Monday, April 26, 2010

Congress Vs. Wall St; It's all bark

Federal Building, Wall St.Image by capnsponge via Flickr

Wall St has been the motivation for the trashing of America's businesses for decades. Companies might have stayed in America had it not been for the greed of Wall St. Wall St. demanded higher and higher profits from companies until those companies had to move out of the states to slake The Wall's thirst. In the process millions of jobs left The United States: never to return. In the backrooms on Wall St. banks made money by betting against the deals they were backing, then twisting the arms of corporate America to produce unrealistic results. When corporations failed to deliver, they made money off the secret bets they had made, and forced them to gut their companies to show the expected profit.
More importantly, the banks refused to pay fair interest rates to account holders and bled them dry. They pushed people into the stock market in this manner, then made huge profits off the fees they charged them. The government has given Wall St. and all the banks a free pass, allowing them to charge unlimited interest rates. What would have been loan sharking is now called standard operating procedure.
Congress is about to make a big deal about Goldman Sacks, but the truth is that Congress gave them the ability to broker deals like the ones Sacks did legally. When it came time to run for reelection, Congressmen and Senators quietly payed visits to Wall St. to collect the campaign donations they had earned by giving banks permission to stick it to Main St.
You might think that it was just eastern Senator and Congressmen that benefited this way, but, in truth, there isn't a federal legislator that isn't getting payed by them. Republicans especially have given banks a free pass to run a muck through middle class America. You may think that keeping government out of businesses way is a great thing, the problem is that the only businesses the Republicans care about are the ones that can pay for their reelection. During the Bush Administration, a republican president and a republican Senate handed money to corporations who left the country. At the same time small factories and manufacturers suddenly saw their business evaporate. The Chinese sucked their profits away. In the mean time the big banks were brokering the transfers of huge amounts of cash bound for foreign banks. The system is rotten to it's very core and even The Federal Government lacks the legal authority to look at the books of these banks.
Their will, indubitably be a huge deal made by congress in the hearing tomorrow, but you can bet that the same Congressmen will get huge campaign contributions to give Goldman Sacks and the other big banks a pass. Other than the show you see on the TV news, nothing is going to change. Deals will be made to leave huge loopholes for banks to drive their armoured trucks through, and sustain the banks legal ability to suck your hard earned dollars in with more fees and hirer interest rates. Make no mistake, these banks are not American banks. They are simply based here to take advantage of the legal loopholes they receive for being based here. In reality they have no ties to this country. They exist to enrich themselves by amassing huge fortunes in every country they have a presence in. The multinational banks dictate the politics of the free world and are above the laws of any country.
No real laws will be passed in this country or any other to truly change the way Wall St. Banks do business. They have simply become to powerful to succumb to any regulation. The fact is that they hold, so much of America's assets that they can simply threaten to walk away and the government will bend over backwards to keep them.
What you will see tomorrow is simply a show designed to gain Senators and Congressmen your votes. We have seen enough of these Congressional dog and pony shows to know that they are all shams. This one will be even more of a joke than those of steroids in sports. I don't recall any of the companies that produce steroids even being invited to testify. Do You?
The Federal legislature is the joke of the world now. Drug cartels and organized crime do businesses like fast food restaurants here. Corporations simply ignore them and it is time we did too.

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