...that when the fraudsters were siphoning off their trillions, they used some chump change to buy the Congress, the courts, the major political parties, the voting machine companies and elections officials, and everything else that was up for sale?

When you're in a position of power, how can you prosecute the very people whose support and funding made it possible for you to be where you are today?

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... of the ubiquitous corruption that permeates business and it's surrogate government. The complexity of ramification potentials in the course of this irrevocable process of systemic self destruction is the stuff of apocalyptic fiction.

If Americans really understood the degree to which our "system" is saturated with criminal mentality, there would be blood. There very probably will yet be.

It's truly a hard place to be charged with maintaining calm when the truth fiercely threatens it. The potential for the unraveling of social order is omnipresent more pervasively in more places than at any time since World War II.

There will be revelations that escape the bonds of official suppression. And when they do they will not be met with acquiescence by desperate populations.

We still seem to think that government actions can save a thoroughly corrupted business culture that's run rampant over every principle of economic discipline and moral decency.

It can't.

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He might as well be Denzel Washington off a script except that he's much more cynical and glib. Obama was carried to his frilly DC perch by corporate Police State felons whose underlings infest the cabinet, congress, media and all the rest of it.

This whole thing is one creepy Orwell nightmare going down the same as if the Sopranos were in charge. One thing. The Hollywood Sopranos are pikers compared to the MOB that runs Obama and DC.

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CRIME PAYS
linked text

Nigel Eccles explanation of the present crisis (starts at 1:37) is the most concise I have ever heard. linked text

Yep it's back to feudalism for most of us humanity ‘s medieval ignorant peasant pigs says our masters ;)

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." - Groucho Marx

Marxism we all can believe in ;)

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An amazing episode, and to answer this articles' headline: "Why are the very people whose actions ignited a worldwide depression still sitting pretty, at least compared to their victims?"

The Daily Show Eviscerates Santelli and CNBC

This episode's collection of clips throughout recent financial history is worthy of an award.

Don't believe the hype and spin on any financial news channel; from host to broker to CEO, they all have to lie, it's the only way to legally con people who gamble, oops, I meant "invest".

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How to take over the world's finances
Imagine an international Federal Reserve that creates and controls the money supply for the entire world. The centralization of financial power into the hands of the few would be unprecedented. What power the Fed wields over the United States today, a "global Fed" could soon wield across the entire world.

Achieving such a power grab, however, is no small task. Nations will not voluntarily surrender power over their currencies...

Unless there is a crisis!

In a crisis scenario, nations will give up practically anything -- freedoms, finances, and yes, even their own currencies if it means avoiding certain economic disaster. If there's one thing that the world has learned from 9/11, it's that the best way to grab power from the People is to either engineer a disaster or piggyback on one that occurs on its own. When faced with the fear of annihilation, the People of any nation will not merely surrender their freedoms and finances, they will beg to turn them over to any apparent "authority" who promises a solution.

Go to 911insidejob.net for full story

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There is something fundamentally wrong with a society where the scum are the rich people.

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I just happened to click on the 9/7/08 archive of Newsoftheweird.com and had to share this:

Florida's nation-leading epidemic of mortgage fraud was facilitated by state regulators who permitted 2,200 people with finance-crime records to become professional "loan originators," part of the total of 10,000 with rap sheets allowed to work in the industry over an eight-year period, according to a July investigation by The Miami Herald. At least 20 registered brokers kept their licenses after fraud convictions. A 2006 state law required criminal background checks for broker licensing, but fewer than half were ever done, reported the Herald. And the crisis continues, according to a Virginia research firm, which found in August that almost one-fourth of new mortgage fraud in the U.S. emanates from Florida (mostly on scams exploiting people who face foreclosure). [Miami Herald, 7-20-08] [Tampa Tribune, 8-26-08]

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they have their own central bank

this plan has been sent to Ahnold but he wont respond
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=listByAuthor

GOOGLE "PLAYING THE BANKING GAME ELLEN BROWN"

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http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12522

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When the same pattern of criminality continues seamlessly through administration after administration, that should tell us something.


FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

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not sure why Roland Burris & Blago on the list ? that too 2 & 3 ??
Not that they are innocent, but are they responsible for this World wide Depression ?


I was hoping to see those who actually are from Wall Street !!

Only name I saw was of Madoff

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This scumbag is not trying to protect your privacy; he's trying to steal your identity.

If you click on his "Privacy Center" hyperlink, the server the link points to will install a keylogger on your computer, which is used to steal your credit card number, SSN, etc.

Please, report the comment to Alternet's staff.

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So, the solution is obvious:
NATIONALIZE the US Banks!

But remember to put competent people in charge and make the books transparent and public.

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personally i think there should be an enron style investigation into Fannie mae and freedie mac and acorn! these are the real people responsible for the economy! I think that all the politicians involved should be prosected to the fullest extent of the law! It is liberalism that caused the economic problems that we are having! Have a great day!!!

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Yes-the Congress and President are weak in getting to the criminals and prosecuting them for criminal neglect, and creating a massive national security risk. A grand jury investigation needs to be formed to look at the criminal neglect beginning with Bush, then Wall Street on down. It all goes back 30 years to the world's biggest Ponzi scheme, and our monopoly capitalist financial economy.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

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INCLUDING many (most?) in federal and state government. which is why none of this has or will change.

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Send an email letter to Bernie Madoff's attorney - Ira Sorkin

sorkini@dicksteinshapiro.com

What do you think about Bernie Madoff and others like him?

As I have said before, and will offer now, this is not just "white collar crime" - this is economic treason.

But that's my opinion.

I suggest sending a letter to Mr. Sorkin, and tell him what you think about his client.

I did - perhaps you may be inspired to offer some thoughts.

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"Why are the very people whose actions ignited a worldwide depression still sitting pretty, at least compared to their victims?"
. . . . . . .

Because what we have today in the Wall Street-Washington D.C. nexus is a culture of criminality; one that has grown so slowly but inexorably for over a generation that those within it no longer realize they ARE criminals. They think they are entitled by their exhaulted station in life to the spoils of actions which the more-honest-about-its-profession Mafia would readily acknowledge is stealing.

What is going on right under our noses is a level of theft that makes the Mafia look like a bunch of amateurs. The basic problem is that no one is acknowledging the wholesale pillaging of the world economy by wealthy american power brokers for what it is. As long as the "powers that be" keep pretending that the financiers they continually throw money at are not crooks, nothing will improve, while billions – no, trillions – will simply disappear into off-shore bank accounts. But, of course, "the powers that be" WILL keep pretending, because they are a part of it – right up to their wallets.

It's going to take way more than "stimulus" packages or even FDR-style works programs to fix THIS problem.

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I for one am outraged that this high level white collar crime is so rampant and vastly goes unpunished. It sends a clear message to these people that they can get away with it.

"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime" should have more bite in its bark. These crimes should have much higher penalties and the funds reclaimed should go to pay for their lengthy incarceration.

Maybe it could be referred to as "C Collar Crime" for the C Titles that are involved such as CEO, CFO, etc.

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Need I say more?

Why is it that 'Merkaaners still can't function on this level of comprehension? You have one of the most stratified class structures on the planet and you train yourself so well in DENIAL about it. Talk about a self-induced clusterfrag...

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... because it was written by a guy who didn't do his journalism!

Damned lazy!

Rich people, for god's sake, they are all rich people and they all part of da same damned club.

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We always hear about movies, music, video games, sports, ect. and the stars that profit handsomely from being in a chosen industry, as being role models for our children and society in general. We teach in classes across this once great nation, of leaders and their struggles and victories. I believe our government and business leaders have set the example for the upcoming generation, and that scares the sh*% out of me. The children are smart enough to see that what's going on is a crime and it appears to be free of any negative repercussions. And it pays in so many different ways, all good. How future (if there is one) generations will be taught about this time will be a very interesting read. Who will be cast as villains and heros we be determined by the writer. Truth or fiction. The saddest chapter will be how the American public abused their freedom, by doing nothing. They didn't riot, jail the guilty, or anything but suck it up. We really need to start over, completely over.

