Cutting thru the smoke-and-mirrors ~ ~ Sooz

Robert Reich: The California County That's Leading the Way in Cutting the Banks Out of Its Economy
Robert Reich says counties should follow Santa Cruz's lead.
By Robert Reich / RobertReich.org / July 5, 2015

What exactly does it mean for a big Wall Street bank to plead guilty to a serious crime? Right now, practically nothing.

But it will if California’s Santa Cruz County has any say.

First, some background.

Five giant banks – including Wall Street behemoths JPMorgan Chase and Citicorp – recently pleaded guilty to criminal felony charges that they rigged the world’s foreign-currency market for their own profit.

This wasn’t a small heist. We’re talking hundreds of billions of dollars worth of transactions every day.

The banks altered currency prices long enough for the banks to make winning bets before the prices snapped back to what they should have been.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch called it a “brazen display of collusion” that harmed “countless consumers, investors and institutions around the globe — from pension funds to major corporations, and including the banks’ own customers.”

The penalty? The banks have agreed to pay $5.5 billion. That may sound like a big chunk of change, but for a giant bank it’s the cost of doing business. In fact, the banks are likely to deduct the fines from their taxes as business costs.

The banks sound contrite. After all, they can’t have the public believe they’re outright crooks.

It’s “an embarrassment to our firm, and stands in stark contrast to Citi’s values,“ says Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat.

Values? Citigroup’s main value is to make as much money as possible. Corbat himself raked in $13 million last year.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon calls it "a great disappointment to us,” and says “we demand and expect better of our people.”

Expect better? If recent history is any guide – think of the bank’s notorious “London Whale” a few years ago, and, before that, the wild bets leading to the 2008 bailout – JPMorgan expects exactly this kind of behavior from its people.

Which helped Dimon rake in $20 million last year, as well as a $7.4 million cash bonus.

When real people plead guilty to felonies, they go to jail. But big banks aren’t people despite what the five Republican appointees to the Supreme Court say.

The executives who run these banks aren’t going to jail, either. Apologists say it’s not fair to jail bank executives because they don’t know what their rogue traders are up to.

Yet ex-convicts often suffer consequences beyond jail terms.

In many states they lose their right to vote. They can’t run for office or otherwise participate in the political process.

So why not take away the right of these convicted banks to participate in the political process, at least for some years? That would stop JPMorgan’s Dimon from lobbying Congress to roll back the Dodd-Frank act, as he’s been doing almost non-stop.

Why not also take away their right to pour money into politics? Wall Street banks have been among the biggest contributors to political campaigns. If they’re convicted of a felony, they should be barred from making any political contributions for at least ten years.

Real ex-convicts also have difficulty finding jobs. That’s because, rightly or wrongly, many people don’t want to hire them.

A strong case can be made that employers shouldn’t pay attention to criminal convictions of real people who need a fresh start, especially a job.

But giant banks that have committed felonies are something different. Why shouldn’t depositors and investors consider their past convictions?

Which brings us to Santa Cruz County.

The county’s board of supervisors just voted not to do business for five years with any of the five banks felons.

The county won’t use the banks’ investment services or buy their commercial paper, and will pull its money out of the banks to the extent it can.

“We have a sacred obligation to protect the public’s tax dollars and these banks can’t be trusted. Santa Cruz County should not be involved with those who rigged the world’s biggest financial markets,” says supervisor Ryan Coonerty.

The banks will hardly notice. Santa Cruz County’s portfolio is valued at about $650 million.

But what if every county, city, and state in America followed Santa Cruz County’s example, and held the big banks accountable for their felonies?

What if all of us taxpayers said, in effect, we’re not going to hire these convicted felons to handle our public finances? We don’t trust them.

That would hit these banks directly. They’d lose our business. Which might even cause them to clean up their acts.

There’s hope. Supervisor Coonerty says he’ll be contacting other local jurisdictions across the country, urging them to do what Santa Cruz County is doing.

Robert B. Reich has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He also served on President Obama's transition advisory board. His latest book is "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future." His homepage is www.robertreich.org.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/california-county-thats-leading-way-cutting-banks-out-its-economy

Now there's a good idea.

it is, imo, the ONLY idea that can save us. when corporations rule, then boycotting is voting.

Robert Reich has a congenital disease which stunted his growth ... but [thankfully!] not his mind ~ in reality, he is a giant amongst men ~ Sooz

It's how we treated bullies at school.
The bullied banded together and beat the living crap out of the bullies out behind the rec shed. We also left them with a warning that if there was any retaliation it would be worse the next time.
It worked.

genius.

Self-defense.
One-on-one problems were settled with boxing gloves, either in the gym or at Father Dunn's drop-in centre.
More often than not, the two belligerents became friends, afterwards.
Should have added that there were no punches above the shoulders or below the belt. That was considered cheating and being known as a cheater was far worse than losing.

Ahh, the good ole times.

WTH, it worked. And we had an over 80% graduation rate.

A friend emailed me a link to this Robert Reich Facebook post ~ seems like a lot of now FORMER Republicans are disgusted and disgruntled ~ it's late in the game but that is still music to my ears! ~ Sooz

"The Republicans now running are all “a-- ----s.” "

I type that practically every day on Facebook: "Stephen Harper is an asshole!"

From my Facebook feed ~ for me, even Robert Reich's random thoughts are a light in the dark tunnel ~ Sooz

have you seen Sabrina? it seems quaint, doesn't it? capitalism that actually sought to uplift people? whoda thunk?

Reich is much more of an optimist by nature than I am, so I find it good to read his commentaries. He helps me to think not all is lost.

it's not hard to be an optimist if you look at what happened between 1930 and 1970.

but damn, it is sure depressing to look at what has happened between 1978 and 2008.

That really sums it up, Macro.

I think Reich is optimistic that we as nation can do again what was done in the early 1900's. It's been hard for me to believe that, but seeing the crowds supporting Bernie is helping to convince me.

It would be something to see a contest between Bernie and The Donald in '16. I'm inclined to root for Trump now.

From my Facebook feed ~ Sooz

There's that damn Reich optimism again.

Robert Reich:

After CNBC’s John Harwood asked Jeb Bush why the economy has seen more growth under Democratic administrations over the last 35 years than under Republicans, Jeb gave a muddled answer and then pivoted to attacking Obama for being hostile to capitalism.

HARWOOD: You really think Obama’s hostile to capitalism? Trans-Pacific Partnership—he’s moving forward. South Korea, Colombia, he finished those agreements that your brother had moved down the line.

BUSH: I definitely do. I think he has a deep-seated belief that through government programs and through government regulation, you can improve the social condition.


Hello? So thinking government can improve the social condition makes you hostile to capitalism? Were Republican presidents Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt hostile to capitalism? If they – along with Democratic presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt -- hadn’t improved the social condition, American capitalism might not have even survived.

I never thought it possible but I’m beginning to believe Jeb is dumber than his brother.

Your thoughts?

Thankfully, every time Jeb opens his mouth, he digs himself deeper into deep doo-doo and is defeating himself ~

Sooz

Jeb is definitely starting to look dumber because he has fallen into the trap of defending his brother. "he finished those agreements that your brother had moved down the line". He has to attack Obama to prove his brother wasn't wrong about everything and to prove he is in line with the Republican way. But mostly because he defends his brother. That really makes him sound dumb.

Jeb always looks like he arrived 15 minutes late and isn't sure what's going on.

George always looked like he was on time but still didn't know what was going on.

From my Facebook feed ~ I see Robert Reich as a national treasure ~ and FTR, an enormous portion of DT's "wealth" is on paper only ~ Sooz