“I’ll have the Chateau Mouton-Rothschild from 1982,” a Wall Street investment banker recently told his waiter at the latest and greatest shi-shi restaurant in Greenwich Village.
“Yes sir, but I want you to know, the cost is $3,950,” according to the New York Times.
“No Problem”
And so it goes at The Lion, where no extravagance is too costly for today’s banksters and Lion Kings. TimeOut Magazine calls the upscale joint, “the latest addition to the power pantheon. “
The men they call the Big Swinging Dicks are back. In the words of the New York Times, Wall Street is getting its “groove back,” anticipating their latest round of bonuses while gloating about how their strategic and undisclosed campaign donations assured that the overdue regulations they fear will be put on hold.
The question progressives face is how and whether there will be any challenge to the resurgence of Wall Street power and arrogance. Will we continue to wallow in electoral defeat and our partisan wounds or can we seek to have an impact with a new initiative to make bankster lawlessness an issue, not just a common complaint?
Who can stand by and watch wrong doers and fraudsters escape prosecution while joblessness festers and foreclosures climb?
Increasingly, economists in the know are saying that unless financial fraud is prosecuted, there can be no recovery, as Washington’s Blog reports:
“As economists such as William Black and James Galbraith have repeatedly said, we cannot solve the economic crisis unless we throw the criminals who committed fraud in jail.
And Nobel prize winning economist George Akerlof has demonstrated that failure to punish white collar criminals – and instead bailing them out- creates incentives for more economic crimes and further destruction of the economy in the future.
Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz just agreed. As Stiglitz told Yahoo’s Daily Finance on October 20th:
“An institutionalized system of skewed incentives allowed Wall Street bankers and other corporate executives to gamble with America’s wealth and then get away largely scot-free after the house of cards came tumbling down, plunging the U.S. into the worst economic crisis in decades and destroying trillions of dollars of wealth worldwide…
“The legal system is supposed to be the codification of our norms and beliefs, things that we need to make our system work. If the legal system is seen as exploitative, then confidence in our whole system starts eroding. And that’s really the problem that’s going on.”
Can we challenge the collusion between Wall Street and government by rallying not just for sanity but to restore justice?
One way to start: a petition calling for prosecuting wrong doers, I cam calling it a “jailout” to contrast it with a bailout,
I am calling on activists, community and political groups, labor unions and activists to take part in what I am calling the JAILOUT Economic Justice Campaign. The petition is at newsdissector.com/blog but can be posted on every site,
We need a right/wrong narrative on this issue, not just a left/right one because the idea of justice is not a partisan issue.
Our principles are these:
We pledge allegiance to Justice for all. Not to those who steal and defraud us. Not to those who wrecked our economy.
We need laws enforced, not winked at with financial settlements that allow those that enriched themselves at our expense, and destroyed the lives of so many, to get off scot-free, often with obscene bonuses and promotions.
Now, it is time for all of us to speak out and demand that something is done, to stop foreclosures and create jobs.
Our petition will go to the President, Attorney General, and political, labor and youth leaders not in the bag to Wall Street. We can also call on the media to do more to cover the crimes of Wall Street and nit just blame the victims.
Will you stand up with us and call for action now? Here are our demands.
We demand a criminal investigation.
We demand to see the guilty parties indicted. Their illegal gains should be seized and distributed to their victims.
We demand the federal and state governments prosecute these crimes, using RICO laws when possible, not cut deals that allow these crooks to walk free.
We want a national moratorium on foreclosures until all the shady legal issues are sorted out – and not just by the banks
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
It’s a four point program.
1. Investigate fraudsters and financial criminals.
2. Indict those responsible.
3. Prosecute using RICO laws that target criminal enterprises spawned by three industries working together: finance, insurance and real estate.
4. Incarcerate the guilty.
All of this has been done before. More than 1500 bankers went to jail after the S&L Crisis.
Why not today?
We want our government to be on our side, to stand up for Main Street, not Wall Street.
Please tell us: I am with you. I agree with this call to action,
NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY, STATE and ZIP CODE
EMAIL:
Putting guity parties in jail will not in itself revive the economy but will revise the spirits of those who are losing hope and empower an angry public to act, by blaming those responsibke.
Educate yourself by ordering a copy of PLUNDER [DVD} and THE CRIME OF OUR TIME [book]. Also available on iTunes, Netflix and Amazon.
Visit the web site: PlunderTheCrime OfOurTime.com
SPEAK UP. DEMAND FAIRNESS. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
If you committed these crimes, you would be doing time.
So should they!
News Dissector Danny Schechter directed the DVD “Plunder The Crime Of Our Time” and wrote the companion book, ‘The Crime Of Our Time.’
If you can help, or have ideas, write: dissector@mediachannel.org We also need your donations to circulate and promote this petition. Can you help
Checks to The Global Center PO Box 677, New York, New York 10035
Mark for Plunder Outreach
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