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Why can't we re-establish regulation, the Glass Stegall act, nationalize the banks, We've been down this road before. The actions of the financiers put us here in the thirties. This criminal behavior must be stopped before we pass the point of no return. We, THE PEOPLE ARE TIRED OF GETTING SCREWED!

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Innocent until proven guilty. Leftists love that logic when some alleged terrorist is tossed in the can or in Guantanamo. And I agree with that view. Some if not all of the behavior that led to the fall of the banks and investment houses could, I say could, have been the result of lousy oversight by the gvt, not necessarily outright illegal behavior.

Morally? Sure. These guys on Wall St(and in Washington) have no moral compass. But going to jail is a legal,not moral standard. The author here seems rather pathetically uniformed and lacking in the necessary legal background to judge these actor in our financial collapse.

Personally, I blame the American people. But no politician has the guts to tell the "people", you were greedy and you are getting exactly what you deserve, s........heads.

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True everything is a mess not only the economy our own government feeds off of us, the working person. I don't feel my vote has mattered in several years. I am very sick of supporting a government that seems to take and take. Why did they give money to those who obviously would waste the oppurtunity? Why not start from the bottom up instead of from the top? I read and heard that the first stimulus money would have given each taxpayer the chance to get out of debt and start afresh. I am one of those who may be sleeping in their car soon. I don't know much about economics but even someone like me knows you shouldn't just hand over a bunch of money without some kind of control especially to those who really no longer has a clue of what reality is like for us poor folks. I gross less than $25,000 per year, haven't had TV in over two years, tend to have to suffer eating Banquet tv dinners and vienna sausages to just barely scrape by. This year I have to pay in state taxes because if your child grosses more than $3,500 you can't claim them. I feel like sending them a f/y letter to them. Where were they when I needed help? The ijits asked me if I needed an interpreter. Maybe I should've said yes.

They should have helped out the common person first and helped the banks that way. They should also get our manufacturing back into our own country instead of treating other countries people as little more than slave labor so they could get a product made cheaper with a higher profit margin available. I don't understand the term nationalizing banks. I hope it doesn't mean handing it over to the government. Do you really want someone who would pay a few hundred for a hammer in charge of the banking system? Wish there was a way to read any comments made. I am one aggravated yet confused person. I am tired of trying to make it. Thank God! Banquet tv dinners were on sale this week. I'd go hungry otherwise.

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So all of these thing have happened under an economic universe of excessive corporate and individual economic hedonism!!!

This is the end of the backlash against the 60's boomer ethos in some kind of Free Greed and War world replacing Free Love noit War!!

Where are we, back in Vietnam, pretty much with war and massive paranoia of unseen terrorists everywhere.

We have the volunteer military being extravagantly abused in a War based on even more transparent falsified facts!

We have National Guard doing double and triple duty for a non-emergency and we have lots and lots of PTSD on top of death and injury.

And we have poor and unemployed dropping off the map of our society and corporate extortion
and short term profits degrading our basic fabric of society into tattered threads.

We need a 21st Century new world of interdependence and social responsibility no longer based on the logic of war with dominance and submission and winner loser.

We all live on a tiny, precious, and precarious jewel of life called Earth and we should be living it with more compassion and feeling.

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In the quaint days when the Republican Congress was busy impeaching Clinton, the American public (and probably much of the rest of the world) was treated to frequent reciting of the mantra, "no one, not even the President, is above the law". By now it should be clear to nearly everyone that this is either wrong, or possibly that it applies only to Democratic presidents.

We have all known, but not openly admitted, that there are in fact different systems of justice for different people; but the Bush years have served to rub our noses in this sad fact of life.

