The Banksters are raking it in...
By Thom Hartmann A...
Our economy is still struggling since the 2009 financial crash, but the banksters who caused that crash are raking in record profits. In the second quarter of 2013, American banks reported a combined profit of $40.24 billion dollars. That figure was only slightly lower than the $40.36 billion in profits reported during the first quarter of last year, which was the largest quarterly profits in the 23 years that SNL Financial has been keeping records.
Meanwhile, the median American household earns less than $32,000 dollars a year, and millions are still out of work. The very people and institutions who wrecked our economy are making more money than ever before, yet the American taxpayers who bailed them out have been screwed. That simple fact proves that the system is broken.
The billionaires and Wall Street gamblers rigged the system to benefit themselves at the expense of our nation, and the end result of their greed is all around us. The banksters gambled with the security of our housing market, and when they lost, Americans lost their homes and the degenerate gamblers got a bail out. The corporate elite have demanded higher and higher executive pay while helping to shrink the size and value of Americans' paychecks. The billionaires rail against government handouts, while they benefit from some of the largest tax breaks and subsidies in out nation. And now, the too-big-to-jail banks are reporting record profits while they screw the rest of us with ridiculous fees and exorbitant interest rates. It doesn't have to be this way.
Only decades ago, we had regulations in place to prevent all of this, and Americans stood together to demand the salaries, protections, and services they deserved. We can do it again. Let's make our economy work for us by organizing, unionizing, and standing up to banksters once again.
Comments
#2
Thom, what you have described here is what happens when psychopaths are allowed to take charge. I am heartened by the acknowledgement of this critically important factor I've observed in this blog from time to time. But I believe this deserves way more focus than it's been getting on a national scale. These people are extremely destructive and dangerous. They are evil incarnate. We must learn to identify them and keep them from positions of power and influence. - Aliceinwonderland
#3
Quote Aliceinwonderland:We must learn to identify them and keep them from positions of power and influence
And we must keep them from reproducing!
#4
Good luck. We should have taken a stand in 2008, 1993, 1982, 1976, 1968- there has been a chance in every decade, but just when things get going another war is declared or terrorism strikes. It has been their way since The First Bank of the United States, 19th century.
Anyone who could take down banksters for their crimes was long ago compromised by said banksters or embroiled and implicated somehow.
That is why we have no law enforcement for the most powerful racketteers.
NO ONE in the Justice system is immune from the long arm of the MOB.
#5
The banksters are using politicians to write the Laws to benefit the banksters. All the more reason to entice and make voting a convenient necessity.
Los Angeles is passing out Lottery tickets to voters.
#6
House wins again, its like saying america always wins the world series.
There is the elite and the lower class. I dont know who this middle class is your talking about. Some make billions and trillions and some make tuppence.
Try educating everyone at once and then exspect them to get it and act accordingly.
What happens when the wheel stops because a group doesnt know when enough is enough. Guess what god wins. So much for the humanity that stood for something more than themselves.
#7
I agree, RFod. I heard the call. Think he said he was a peace officer (or dd he say "retired" peace officer?). Wonder how much he wished he could quit his job (or give up his union negotiated retirement)? I am often struck by the number of people I come across who work or formerly worked for the government (such as retired military) who espouse libertarian and anti government / anti union sentiments. There is an employee at the local post office with these type of bumper stickers.
Really?
If you don't like unions, let the company know you are willing to work longer for less pay and offer to pay your family's health insurance. If they don't see fit to help you, big W is always hiring.
When I encounter people hating their dependable, unionized Jobs - I ask them to say after me: "Would you like fries with that?"
#8
The guy on The Thom Hartman Program was right about one thing. Union workers should be able to quit their unions, but if thy do they should not be able to reap the union benefits of union wages, union health insurance, and union retirement unless they have spent enough time in the union to be vested in the retirement program. If a union worker really wants out of their union, the solution is simple, all they have to do is quit their union job and go get a non-union job with non-union pay and non-union benefits if there are any. If a worker wants the benefits of a union without paying union dues, they are asking for a free ride. They want to ride the merry-go-round without buying a ticket, like everyone else has to.
