Category: Best of the Web

Tags: matt, taibbi, rolling, stone, too, big, to, fail, banks, big, banks, obama, hsbc

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi joins Bill to discuss the continuing lack of accountability for "too big to fail" banks which continue to break laws and act unethically because they know they can get away with it. Taibbi refers specifically to the government's recent settlement with HSBC -- "a serial offender on the money laundering score" -- who merely had to pay a big fine for shocking offenses, including, Taibbi says, laundering money for both drug cartels and terrorist-connected banks in the Middle East. Taibbi also expresses his concern over Obama appointees -- including Lanny Breuer and Mary Jo White -- who go from working on behalf of major banks in the private sector to policing them in the public sector. "The role of law isn't really the role of law if it doesn't apply equally to everybody. If you're going to put somebody in jail here in New York City for six months or a year for having a joint in his pocket, you can't let higher ranking HSBC officials off for laundering $800 million for the worst drug dealers in the entire world," Taibbi tells Bill. "Eventually it eats away at the very fabric of society." Published on Feb 1, 2013

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