There is an exceeding strict kind of law that is applied to the poor and black and only a slightly more gentle kind of law applied to those who are simply poor, but not also black or some disadvantaged minority. At the other extreme, the rich or political elete, except in an extreme or particularly notorious case, can simply ignore the law when they cannot actually re-write the law to serve their needs.

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America is an oligarchy, has been an oligarchy and will probably continue to be so. What progress has been made came at the very high price of activists, organizers and supporters marching, boycotting and getting their heads busted for the cause. Women, people of color and LGBT people have had to fight for basic rights. The same applies to workers trying to organize, peace movements and such.

Maybe you should read some Zinn...

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Wall Street's Best Investment II: 12 Deregulatory Steps to Financial Meltdown

March, 08 2009By Weissman, Robert
Robert Weissman's ZSpace Page
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What can $5 billion buy in Washington?

Quite a lot.

Over the 1998-2008 period, the financial sector spent more than $5 billion on U.S. federal campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures.

This extraordinary investment paid off fabulously. Congress and executive agencies rolled back long-standing regulatory restraints, refused to impose new regulations on rapidly evolving and mushrooming areas of finance, and shunned calls to enforce rules still in place.

"Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America," a report released by Essential Information and the Consumer Education Foundation (and which I co-authored), details a dozen crucial deregulatory moves over the last decade -- each a direct response to heavy lobbying from Wall Street and the broader financial sector, as the report details. (The report is available at: www.wallstreetwatch.org/soldoutreport.htm) Combined, these deregulatory moves helped pave the way for the current financial meltdown.

Here are 12 deregulatory steps to financial meltdown:

1. The repeal of Glass-Steagall

The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 formally repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and related rules, which prohibited banks from offering investment, commercial banking, and insurance services. In 1998, Citibank and Travelers Group merged on the expectation that Glass-Steagall would be repealed. Then they set out, successfully, to make it so. The subsequent result was the infusion of the investment bank speculative culture into the world of commercial banking. The 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall helped create the conditions in which banks invested monies from checking and savings accounts into creative financial instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps, investment gambles that led many of the banks to ruin and rocked the financial markets in 2008.

2. Off-the-books accounting for banks

Holding assets off the balance sheet generally allows companies to avoid disclosing "toxic" or money-losing assets to investors in order to make the company appear more valuable than it is. Accounting rules -- lobbied for by big banks -- permitted the accounting fictions that continue to obscure banks' actual condition.

3. CFTC blocked from regulating derivatives

Financial derivatives are unregulated. By all accounts this has been a disaster, as Warren Buffett's warning that they represent "weapons of mass financial destruction" has proven prescient -- they have amplified the financial crisis far beyond the unavoidable troubles connected to the popping of the housing bubble. During the Clinton administration, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sought to exert regulatory control over financial derivatives, but the agency was quashed by opposition from Robert Rubin and Fed Chair Alan Greenspan.

4. Formal financial derivative deregulation: the Commodities Futures Modernization Act

The deregulation -- or non-regulation -- of financial derivatives was sealed in 2000, with the Commodities Futures Modernization Act. Its passage orchestrated by the industry-friendly Senator Phil Gramm, the Act prohibits the CFTC from regulating financial derivatives.

5. SEC removes capital limits on investment banks and the voluntary regulation regime

In 1975, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) promulgated a rule requiring investment banks to maintain a debt to-net capital ratio of less than 15 to 1.

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You know, it's a sad reality that these "criminals" are just the latest version of the type of outlaws Americans have idealized or romanticized as a part of our individualistic culture.

Face it, we, the little people, secretly harbor a little bit of jealously of their "success".

"I wish I could get away with being that wicked, too" we think, as a culture. "Why can't I get in on the gravy train, too?"

We really don't want to punish these guys that much, or see them get what they really deserve, because we idolize the outlaw, cowboy, train robber, gangster, who gets ahead by bucking the "system".

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