If workers wish to throw out their union they may do so by petitioning the National Labor Relations board to have a vote and if they vote to go non-union they may soon regret taking such action when they don't get raises and they get their pay and benefits cut.
Often disgruntled union workers do not realize that unions and union workers are not seperate entities, they are the same thing, the union is the joining together of the workers for the common benefit of all. In other words, if you say that you hate your union, you're saying that you hate yourself and your fellow union members.
If a union worker is unhappy about something the union is doing, they have the right to attend the union membeship meetings and speak their mind, ask questions, make motions, run for union offices, vote on issues, and vote in elections. Any one union member can change something about their union that they don't like simply by attending a union meeting and making a motion that their fellow union members are agreeable to.
There are a lot of myths about unions. One is if you belong to a union you don't have to work hard. The truth is you have to work just as hard, if not harder, and also smarter to compete with your non-union counterpart.
Another myth is if you belong to a union, you can't be fired. Not true. If you screw up on the job, like being intoxicated on the job or starting a fight on the job, you can be fired.
I have been a member of Plumbers Local 17, Memphis, Tennessee for 43 years and have no regrets for belonging to this brotherhood.
I can't imagine why anyone would want to drop out of a union unless their union no longer has any work for them or they are greedy and want to get the benefit of union wages and benefits without having to pay the cost of getting them in the form of union dues.
#9
Thom, pls help to publicize the newest way big banks r screwing all of us "small" investors with high frequency trading and dark pools. Both Scott Patterson & Michael Lewis have written well researched books about what has happened to the stock market in the last 12 years. "Wall St." is not what it was or what anyone thinks it is - it's many computers running high frequency trading driven by algorithms designed to screw the average investor. The public needs to know more because none of this is regulated and is a global fin'l disaster waiting to happen. And the big banks r behind it, raking in billions.
#10
Quote a trader on trading stocks...:
"Historically, from the data I've studied, it has not been a particularly clever idea for a really long time...stocks in the U.S. in just the last 10 years has had two distinct declines of just north of 50%. So to make 5% a year, you are risking half your money. That, to me, is an awful trade. I don't make it."
#11
Taft-Hartley, the National Labor Relations Act and McCarthy Era purges took a lot of democracy and fight out of the unions but even when union members are disatisfied with their own union that doesn't mean they prefer no union or no union representation at all. Even a crummy union is better than none and I think virtually all working people would agree.
#12
To take them down we have to build a movement. The right wing lie machine, the PR business, is so effective they got 70% of Americans believing Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 in 2003. Similarly, right after the crash most Americans blamed themselves for it not the banksters. They believed that they, average Americans, caused it with their own financial irresponsibility and credit card overspending.
The truth never gets out anymore with the siloization of American opinions. There's no mass media anymore. Everything's "subscriber only" now so you can only reach people who already agree with you. The conservatives only hear the conservative talking points and lefties the lefty points. The conservative media dominates because it is the more monied and thus the more obiquitous in American life and culture.
Most Americans, thanks to the PR machine, confuse the class privilege of billionaires with (good 'ol American) "freedom" for the people and the average person - when actually, it's freedom for the billionaires and slavery (to those billionaires) for everybody else..
Affordable (or free) healthcare, free quality education and many other social functions and social programs of government don't take away people's freedom as the PR industry so absurdly claims. Rather, they give common people (non billionaires) more freedom and enable them to pursue their dreams rather than be preoccuppied with matters of basic survival.
They don't take away freedom from billionaires either they just, maybe, don't let billionaires get everything they want or abate their privilege, i.e., their disproportionate freedom or their freedom to deny others theirs, somewhat.
#13
In 2016 gloomy is going to look like the good ol' days.
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Thom:
I believe you are missing the point on this Michael Brown killing. Strong arm robbry is not what the cop in Fergisn was responding to, it was what Michael Brown was! The cop (if it was like a situation my friend in the past had) had to be suprised and in fear for his self by the response of Mr. Brown to his being talked to by the said police officeer. You are doing a Glen Beck- Rush Limbvaugh, by talking with such certainty when you do not have any facts at your disposal !