Bankers have less honor, too. If you lose a bunch of OPM in the Mafia, they'll shoot you. Do it at Citi, and Citi will go to the government for some taxpayer money so you can still get a bonus.

When it comes to crime, the mob kisses the bankers' rings, and pays them for protection
/someone has to facilitate that money laundering

The mob wishes it had the availability to capital as Wall Street.

Oh... and one more thing...

/Jump you f*ckers

Its also more profitable, and with no risk of criminal prosecution.

If only we could get the bankers to whack each other.

ThatGuyFromTheInternet: If only we could get the bankers to whack each other.

What do you think happened to Lehman and Bear Sterns?

You can't win. You can't break even. You can't quit. Of course the game is rigged.

teto85: You can't win. You can't break even. You can't quit. Of course the game is rigged.

And to think that someone once tried to give them our social security money.

Snarcoleptic_Hoosier: The mob wishes it had the availability to capital as Wall Street.

And the political power.

The scam starts with the broker.

Tim Geithner has harmed us more than The entire Kennedy clan.

I also laugh when the exact same people who complain about Wall Street continue to give them all their money.

Can you show us on the doll where the Kennedy clan touched you?

Why hasn't the US population taken pitchforks to these people yet?

overfienduglar: Why hasn't the US population taken pitchforks to these people yet?

Because they spent their pay packet on a wide screen TV and then had to get a loan to buy the pitchfork.

The banks might just want their pitchforks back.

Cause they are a bunch of fat, disgusting slobs who couldn't walk 20 feet carrying a pitchfork without breaking into a sweat and stopping for a 48oz coke and a twinkie at 7-11.

It turns into a kind of unbroken Möbius strip of corruption - the banks pay middlemen to rig auctions, the middlemen bribe politicians to win business, then the politicians choose the middlemen to run the auctions, leading right back to the banks bribing the middlemen to rig the bids.

...sigh...

When we allow Wall Street to continually raid the public cookie jar, we're not just enriching a bunch of petty executives (Wolmark's income in 2008, two years after he was busted in the FBI raid, was $2,464,210.18) - we're effectively creating an alternate government, one in which money lifted from the taxpayer's pocket through mob-style schemes turns into a kind of permanent shadow tax, used to maintain the corruption and keep the thieves in place. And that cuts right to the heart of what this case is all about. Wall Street is tired of making money by competing for business and weathering the vagaries of the market. What it wants instead is something more like the deal the government has - regularly collecting guaranteed taxes. What's crazy is that in order to justify that dream of regular, monopolistic tribute, they've begun to see themselves as a type of shadow government, watching out for the rest of us. Amazingly enough, this even became a defense at trial.

But remember kids, taxes are theft.

Nemo's Brother: Tim Geithner has harmed us more than The entire Kennedy clan.

I think you mean Alan Greenspan, buddy.

"You should not read Matt Taibbi if you can't take a punch. Mr. Taibbi can hit with both hands and move around and he will kill you if you are not awfully careful." - Ernest Hemingway

There is a reason why the sicilian mafia has been reduced to shaking down hotdog vendors and appearing on reality TV. When you have legalized gambling and loansharks have been replaced with payday loans. Narcotics have been replaced with pharmaceutics. What's left?

I think the banks and the government have become more adept at enterprise corruption than the "mafia" ever was.

Mentat: When we allow Wall Street to continually raid the public cookie jar, we're not just enriching a bunch of petty executives (Wolmark's income in 2008, two years after he was busted in the FBI raid, was $2,464,210.18) - we're effectively creating an alternate government, one in which money lifted from the taxpayer's pocket through mob-style schemes turns into a kind of permanent shadow tax, used to maintain the corruption and keep the thieves in place. And that cuts right to the heart of what this case is all about. Wall Street is tired of making money by competing for business and weathering the vagaries of the market. What it wants instead is something more like the deal the government has - regularly collecting guaranteed taxes. What's crazy is that in order to justify that dream of regular, monopolistic tribute, they've begun to see themselves as a type of shadow government, watching out for the rest of us. Amazingly enough, this even became a defense at trial.

But remember kids, taxes are theft.

[img545.imageshack.us image 250x250]

Well, in this case, they literally are, which is why he makes the comparison to taxes in the first place. It's what Wall Street is aiming for.

Franco: When you have legalized gambling and loansharks have been replaced with payday loans.

Hey, I still take the downtown bus to meet Johnny Numbers so he can take my action on the Giants!

/I never agreed to 3 points on top of the vig!
//Am I something special?
///Some sort of schmuck on wheels

Not "Wall Street". Goldman Sachs and, to a lesser extent, JP Morgan.

Read Taibbi's Griftopeia and you'll get a better sense for how much carnage has been wrought by Goldman.

Good thing the powers that be pretty much put an end to the Occupy movements.

ThatGuyFromTheInternet: If only we could get the bankers to whack each other.

I was under the impression that was what went on at coke-fueled banker parties.

The difference is the "mob" was foiled by the Feds. Now, they (Wall St.) own the Feds.

No "bribes" needed when you can pay for what you want "legally".

MisterRonbo: Not "Wall Street". Goldman Sachs and, to a lesser extent, JP Morgan.

Read Taibbi's Griftopeia and you'll get a better sense for how much carnage has been wrought by Goldman.

Yves Smith, a former Goldman employee, has another must read financial crisis book, "ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism".

A must read.

Matt and Yves both appear on the PBS television program Moyers and Company this week and their segment can be watched free online.

Watch online: Matt Taibbi and Yves Smith join Bill to discuss how the folly and corruption of both banks and government leaves deep wounds in our democracy.

BullBearMS: Watch online: Matt Taibbi and Yves Smith join Bill to discuss how the folly and corruption of both banks and government leaves deep wounds in our democracy.


Watched it and LOVED it.