and Freddie failed, and now the Feds are going back on B of A.  How might the bank's PR guy possibly spin this?  "Ahh....umm....the Hustle?....that was just a dance contest we had on casual Friday's, that's all.  We're good."

Another tough one....the PR guy for bankrupt American Airlines.  "If we don't give big bonuses to our senior executives we'll lose our top talent to our competitors."  

Dude, you're BANKRUPT.  You don't HAVE any top talent.  That's why you're BANKRUPT!

You can't bullshit an old bullshitter.  ;)

S

Maxine's advice to all politicians...

Had enough politics yet?  The Republicans have been shoveling it deep and stinky this week, and next week it's the Democrats turn.  Oh joy.

I see that Citibank has agreed to pay $590M to investors they defrauded by selling them near-worthless sub-prime loans a few years back.  So they make a couple of billion gross profit, they give back $590M...pretty sweet, huh?  Nowadays banks just figure in fines and lawsuit settlements as part of the cost of doing business.  Just like the light bill and the phone bill.  I guess this is the new Business 101.

Just curious....Do politicians start out in banking to learn the art of sleaze, or do bankers learn how to defraud people with a straight face after doing a stint in Washington? 

All is not lost, though.  There is some good news out there:  It's football season!  And I mean REAL football....college football!  You know, the kind where your team finishes the season with the same players it started with.  Where players play for the love of the game.  And a new car and a couple of thousand dollars a month "laundry money".  *wink*

S

The perfect storm

As we've already established in my last post, the financiers (da banks) had been given the government go-ahead to essentially do whatever they wanted, with the regulators asleep at the wheel.  Here's where the plot thickens:


For years prospective homebuyers went to a mortgage originator in their area for a loan, typically a small independent storefront operation or a bank or Savings and Loan.  The loan was made to a credit-worthy buyer, the loan company made a fee for their service rendered, and the loan was sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.  (These were government spin-off companies who had implied government backing.)  Fannie/Freddie would in turn pay back the local mortgage originator who would loan it again, make another fee, and sell it, too, to Fannie/Freddie, on and on. Fannie/Freddie would bundle these and sell them to investors world-wide who were anxious to own rock-solid investments in the can't-lose American housing market.


By the early 90's there arose a scheme by Fannie/Freddie and the politicians (of BOTH parties) to expand the number of people who owned a piece of "The American Dream". The financiers made money off the deal, and the politicians gained votes back home, claiming they were the ones who were bettering peoples lives.  Now given a regulatory green-light, the banks wanted in too.  (Fannie/Freddie had limits on the dollar value of the homes they could buy.  The banks didn't.)  The word went out to the loan originators to make more loans and the banks would buy them.  Before long all credit-worthy people who wanted a house had a house, so they lowered the qualifications for credit, income, etc to bring more buyers in. The loan originators pretty much looked the other way on everything because they made lots of up-front money to get loans signed and on to the banks.  They didn't care if the loans were no good because by the time the buyers defaulted they were way down the line and were somebody else's problem.


At the same time the bankers were hiring brilliant mathematicians to play with the numbers.  Instead of packaging and selling 100 homes to investors, why not slice each home loan into a thousand pieces, then sell each investor 1% of 10,000 houses from all over the country?  Investors love diversification.  It also made it easier to slip in some of those sub-prime loans (buyers with poorer quality credit).  Actually a lot of those sub-prime loans. Heck, why not bundle home loans with some commercial business loans, too.  More diversification...yea!  Everything was bundled with everything...the banks became very creative!  Foreign banks saw what was going on and jumped in, too.  Ireland, the UK, and Spain among others had large property bubbles also.  Things just took off.


But to make this work investors wanted assurance that these extremely difficult to understand CDO's (Collateralized Debt Obligations, the homes being the collateral) were as safe as they sounded.  The banks took each new bundle (called a tranche) they put together to the rating agencies, primarily Standard and Poors, Moody's, and Fitch, and had them look them over.  Problem was, this was a new concept and there was no historical data to refer to, so the raters made up new, and as it turned out flawed, mathematical formulas.  They forgot to include the possibility the value of homes might actually go down.  Oops!  And there was massive conflict of interest, too.  The ratings agencies were paid by the banks whose CDO's they were rating (standard practice), and there were lots of CDO's.  With millions of dollars in fees on the line, the raters pretty much said whatever the banks wanted them to say.  Virtually everything was rated "investment grade".


