With last Sunday’s 60 Minutes interview of Michael Lewis regarding his new book, Flash Boys the meme that “the market is rigged” has been thrust into the Mainstream Media. Now the popular pundits can turn what should be a sobering realization for most into a reality-show debate to trivialize such ideas and marginalize those who argue for its exposure.
This is what the corporate media excels in. Anyone who bucks the trend and rocks the boat of the status quo is craftily marginalized and presented to the masses as some sort of kook or fringe cult of personality. Or at least the subject matter is treated as trivial and poo-poo’d away.
By the end of the week it had become must-see reality TV.
BATS Admits CEO Lied About HFT On CNBC
The video from CNBSC could be mistaken for a TruTV reality slug-fest.
It’s Not Just The Stock Market That’s Rigged: The Entire Status Quo Is Rigged
from Charles Hugh Smith of OfTwoMindsBlog
One has to wonder why we are dodging this truth about what we’ve become: a nation that turns a blind eye to skimmers, scammers and legal looting.
As in the story of the Emperor’s new clothes, the onlooker who declares the obvious– in this case, that the stock market is rigged–shatters the consensus lie.In the current saga, author Michael Lewis plays the role of the truth-telling boy, and everyone who went along with the fiction that the Emperor’s high-frequency trading finery was resplendent is revealed as credulous, complicit or worse.
Many in the alternative financial media have written about HFT for years.
If we pull back from the media frenzy about HFT, we find the market is rigged in many other ways. The Federal Reserve’s policies, stripped of Orwellian mumbo-jumbo, are all about rigging the market to go in one direction–up.
Let’s go even deeper and ask: why is looting legal, even though it is obviously crooked? Why is high-frequency trading legal? Why is it legal for the Fed to offer money at 0% to its buddies but not to Mr. John Q. Citizen?
Why is it legal to issue student loans to future debt-serfs that is unlike all other debt in that it cannot be discharged in bankruptcy?
Since the legal looting continues unabated regardless of what party or toady is in office, then what actual difference is there between the Demopublicans and Republicrats?
It’s not just the stock market that’s rigged–the entire Status Quo is rigged. There are two sets of laws and two sets of opportunities: one for those holding the concentrated wealth and power, and the other for the rest of us debt-serfs.
If the system isn’t rigged, then why are insolvent banks and bankers protected from the creative destruction of capitalism that befalls John Q. Citizen when his risky bets go bad? Why do we as a nation keep insisting the Emperor’s new clothes are splendid when he is in fact parading around buck-naked?
• source: OfTwoMindsBlog
Which brings us to the following interview. As the news of the day is that Eric Holder and the Department of Justice in conjunction with the SEC are going to “look into” High Frequency Trading and the illegalities of such, don’t hold your breath for any real action to be taken as when faced with fraud, corruption and other illegal offenses and crimes against humanity on the part of the big banks, Holder saw fit to deem the offenders “too Big to Prosecute” as pursuing any real justice could cause systemic issues.
Zero Prosecutions of Elites for Most Destructive Frauds in World History-William Black
Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Professor William Black of UMKC.
Bill Black is an associate professor of economics and law. He was the executive director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007……..
White collar crime expert Professor William Black thinks the nation’s top bankers continue to get away with massive financial crime.
The most recent $10 million fine of former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis for fraud illustrates the ongoing problem. Professor Black says, “He’s not paying $10 million. Bank of America is paying the $10 million. So, he could care less, and he didn’t have to admit anything.
There have been zero prosecutions of the elite officers who led the epic epidemic of fraud. It was the most destructive in world history, zero of them even unsuccessfully prosecuted, much less prosecuted.”
On JPMorgan’s involvement with the $65 billion Madoff Ponzi scheme, where the bank paid $2.5 billion for restitution and to settle fraud charges, Black says, “This was dirty as all hell. If it had come to a trial, instead of JPMorgan settling on this, it could have blown them completely out of the water.”
On the LIBOR rate rigging fraud by the world’s 16 biggest banks, Professor Black says, “This is the largest cartel in world history by orders of at least three and probably four orders of magnitude. This is LIBOR, the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate. This is price fixing of this rate that is then used to set the price of over $300 trillion in financial product. A trillion is a thousand billion. This is massively bigger than the real economy. In order to fix this rate, all the banks not only had to agree to form a cartel and cheat the rest of the world, but had to do so for years. If even a single one of them had defected, and made it public, the whole thing falls apart. . . .And guess what, our old friend JPMorgan is back as one of the entities that engaged in this fraud.”
What is the result of massive rampant unprosecuted fraud? Professor Black says, “If you don’t have any accountability, you not only make certain that there is going to be a next blow-up, but it will be worse. . . . We have effectively removed the criminal laws for a particular elite class of frauds.”
• source: USAWatchdog.com
………..and on a side note, Greg Hunter had a critical comment on one of his posts regarding the point of view of Dmitri Orlov, a Russian blogger in reference to his insight and opinions on the US involvement in the upheaval in Ukraine.
Greg’s rebuttal is food for thought for anyone who just goes along to get along without questioning…….
How do you feel about HSBC laundering money for terrorists and drug cartels and only being fined by the U.S. government? Isn’t that treason? Deloitte consulting helped Standard Charter Bank do the same thing and once again only a fine. That too is treason, isn’t it? (This happened in the last year or so Google it if you don’t believe me.) What kind of a disgrace is it to hand out (through the Fed) $30 or $40 billion a month to banks to buy their “toxic” debt? What kind of a disgrace is it to allow JPMorgan to pay a fine for helping Bernie Madoff rob people of $60 billion? What kind of a disgrace is it to allow the banks commit perjury and forgery and fraud on the court and call it “rob-signing”? Your Government let the banks of the hook with a small fine for foreclosure fraud on a nationwide scale? Would you call that a disgrace? It is a disgrace to trample the 4th Amendment with indefinite detention? What kind of a disgrace is it to murder hundreds of children with the Drone murder program? Is that a disgrace to you? Your elected leaders allow the spying on all Americans. Do you think that is a disgrace? Is it a disgrace to start one war after another and kill and wound good Americans for greed. Is it a disgrace to see our veterans homeless and out of work? Your anger is misplaced my friend. The bankers are collapsing the country and our elected leaders are allowing it to happen. You are angry at me? Really? I am using what is left of the Constitution to question my government and awake people to a coming financial calamity. That is both patriotic and very American. I suggest you spend less time venting on me, and prepare for the crash that is surly coming. I don’t want it to come. I love the country and my heart breaks because of it, but that will not stop the rain. Thank you for your email and service to the country.
A true Patriot who believes in the principles of the Founding Fathers will stand up for liberty and truth and question corruption regardless of the flag that the perpetrators hide behind.
Secret Insider TIP: They couldn’t care less about “spreading Democracy”. Their intentions are to preserve the US Dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency for as long as possible.
In the next post we will look at how the Dollar’s demise is accelerating.
It is incredible that obvious fraud is ignored and the average Joe public can be issued a ticket by a camera!
Sent from my iPad
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