Danny Schechter - ColdType

xlv
ey stashed in the UBS bank. A UBS “whistleblower” who
disclosed that UBS bankers smuggled diamonds in toothpaste
tubes was jailed when it was learned that he had benefited
by some of the schemes. Another banker with Credit
Suisse was indicted for fraudulent practices in the US.
• The top firms and their “counterparties” have not been
regulated or restrained from committing, crimes and ripoffs
of massive proportions. Market values are their only
values.
• Some banks continue to put us all at risk. Jeff Nielson
writes on SeekingAlpha.com: “Fitch Ratings released a
report disclosing that just five banks (all U.S. banks) hold
80% of all derivatives risk: Bank of America (BAC), Goldman
Sachs (GS), JP Morgan (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS),
and Citigroup (C). Keep in mind that the global derivatives
market has a notional value somewhere around 30 times
global GDP. Put another way, each one of these five banks
has derivatives risk that is much greater than the entire
value of global GDP.
In 2008, when the reckless gambling of these greedy banksters
destroyed their sector and threatened to destroy the
entire international monetary system, the banksters (and
their servants in the U.S. government) coined the phrase
“too big to fail.” This implied that such banks were so
“important” that they had to be saved at all/any costs (i.e.,
the $10 TRILLION in hand-outs, loans and pledges to the
biggest banks).
• With their high salaries, training programs, bonus and
perks as well as ties to top business schools, the investment
houses and financial industries, fostered a culture of entitlement
and wealth, creating a superwealthy, self-conscious
elite cut off from most Americans. This elite supported politicians
who promoted their values while politicians sought
their support, perhaps best reflected in the words of former
president George W. Bush who told an $800 dollar a plate