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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama's Justice Department Rushes to the Rescue of LIBOR Criminals
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/obamas-justice-department-rushes-rescue-libor-criminalsObama's Justice Department Rushes to the Rescue of LIBOR Criminals
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
The Obama Justice Department is in theater mode, again, pretending to threaten the bankster class with criminal penalties prison time! for their manipulation of the global economys benchmark interest rates. The Justice Department claims to be building criminal and civil cases in the LIBOR scandal, which in sheer scope is the biggest fraud by international capital in history. But thats all a front, a farce. Barack Obama has spent his entire presidency protecting Wall Street, starting with his rescue of George Bushs bank bailout bill after its initial defeat in Congress, in the last days of Obamas candidacy. He packed his administration with banksters, passed his own bailout and, in collaboration with the Federal Reserve, channeled at least $16 trillion dollars into the accounts of U.S. and even European banks by far the greatest transfer of capital in the history of the world. Obama has reminded the banksters that it was he who saved them from the pitchforks of an outraged public. He pushed through Congress so-called financial reform legislation that left derivatives the deadly instruments of mass financial destruction that were at the heart of the meltdown untouched.
Wall Street may or may not remain loyal to Obama, but Obama has been loyal to Wall Street, the guys who gave him the campaign cash to become a viable candidate. His Attorney General, Eric Holder, a corporate lawyer to the core, is busily staging a pre-emptive LIBOR prosecution of bankers in order to shield them from legal action by a host of other government agencies and, ultimately, from the global universe of parties that have been harmed by the banksters schemes a list that stretches to infinity. Holders job is to monopolize the LIBOR case, to the extent legally and humanly possible, grabbing jurisdiction and consolidating the cases against the banks with the aim of reaching a settlement that does not further destabilize the financial system.
Holder and his boss already pulled that trick earlier this year with settlement of the bank robo-signing scandal a scheme that would have ranked as the crime of the century until LIBOR came along. A small group of state attorney generals were holding up an administration-brokered settlement that effectively gave the banksters immunity from prosecution, in return for a measly $25 billion payout. Obama used every power of his office to pressure the state law officers into line. The last one capitulated with a promise from Obama that a special unit of prosecutors would expand the investigation into abusive mortgages practices. You havent heard a peep about it, since.
Now Obama and Holder are playing the same diversionary game, making tough noises about criminal investigations of the LIBOR conspirators. But the Justice Department has already given immunity to Barclays Bank, of Britain, and to the Swiss banking giant UBS. More immunities will follow. The reason Eric Holder is staging criminal investigations is because thats the only way he can protect the bankers, through immunities and by gradually narrowing the scope of the case. In the end, there will be settlements all around, and the banksters will move on to even more fantastic heights of criminality thanks to the loyal, protective hands of President Obama.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)keep trying.
Sid
peacebird
(14,195 posts)Have you another source?
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Glen Ford is an editor at BAR.
More from Glen Ford
from his essay "Why Barack Obama is the More Effective Evil"
http://blackagendareport.com/content/why-barack-obama-more-effective-evil
And so it goes from there.
You can pretty much discount anything from Glen Ford says as an extreme case of Obama Derangement Syndrome. Similarly, those promoting BAR's special brand of "commentary"
Sid
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Yes, the commentary is vehement. I guess we'll learn a lot by what actually happens, won't we.
AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Who do you think will go to jail? What do you think about the immunity, and the predictions of settlements?
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)And fuck the source, the "Black Agenda Report"
"...thanks to the loyal, protective hands of President Obama.", indeed.
One Obama hit piece after another. Fuck that shit.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)You better believe it!
Sid
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Only a moron does not see that.
But let's be honest here. Do you really think these criminals will get anything more than a slap on the wrist? Really? Should we shut up about that just because it is an election year?
Yes, this is a vehement column by someone who is clearly angry and discouraged, but there is a reason for that in the history. Corporate money is rolling into our party as well as the other one, and Obama has a history of protecting banks. These predictions don't seem unrealistic at all. And if that is what we have to look forward to with the BETTER choice this election, don't we have a serious problem?
Denial does not help. Pretending we don't have a problem doesn't help. We need to DEMAND that these bankers be held accountable with prison time. Our responsibility to speak out about these things does not stop just because it is an election year.
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)I give this the opposite of a rec.