Robert Scheer: Too Big to Jail

[marmar]

from truthdig:



Too Big to Jail

Posted on Nov 2, 2011
By Robert Scheer


Can we all agree that a $1 billion swindle represents a lot of money, and the fact that Citigroup agreed last week to pay a $285 million fine to settle SEC charges for “misleading investors” demonstrates a damning admission of culpability?

So why has Robert Rubin, the onetime treasury secretary who went on to become Citigroup chairman during the time of the corporation’s financial shenanigans, never been held accountable for this and other deep damage done to the U.S. economy on his watch?

Rubin’s tenure atop the world of high finance began when he was co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, before he became Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary and pushed through the reversal of the Glass-Steagall Act, an action that legalized the formation of Citigroup and other “too big to fail” banking conglomerates.

Rubin’s destructive impact on the economy in enabling these giant corporate banks to run amok was far greater than that of swindler Bernard Madoff, who sits in prison under a 150-year sentence while Rubin sits on the Harvard Board of Overseers, as chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and as a leader of the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/too_big_to_jail_20111102/?ln

[xchrom]

1. we are living a 'through the looking glass' moment. nt

[disndat]

2. like they put Martha Stewart in jail

for insider trading "to set an example." There's no justice, only political connections.

[JDPriestly]

3. There's no justice, only political connections.

Describes the state of our country right now exactly. And not just in our courts.

People seem to have forgotten that it was the corruption of government, jobs rewarded to the loyal for their favors and connections, jobs as paybacks, that led to the reforms in the Civil Service instituted by Teddy Roosevelt. We need to go return to Teddy Roosevelt's idea of the Civil Service and stop privatizing government work.

Privatizing government jobs feeds the greedy addictions of the corrupt in our society. And just because you pay a private company with the taxpayer money doesn't really make the job a private industry job. People who are paid with government money whether in the defense industry or handling US Treasuries at the Federal Reserve or on Wall Street are government employees. Let's make that clear. They are paid from the government's budget by the taxpayers. That is not private enterprise.

We have gained nothing from privatization. It has bankrupted our government. We need to raise taxes to cover the graft and corruption. So, let's return to a civil service system and end the privatization.

Think of the public schools. We are far more likely to get teachers hired based on objective criteria and for their merit, with a public school system under the watch of civilian school board members than with the charter school system under the watch of the wealthy. Charter schools will eventually hire according to who is cheapest and most malleable and who the management and board of directors know, not based on the individual teacher's merit.

Let's end the privatization that shuts out those with ability but no connections.

There is no justice, only political connections.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.