Washington and Wall Street: A ‘Democracy’ in Denial

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:



Washington and Wall Street: A ‘Democracy’ in Denial
April 25, 2010

Some Americans get all bent out of shape when they hear someone label the United States a ‘plutocracy.’ But if we have an honest-to-goodness democracy, where the people really rule, then how can we explain Goldman Sachs?

By Sam Pizzigati


The outsized political role of Goldman Sachs, America’s most powerful bank, has been attracting widespread attention — and flack — ever since the U.S. economy went freefall in 2008. But many defenders of our democratic virtue appear convinced that the Goldman Sachs power trip may soon be ancient history.

Sure, the argument goes, Goldman had a good run. But democracy has caught up with Wall Street profiteering. The stunning new federal SEC fraud case against Goldman, filed just over a week ago, once again “proves” that no group, not even an enormously rich one, can stand above the law.

And the upcoming Senate action on financial reform, the argument continues, shows that lawmakers do have the backbone to take on Wall Street, no matter how much Wall Street spends on lobbyists or campaign contributions.

Feel ready to start cheering? Hit your pause button. The SEC fraud charges and the Senate’s willingness to tackle financial reform both certainly do come as welcome developments. But neither move, held up to the light, qualifies as much of a stake in the heart of Wall Street greed and power.

Goldman, many observers believe, may even beat the fraud charges in court. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/washington-and-wall-street-a-democracy-in-denial/

[lib2DaBone]

1. ..Too Big to Fail..... Should Be In Jail.....

The current banking legislation now in CONgress is nothing more than window dressing, an attempt to appear to be regulating Wall Street while doing nothing. (Just like the health care)

What the Hedge Funds and Goldman Sachs are doing with Derivatives is clearly illegal under laws already on the books.. except no one will enforce them. Derivatives are paper backed by paper backed by some key strokes on a computer.. which are used to wage fiscal war on the world.

The Hedge Fund Hyenas are now in the process of attacking and destroying Greece. After that, they will move on to the next kill.. including what is left of the United States.

If nothing else, CONgress should have come down hard on Wall Street with a Trading Tax on Derivatives, and forced some of the Corporations to start paying income taxes. (Exxon-Mobile pays not a dime of income tax on their billions.. yet Congress can't wait to pass a Value Added Tax or National sales Tax on working Americans).

Congress and the SEC should make sure that Wall Street can only act as a security trader, an investment bank or an insurance company .. they have to be one or the other and they can't be all three.

Sadly.. CONgress is owned by Goldman Sachs.. nothing is going to change and the second bubble will explode... only this time it's going to take down the world economy. We are entering the second leg down of Depression II.