The Extremist Cult of Capitalism.

[starroute]

26. Capone is closer to the heart of the matter than it might appear

When the feds finally nabbed Al Capone on tax evasion charges, it inspired Meyer Lansky -- the criminal genius of accounting -- to start devising the system of money-laundering and offshore banking that dominates our financial system today.

It took about thirty years for all the pieces to fall into place, but Lansky was patient, and by the 1960s the basics of the current setup had all been constructed -- with some help from the CIA, which had its own reasons for being interested in covert financial manipulations.

When the Mitt Romneys of this world stow their wealth in the Bahamas or the Cayman Islands, they're making use of a system that was explicitly devised by Lansky to make sure that no high-profile crook would ever again have to suffer Capone's fate.

And this isn't just some kind of sad irony. It means that a system designed with purely criminal intentions has now morphed into the heart of capitalism. And it explains a lot of what is wrong with the world.