The Rule of Law no longer applies in America

http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-rule-of-law-no-longer-applies-in.html

Large Corporations, especially the large banks, are protected from any meaningful sanctions no matter what laws they break.
Corporate profits which are at record levels, are protected - against the interests of the overwhelming majority of Americans. The process of transferring wealth from the many to the few is accelerating.
Meanwhile civil rights are being eroded at an alarming and accelerating pace.

The MAIN driver of economic growth is a strong Rule of Law
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/07/the-main-determinant-of-gdp-growth-strength-of-the-rule-of-law.html

It’s an astonishing yet scarcely acknowledged fact that on no fewer than 15 out of 15, the United States now fares markedly worse than Hong Kong. In the Heritage Foundation’s Freedom Index, too, the U.S. ranks 21st in the world in terms of freedom from corruption, a considerable distance behind Hong Kong and Singapore. [Transparency International puts the U.S. at 24th.]
Perhaps the most compelling evidence of all comes from the World Bank’s Indicators on World Governance, which suggest that, since 1996, the United States has suffered a decline in the quality of its governance in three different dimensions: government effectiveness, regulatory quality and the control of corruption.
Compared with Germany or Hong Kong, the U.S. is manifestly slipping behind.
The government has made it official policy not to prosecute fraud.
People have lost trust in the system, because government corruption is as widespread as Wall Street corruption … and many of those in power in D.C. have the same sociopathic traits as those they supposedly regulate on Wall Street.
Quite remarkably, instead of being prosecuted for criminal activity the large banks are to be given even more government largesse.


The Federal Reserve announced another taxpayer guaranteed bail out at the rate of $40bn per month via QE3.
This bailout has no time or monetary limit. According to Ben Bernanke it will continue until official unemployment is below 6.5%. This will NEVER happen unless there is a complete reversal of current government policy.
QE3 buys up impaired mortgage loans from the large banks at a far greater price than their worth.

Civil rights
Meanwhile the rights of the people are being eroded at a frightening and accelerating pace.
Obama can indefinitely detain any American without trial or access to a lawyer, he can confiscate their bank accounts at his whim.
He can declare Martial Law and take control of communications - mobile phones and the internet whenever he might choose to do so.
Armed military are now authorised to perform "law enforcement" on the streets of American cities.
Obama has ordered 1,200 million hollow point bullets to be delivered to the DHS over the next 5 years.
The government is spying on EVERY American citizen.

Also from the above article :-


And as Professor Ferguson notes, draconian national security laws are one of the main things undermining the rule of law:
We must pose the familiar question about how far our civil liberties have been eroded by the national security state – a process that in fact dates back almost a hundred years to the outbreak of the First World War and the passage of the 1914 Defence of the Realm Act. Recent debates about the protracted detention of terrorist suspects are in no way new. Somehow it’s always a choice between habeas corpus and hundreds of corpses.



In fact, government has blown terrorism fears way out of proportion for political purposes, and “national security” powers have been used in many ways to exempt big Wall Street players from the rule of law rather than to do anything to protect us.
Is it any wonder that we’re still in an economic crisis?


Large Banks are no longer subject to the Rule of Law

HSBC was recently convicted of massive drugs and terrorist money laundering, involving billions of dollars over several years.
The laundering was so blatant that the Mexican authorities had been reporting it for years.
The drugs cartels were making their own custom designed boxes to just fit into the bank tellers hatches. The boxes were stuffed full of cash.
The Mexican authorities reported that $7 billion was transferred by HSBC from Mexico to America.

No HSBC executives will be going to jail - they were not even prosecuted.
Shareholders received a nominal fine of 5 weeks of revenue or 20% of last years profits.
This in a country where a minor drugs offence can get you 20 or even 60 years hard jail time. (If you are poor.)

Money laundering by the Large Banks is endemic - there have been several recent cases.
There has been no real action taken by the government to crack down upon it.
There have only been smacks on the wrist penalties imposed.
No bank execs are at risk of being sent to jail.
If you do not punish bad behavior with adequate penalties you will get more of it.
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/money-laundering-by-large-banks-is.html

Too big to jail banks, the US government and the drugs trade
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/too-big-to-jail-banks-us-government-and.html

The LIE that prosecuting bank fraud will destabilize the economy is what is REALLY destroying the economy.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/the-pretense-that-prosecuting-bank-fraud-will-destablize-the-economy-is-itself-what-is-actually-destablizing-the-economy.html

Joseph Stiglitz "If we do not prosecute bank fraud, the economy will not recover".
Joseph Stiglitz – former head economist at the World Bank and a nobel-prize winner – said yesterday that the very structure of the Federal Reserve system is so fraught with conflicts that it is “corrupt” and undermines democracy.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/03/nobel-prize-winning-economist-federal-reserve-system-is-corrupt-and-undermines-democracy.html

