Take your friends and family and go and see The Big Short this holiday season. Even if you have read Michael Lewis’s excellent book already, see the movie for some entertainment and further enlightenment. And then ask yourself and everyone else that you know:
“Why are these felonious banks not punished as felons? Why are they allowed to continue to perform fiduciary duties for pension funds? Why is a felon like Citigroup C not banned from lobbying legislators and regulators, and writing legislation, which it did in 2014, unless and until it has changed the culture that led to the criminality?
Why isn’t more transparency insisted on? Why aren’t customers of JPMorgan Chase JPM and Citigroup made regularly aware that they are doing business with admitted felons? Just as sex offenders are required in the public interest to disclose their history so that the public can protect itself, why aren’t banks that have admitted criminality required to post prominent notices in their branches and on their websites that they are admitted felons, at least until they have rooted out the incentives that have caused this criminal behavior?”
We cannot be distracted from the reforms needed in this foundational area. Capital is finite and needed in the real world and is now broadly captured and controlled by a handful of admitted criminals posing as ‘advisers’. In every way that we can we must vote with our money by moving our business and assets away from convicted felon institutions who have already admitted multiple times that they cannot be trusted and are out for their own profits at all costs to everyone else.
Until we demand reform and personal punishment and accountability for the banksters nothing changes, and we the people, will continue to suffer catastrophic financial cost. We simply cannot afford to continue this way. And we know how to fix this. We cleaned this cartel up once before in the 1930’s. Yes we can.
