Dean Baker: Big Banks Are Feeding Like Parasites on the Govt.'s Money

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Boston Review / By Dean Baker

Big Banks Are Feeding Like Parasites on the Govt.'s Money
Big bank CEOs like to trumpet free-market ideology, but they depend on the government for survival in good times and bad.

February 4, 2010 |


Wall Street bankers, along with the rest of the players in the financial industry, like to think of themselves as swashbuckling capitalists. They battle cutthroat competition with one hand and oppressive government bureaucracy with the other. In reality, the financial industry is deeply dependent on the government. Far from the rugged, go-it-alone types they wish they were, they are more like well-dressed, coddled adolescents. And this is true in good times and bad.

The industry's dependency takes five main forms:

* an explicit safety net provided by government deposit insurance;

* an implicit safety net provided by "too big to fail";

* a special privilege of being the only untaxed casino;

* an open invitation to raid state and local governments for fees;

* a right to change contract terms after the fact.

These dependencies are entrenched, and, despite loud protests to the contrary, the removal of government from the financial sector is not really on the agenda. The issue up for debate is not the virtues of the free market versus government regulation. The industry wants government regulation, just not in a way that curtails its profits. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/economy/145511/big_banks_are_feeding_like_parasites_on_the_govt.%27s_money

[Naturyl]

1. But heaven forbid somebody spends their $22 monthly Food Stamps at Wal-Mart.

That's just a crime.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. K&R! and get ready to watch this OP skyrocket up the greatest page

[ixion]

3. Parasitic describes the entire F.I.R.E. vertical

as far as I'm concerned. It's a whole group of people who don't actually produce anything, and make their money by inserting themselves into other people's business.

The lot of them can take a flying f**k at the moon, for all I care.

[marmar]

4. Agreed.

nt