J.P. Morgan Chase’s Ugly Family Secrets Revealed
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/j-p-morgan-chases-ugly-family-secrets-revealed-20120313
If you have blood pressure problems you might not want to read the article above. It does, however, clearly outline the disparity in our so-called justice system where the oligarchy is totally immune from any consequences of their actions (even, it seems, when their actions have negative impact on other members of the oligarchy). The rich have always had unequal access to ‘justice’ and I can’t conceive of any society where that won’t be the case simply because the rich can afford to buy the best representatives and the poor can’t. However, until relatively recently (at least according to my rose colored glasses) the rich were at least forced to pony up big bucks to buy the best talent because they were indicted and tried. Today there are no indictments so of course there will be no trials, thus there won’t be any need for blood sucking lawyers to bleed the rich into the middle class (or lower, ideally). I recall the whole insider trading scandals of the 70’s and 80’s when the ‘punishment’ was to pay a fine that was a fraction of the money they made in their illegal activity, then a few months of ‘summer camp’ minimum security jail and from thence to lucrative speaking gigs. Where was the risk in getting caught? Now, of course, it is even worse, there is no trial, no concerns for time in summer camp, no worries about niggling little fines, just bore on ahead and continue committing illegal acts.
Our _only_ hope at this point is that the oligarchy starts to war amongst themselves. I don’t see this as a high probability, though, as they can run to Congress to get tax payer dollars to ‘make them whole’ and since business is business, once the parties have reached their settlement, things go back to normal.
I read an interesting article about Japan’s lost decade (going on two, now) and cautionary tales it tells that might be helpful for us, if we had the wit to learn from them. At the time I wasn’t motivated to post here and only mention it now on the heels of my typical apocalyptic statements (well, looking back, they weren’t very apocalyptic, so I guess you will have to use your imagination). Japan, it seems, has been running a debt (as a percentage of their GDP) well in excess of what the US is carrying currently and is projected to be carrying in the next decade or so. Their interest rates have remained quite competitive and they have been managing their debt without any shocks. Of course, at some point they will need to pay off that debt, but at least as long as the interest rates remain stable (and low) it seems they can continue more or less indefinitely. It would seem that the US has the potential to follow in Japan’s footsteps, at least in that regard, and keep a manageable lid on the interest rate and thus avoid the hard decision for the next decade or so. Of course, this is a balancing act and it won’t take much for investors to lose faith, but as long as our government can avoid that (which is sometimes a very difficult thing to envision), we can probably drift along ignoring the problem for a couple of decades, at least.