We now have irrefutable evidence that the bankers knew they were peddling investments destined to fail.  But as they were making hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars in fees for their banks and hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions for themselves, they weren't about to stop.  Greed rules!  Eventually homeowners began defaulting in droves, things began to fall apart, and investors stopped buying new CDO's.  Banks were caught holding hundreds of billions of dollars worth of flawed (fraudlent?) loans not yet sliced, diced, repackaged, and sold off.  Many were broke and were forced by the government almost at gunpoint to merge with other banks that were only slightly better off themselves.  To shore things up the government stepped in and "loaned" them hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to tide them over.  The mess is still being unwound today.


There was taxpayer outrage of course, so Congress feigned innocence and vowed to slap down the bad 'ol bankers (but of course they still take their calls and their campaign contributions).  Investigations were done, new laws have been written, and the bankers are working their lobbyists overtime right now to shoot the new laws full of loopholes.  Not a lot has actually changed.  Crazy speculation is still going on as evidenced by the failure of MF Global last year and JP Morgan Chase's loss of billions of dollars just last month.  We never seem to learn.


S


As always, factual constructive criticism would be appreciated. If I've erred on something please speak up.

Election? I don't need no stinkin' election

(It's actually a pretty good likeness.)

First, I'd call a joint session of (the former) Congress, then lock the doors and change the name out front  to "Cell Block A".

Then I would invite all the Big Bank CEO's and their top lieutenants to an "All You Can Steal" buffet at the Fed, then lock the doors (I'm seeing a theme here) and let Elizabeth Warren have her way with them. 

All government bureaucrats would spontaneously combust. 

All mean people would have to report for "re-education".

Shorts would henceforth be considered proper business attire.

Football season would be expanded to year-round.

The cop who gave me a ticket last week would be banished to Cleveland.

Any requests?  

S

The bigger they come, the harder they fall

I would imagine major bank CEO's everywhere are holding their heads in their hands, wondering how things had gone so wrong.  Four years ago American banks hit the wall, essentially going bust, being saved at the last minute by the taxpayers.  Now the European banks are finding they have no place left to hide and it looks like we're in for Round II.  


As I've said for years, banks can't be trusted.  They shoveled money as fast as they could to European countries, raking off HUGE profits and instant commissions for themselves in the process.  Now the sovereign debtor nations can't pay back their lenders, the lenders can't afford to write it all off, and the EU probably can't afford to bail everyone out.  It's OH SHIT time!


I think it's time to admit the Anglo-American freewheeling form of banking/capitalism has flaws.  They (the financiers) are like little kids:  Left unchecked, they'll gorge themselves at the dessert buffet until they explode.  They need adult supervision, someone responsible enough to say "No".  I understand why they fight regulation at every turn...they don't like being told "No".  Most little kids don't.  


It's time to spank the little ruffians, ground them, send them to their rooms, no TV, no video games, and no cell phones.  Break up the banks and regulate and supervise their surviving parts....not just wink and nod but sternly supervise their activities.  Prosecute individuals who played games with their depositors and the taxpayers money, claw back their ill-gotten gains, and confiscate their properties like you would a common mafiosi.  That should put bankers world-wide on notice.  Enough!


S

Is his world even in the same solar system as mine?

Yesterday I read an interview with Edward Conrad, one of Mitt Romney's partners at Bain Capital and the author of Unintended Consequences:  Why Everything You've Been Told About the Economy is Wrong.  He was brought into Bain after it was already up and running and Mitt tutored him.  I can only assume his views are essentially those of his mentor's.  If Mitt is to ever have any chance of becoming President he'd better hope no one ever reads Conrad's interview or his book.


Conrad says, "The financial crisis...was not the result of corrupt bankers selling dodgy financial products.  It was a simple, old-fashioned run on the banks."