It is not a "Fiscal Cliff" it is a descent into lawlessness
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/its-not-a-fiscal-cliff-its-the-descent-into-lawless-anarchy.html


Lawless Looting and Redistribution of Wealth

The central banks’ central bank – the Bank for International Settlements- warned in 2008 that bailouts of the big banks would create sovereign debt crises … which could bankrupt nations.
That is exactly what has happened.
The big banks went bust, and so did the debtors. But the government chose to save the big banks instead of the little guy, thus allowing the banks to continue to try to wring every penny of debt out of debtors.
Treasury Secretary Paulson shoved bailouts down Congress’ throat by threatening martial law if the bailouts weren’t passed. And the bailouts are now perpetual.
Moreover:
The bailout money is just going to line the pockets of the wealthy, instead of helping to stabilize the economy or even the companies receiving the bailouts:
Bailout money is being used to subsidize companies run by horrible business men, allowing the bankers to receive fat bonuses, to redecorate their offices, and to buygold toilets and prostitutes
A lot of the bailout money is going to the failing companies’ shareholders
Indeed, a leading progressive economist says that the true purpose of the bank rescue plans is “a massive redistribution of wealth to the bank shareholders and their top executives”
The Treasury Department encouraged banks to use the bailout money to buy their competitors, and pushed through an amendment to the tax laws which rewards mergers in the banking industry (this has caused a lot of companies to bite off more than they can chew, destabilizing the acquiring companies)
And as the New York Times notes, “Tens of billions of [bailout] dollars have merely passed through A.I.G. to its derivatives trading partners”.
***
In other words, through a little game-playing by the Fed, taxpayer money is going straight into the pockets of investors in AIG’s credit default swaps and is not even really stabilizing AIG.


Several mainstream commentators, including the New York Times, have recently stated that the large banks are now above the Rule of Law.

The LIBOR rate fixing scandal has been called the greatest fraud in history.
But no senior bankers are going to jail for it.
In truth it is not.
Although the LIBOR scandal is absolutely massive and affects just about everybody on the planet in setting the interest rates for loans, there is an even larger fraud being perpetrated on the public by the banks.


In fact the large banks business model has now become one of pure criminality.
They have ceased to provide a service to the public by making loans to companies or the public that are deserving of productive investment.
Instead they are intent on fleecing the taxpayers and the public at every opportunity, they are supportive of criminal enterprises and they are intent on speculating in and rigging just about every market.

In order to pursue this business model, they have bought the support of the United States government and rendered the Rule of Law redundant. This is the greatest fraud perpetrated by the large banks.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/06/big-banks-conspire-to-game-the-main-interest-rate-indicator-and-to-fleece-cities-and-counties.html


Civil Rights and the protection of the people through the Rule of Law is now a thing of the past in America

Obama's civil rights abuses.
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/obamas-civil-rights-violations.html

These curtailments of civil rights are NOT anti terrorism measures.
They are RIOT CONTROL measures and measures to quell domestic dissent.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022064803

Obama is preparing for mass civil unrest due to mass unemployment and extreme economic deprivation.
This economic hardship will be triggered from Europe's major recession, which it is just entering.

The "Fiscal Cliff"

Neither party has any intention of resolving the fiscal cliff in any sensible way, even though it is very easy to see how to do that by reducing government waste by over $1 trillion annually.
No cuts to social security (in the near term) or the raising of income taxes are required.

BOTH parties are intent on raiding the remaining wealth of the middle classes.
They are intent on continuing the current policies of transferring wealth from the many to the very few.

BOTH parties are intent on protecting Corporate profits at the expense of the overwhelming majority of Americans.

How to save over $1 trillion ANNUALLY from government waste and Corporate largesse.
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/it-is-very-easy-to-cut-1tn-from-federal.html

The adoption of these policies would start to reverse the transfer of wealth from the many to the few and help economic recovery.
NEITHER party is interested in them.
Barack Obama, John Boehner and the media have created a sham argument over $80bn a year in tax increases for the wealthy and savings of $12bn a year in social security.
Meanwhile even if the Bush income tax cuts for those earning less than $250,000 are extended, EVERYBODY is about to get a 2% tax increase from the ending of the payroll tax cut.
This will have a devastating effect on the fragile economy which is about to get hit by a tsunami of economic woes from Europe.


America Today - the facts and figures behind America's economic decline.
http://ian56.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/unemployment.html


Conclusions

The solutions to America's strategic decline and economic woes are simple.

The balance between record Corporate profits and 40 year lows in real median wages and incomes needs to be addressed.
The increasing concentration of wealth amongst the top 1%, and particularly the top 0.1%, needs to be reversed.

The Rule of Law in America needs to be reinstated.
Adherence to natural law should not be able to be circumvented by those with money and the protections of natural law should be reinstated for those who do not have money.