If not for federal policy, TARP, etc. — there would be no Bank of America, Citi, Chase, Wachovia, etc. “Too Big to Fail” institutions should have been broken up and restructured. Deposits and transactions could have been guaranteed for less than existing outlays. Bankruptcy proceedings would have resulted in trillions of dollars in restitution to counter-parties — money that would be paid before shareholder losses. $500 billion is a drop in the bucket.
Instead, we got a taxpayer financed, currency-floated bailout. We saved the 1%, preserved giant Wall Street banks, guaranteeing Goldman and the like, made good on Chinese investments, European counter-parties, Saudi royalty, hedge funds — almost everybody is getting paid except for ordinary American people, and now that includes average people paying into their pensions.
Criminal conduct? Are you joking? Laws were broken. Madoff was a token. Frauds were committed. CitiBank is the most recent example of fraud to settle for a slap on the wrist and no admission of wrong-doing. The proof there was airtight and would have resulted in jail time if prosecutors had chosen to pursue. Enforcement and prosecution has been non-existent. Obama sucks, but Republicans are way worse.
In one of the most obscene cases of criminal activity, the FBI was on the verge of annoncing a major case against Wachovia in 2010 for laundering $378 BILLION DOLLARS in Mexican drug cartel money over the past decade. Intervention from above, the case was dropped and settled with a slap-on-the-wrist fine, no admission of criminal wrong-doing, propping up the system and its criminals once again.
There is way more than $500 billion out there. Trillions of dollars have been fleeced from the American economy and financial system over the past 10-15 years. It is now in the accounts of the 1%. That is why ordinary people are fucking angry. If not for the financial industry of the past decade, there would be no great financial crisis of 2008, pensions would be solvent.