What has he been smoking?  He goes on to say, "The banks made some mistakes, but the important thing now is to provide them even stronger government support."  He advocates "...creating a new government program that guarantees to bail out the banks if they ever face another run."  *jaw hitting floor*  As for exotic derivatives (that were the root cause of the Crash of 2008), he doesn't see a problem.  "They were fundamentally sound."  * speechless*


Sure, everyone he ran with got to retire to the Hampton's with their fortunes pretty much intact.  But for every one of his buddies in that position there were tens of thousands who got royally screwed.


Gonna be a tough sell, Mitt.


S

I'm not sure I fully understand the difference between liberal and conservative stances on some issues.  In particular, consumer protection issues.  How is trying to force banks (and lenders in general) to say clearly, right up front and in plain English, what their terms are and what they're going to charge, anything but a good idea?  How is that partisan?  Unless you're a banker or lender intent on snookering the public into thinking they're getting a good deal when in fact you're charging them 28% interest or something like that, how could you not be in favor of such laws?  Where's the down side, unless you're a banker?  


The one thing I've learned from the financial crisis of '08 is that big business can't be trusted to do what's "right".  It's become so bad that as far as I'm concerned the burden of proof is on them to show me they're playing nice.  And to be fair there are a lot who do pass my smell test by honoring their warranties without resorting to loopholes and vague language that to a layman says one thing but legally means another, producing a clearly superior product, etc.   (Examples?....Amazon, REI, LL Bean, Zappos, to name a few.)  I consult Consumer Report regularly, and although I've never tried it, I've heard good things about Angie's List.  I just think it's a shame things have come to this.  Caveat Emptor...."buyer beware"....has never been more true.


What prompted this post was an article I read that told of one insurance company that was suing a bank for misrepresenting a financial instrument the insurance company was covering against default.  Sure enough things fell apart, the insurance company refused to pay up, and both are pointing fingers at each other saying the other side is a crook.  Hahaha....talk about the pot calling the kettle black!  I say a pox on them all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a more pleasant note, tonight it's my turn to pick our date night restaurant, and I'm choosing Anamia's.  We've only been there once before, but it left a grand impression on me.  I can taste it now....yum!  If I can remember to take pictures of our meal before I dive into it I will. 

Happy Friday!

S 

Time to "put up or shut up"

As you know I'm no friend of the big banks.  They have systematically and, through their intensive lobbying, legally raped and pillaged America.  Some would say the entire world.  Now our illustrious congress is debating whether to include/enforce "The Volcker Rule" as part of our banking "reforms".  Those reforms have been watered down so much already they're of dubious value, but still I suppose they're better than no reforms as all.


The Volcker Rule would prevent banks from "proprietary trading", which means taking their money and betting it on highly risky trades.  "But if it's their money, why should we care" you ask?  Because they can't lose.  Only we taxpayers can lose.  If they gamble big and win, they make mega-billions of dollars, meaning huge profits and BIG bonuses for their top executives.  But if they gamble big and lose, like they all did back in 2008, they know the US Government....you and I....will step in and make good their losses.  (They'll just have to be more discreet when they pass out their bonuses.)


They know they're "too big to fail"....if they lose everything and go out of business they'll take the whole country with them.  They know we won't let that happen.  It would be like you and I partying in Vegas with daddy's money.  As long as somebody is behind us to cover our losses, why hold back?  That's what they call "moral hazard".


The banks have already successfully beat back a proposal to break them up into smaller parts.  Under this scenario if their freestanding proprietary trading company failed it would just be allowed to go bankrupt.  It wouldn't hurt the bank's depositors (as they would be in a separate freestanding company) and the FDIC / U S Treasury wouldn't be out anything.  Just the proprietary trading company's investors would lose.  They do NOT like that idea!  They would lose their Sugar Daddy, aka Uncle Sam.


The time allowed for the banks to plead their case why they should continue to be allowed to gamble wildly has passed.  It's time for congress to decide.  Are they going to cave....again....to the banks and agree to cover their losses with our taxpayer money, or will they introduce some prudence to the banking biz?  My guess?  Bend over, America.


