In Memory of Those Who Died

I have recently received reminders of the people who died and the criminal investigations that were gutted despite the obvious evidence of the largest economic crime in human history. I pass this on as a reminder that the fraud continues and as a caution to those who think that the worst has happened. They got away with it. The worst is going to happen — unless we intervene.

I remember reading the article by Mark Ames on Naked Capitalism. It seemed so obvious to me that we would reach a turning point in which the tragic foreclosure wave driven by pure greed (not recovery of debt) would simply stop. People who were responsible would go to jail as they did in other countries. Restitution of money and property would be ordered.

It didn’t happen. What did happen is that Capitalism came to redefined as a religion rather than a way of doing business. And the religion was that the person with the most gold always gets their way. The religion said that most of us were simply food for the hungry giants of the marketplace. As a culture we glorified those who aggregated wealth even if they stole it.

That is not capitalism. It is theft. And lying to keep the ill gotten gains is not capitalism either. It is fraud. And seeking to correct imbalances caused by  illegal behaviors is neither radical nor socialist. It is SOP — standard operating procedure for a country that whipsaws its way through history heaving hard to the right and then to the left and back again. It is who we are as Americans. It’s what gives us our vitality. We have always been defined by our excesses.

We still have not addressed this huge social and economic stain on our reputation as Americans because this scheme was hatched in the offices of investment banks located right here in the good ole USA. Somehow under the new religion it is unamerican to protect consumers and completely acceptable for winners to take all. And if the U.S. economy tanked, that’s life in a competitive world. right? And if the rest of the world tanks also, too bad.

We have an election season coming up. Most candidates for office treat the foreclosure wave and the student loan crisis as past events, irrelevant because people who borrow money should repay it — no matter what. Corporations and other business entities not so much. But real people always — even if the loan was unworkable, even if they were deceived when they took the loan, even if the lender wasn’t a lender, even if the loan wasn’t a loan, even if their signature was being sold for 12 times the amount of the loan.

But I agree that people who borrow money should repay it. I just think they should only pay it to someone who really deserves the money — like investors who advanced their money also under false pretenses. The banks block those efforts successfully and pocket the money that could and should go to investors, who have never received a single piece of paper telling them they owned a debt, a note or a mortgage. To the banks, each foreclosure is just more revenue.

So remember that people have died by suicide, murder and natural causes brought on by stress. Remember that our system of laws came close to nailing the perpetrators of the meltdown, the loss of jobs and the massive inequality of income and wealth. But in the end, Capitalism, as religion, won out — so far.

We still have a chance with some candidates but the ones who want to do some straight talk about this are considered fringe or radical or even the dreaded word “socialist.”

I’ve looked at all the candidates and I can’t find anyone who believes that the government should own or control the means of production of goods and services (i.e., socialism). I see people instead looking for ways to make life better which is what I think we all hope for. I don’t care if I am right, half -right or wrong or half wrong. I just want things to be better not in rhetoric but in reality. I know, now I am a radical, right?

seehttps://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/08/mark-ames-tracy-lawrence-the-foreclosure-suicide-america-forgot.html

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