Lurid Subprime Scams Unveiled in Long-Running Fraud Trial
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/lurid-subprime-scams-unveiled-in-long-running-fraud-trial-20131212
Matt is more upset about this sort of thing than I am. I _expect_ this sort of behavior when our government regulation has been as completely neutered as it has been for decades. Criminals are criminals no matter what the laws are, but if the laws aren’t enforced then their behavior gets increasingly blatant. Indeed, as our too big to fail (and too big to jail) banking has assured us, if you are wealthy and connected enough, you are totally immune from any sort of personal consequence to your behavior. Sure, your _company_ might wind up paying a fine (pennies on the dollar, though, for the economic value realized by the company; tiny fractions of a penny on the dollar based on the economic damage their behavior caused), but it won’t impact your personal bonuses (indeed, we have seen them increase!), let alone cause any personal discomfort to you.
This is what an oligarchical police state looks like. The rich and powerful answer to no one but their peers (and those peers can easily be bought), the rest answer to an increasingly arbitrary ‘justice’ system that systematically demonizes certain groups (say, the poor and Muslims). I don’t think our society has sunk far enough yet to trigger the wide-spread changes in voting behavior that would have a chance in resulting in the fundamental changes to our government that would put it back in the hands of the people. The Great Depression was a pretty fundamental shakeup to our society, the Great Recession not so much.
I would love to be wrong: I predict things will get a lot worse before there is any chance of them getting better (and I don’t hold out much hope it will get better).