Will it do any good to write your Congressman and Senators and express your opinion?  Only if you attach a check for about $100,000 with your letter.  Those seem to be the only letters they read.


S

Remember when bankers were honorable people?

What's my bitch with the banks?  The banks have a choke hold on this country.  The world, even. They sneeze, we get a cold.  They devise a new way to squeeze a few more bucks out of us, they drop a few $$$ on the right congressional committee chair, and the rules are changed.  The regulators go blind.  


Banks have never directly screwed me.  When the economy went down the toilet in '08 I only had a couple of lots financed and I was able to get out from under those.  All the contract homes I've built since 9/11 have been financed with the loans in the customer's name, not mine.  I won't sign a (business) loan agreement with a bank because they're 100% loaded in the banks favor.  For example, they have the right to call the note due, at any time, for any reason, even if I'm current with all provisions of the loan.  Doesn't matter.  And yes, I know people they've pulled the rug out from under.  "He who has the gold makes the rules."  Personally I deal only with member-owned USAA for all my banking and insurance needs.  My credit record is spotless.


Indirectly the banks have screwed all of us. Beginning roughly 20 years ago they legally rigged "the system", enabling them to do whatever they wanted.  "Financial engineering" it's called.  All the unregulated "derivatives" and "credit default swaps" that made the news when the world went over the edge....those were HUGE profit makers for the banks (to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars), yet they added nothing of value to the economy.   When the dust settled they still had their money, and individually they still had their hundreds of millions in bonuses, while we were left with the bail-out tab.  Yet I know very well-off people (doctors) who today still find it difficult to secure financing to build a new home.  As a builder that hurts me and my family.


And it gets worse.  On paper the banks were broke in '09, so the Treasury "loaned" them billions of dollars, supposedly to "prime the pump" and get lending to businesses and hiring going again.  But that's not what the banks did with the money.  Instead they took the 0% interest "loans" (free money) and bought Treasury bonds paying 3%.*  It was simply a money transfer from the taxpayers to the banks.  Our government was either in bed with the bankers, or stupid.  Think you or I could get a deal like that?  HA!  Never heard of that, did you?  It was just a scam to re-capitalize the banks at taxpayer expense, without the taxpayers knowing it.  All we were told was "the deficit grew".  


And nothing has changed.  All the "banking reforms" that have been legislated recently to "correct past wrongs" are a farce.  They were gutted by the bank's lobbyists before what was left ever became law.  A little hand slap here and there, but always with a wink, too.   The number of banksters prosecuted for committing fraud?  You can count them on one hand.  Obama's recently announced effort to go after those responsible and bring them to justice?....I'll believe it when I see it!  And why did it take him 3 years to decide to go after the crooks?  Could the upcoming elections have anything to do with his newly discovered indignation?  "It plays good in Peoria." Again, I'll believe it when I see it.


We need to reign the bankers back in.  While I generally don't like excessive regulation in our lives, the banks have proven without a shadow of a doubt that left alone and without regulations (with teeth), they will act like drunken sailors on shore leave.  Trust a banker**?  I'd rather trust a crack whore with my bank account and PIN number.


S


*  Suggest you read Confidence Men:  Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President by WSJ writer Ron Suskind.  He names names, lists dates, places, directly quotes conversations....very informative.


** I'm talking about the Ivory Tower bankers at the BIG institutions, NOT the little loan officer or teller at the corner branch bank.

It's Us vs. Them, and we're losing

I've read recently that the big financial interests, that would be commercial banks, investment banks (pretty much the same these days), hedge funds, etc, are pushing back hard against the implementation of parts of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms law.  Seems the new rules make it more difficult for them to gamble big (which means "heads they win, tails taxpayers lose"), and opens up their books for *gasp* consumers to see just how badly they're screwing us.  (They like to work in the dark, or at least in the shadows, as much as possible.)


I can see why they're pushing back, as it impacts their multi-million dollar pay and bonuses.  What I can't understand is why they have allies in Congress who are siding with them.   Well, I can understand why....Congress is bought and paid for by the "bankers".  I guess what I can't understand is why we, the electorate, keep giving these guys our votes?  It's like thanking the mugger and inviting him to meet you again next week, same time, same place. 


We need a new, third political party, a party that will represent US.  The Democrats and Republicans surely don't.


S

Bazinga!

Craig's List came through for me again.  Yesterday evening I delivered to the new owner a beautiful framed signed/numbered print that used to hang over our fireplace, but for the past 2+ years has been leaning against the wall in our spare bedroom collecting dust.  We're slowly-but-surely disposing of stuff that we don't use so that when the day comes that we can move, hopefully to Colorado, moving will be a breeze and we can comfortably fit into a smaller, less expensive abode.  Read:  more money for fun activities/travels.  Fortunately I/we don't have much sentimental attachment to our "stuff", so letting it go isn't that difficult.


Speaking of Colorado, I see the first snow of the season has arrived in Denver.  That same storm will be arriving here in north Texas today, except in the form of 50 degree temps and rain.  I'm ready....let 'er rip.  Things here will be back to 70 and sunny by the weekend.  :)


In the news I see the too-big-to-fail European banks got a rude awakening.  They're being forced to write off half the value of the loans they made to Greece.  Looks like their greed bit 'em in the butt.  Whatever happened to prudent lending?  They should have known better.


Did you see where two members of the Italian Parliament got into a fistfight while "debating" the necessity of raising the retirement age to 67?  One accused the other's wife of retiring with a full pension at the ripe old age of 39, saying that's what's wrong with the system now.  Thirty nine?   Mama Mia!


S

It's already starting

Civil unrest.  Like many, I've predicted that next spring we could be seeing massive protests all across the country.  Protests by the unemployed, the underemployed, the currently-employed-but-worried-about-tomorrow.  Protests by those cynics who think our government is broken, and our elected civil servants corrupt.  From the Tea Partyers to the Union members, there are a lot of them, and I think they have some very valid complaints.


But my timing was off.  It's starting now.  The relatively small number of rowdies who are protesting Wall Street and the banks have now spread to other cities and financial districts, and they're gaining respectability.  (There was a march here today on the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas.)  Now there's word that protesters are mobilizing on college campuses (anything to get out of class  ;) upset about increases in tuition and cuts in classes, all while their administrators are pulling down very handsome paychecks.


And of course the Greeks are rioting.  They're now saying a Greek government default is inevitable, and if so, Italy and Spain and Portugal might be close behind.  Will a financial earthquake in Europe lead to a tsunami here?


Frankly, in a perverse way, I welcome all this.  I'm hoping that by next year, an ELECTION YEAR, there will be a mass exodus of incumbent politicians of both parties wanting to get out of Dodge before the crowd gets really rough.  Think of it as the "Ultimate Spring Cleaning".


This could be historic!  


S

The root of all evil....

....is money*, and who has all the money?  The BANKS!  


Funny how bank shenanigans were in the news multiple times today.  First was a report that banks were rapidly piling on more fees, putting the screws to us deeper than ever.  Free checking will soon go the way of the dinosaur, and fees to use bank debit cards are becoming more widespread, too.  Remember when banks used to be satisfied making the spread between what they charged us on loans and what they paid us on deposits?  Hahahaha!  There's another one for the history books.


The second mention concerned how Europe's rapidly deepening debt crisis is coming ever closer to engulfing us here on this side of the pond, too.  Seems the origin of the problem there was....ta da....the BANKS! Always looking to make a fast buck (or couple 'o BILLION bucks), they offered cheap money to the second tier European countries, knowing that the first tier European countries would ride to the rescue if it ever hit the fan.  And now it has, and they probably will.  


So the banks / bankers made BILLIONS, will probably ultimately write off some of it, pay a few hundred million in fines, and escape Scott free with the rest, unscathed.  No jail time for the scoundrels (who no doubt knew exactly what they were doing but didn't care), no public lynchings, nothing.  They can just ride off into the sunset and enjoy their happy, posh retirement.


Boy are we taxpayers (around the world) saps.


S


*It's in the Bible.  Look it up.