This article by Matt Taibbi in the October 15 issue of Rolling Stone is the most important and aggravating of what I’ve read in quite a while. If strong language is not to your liking, you should squint your eyes and read past the offending bits, because you need to really understand why it is that true economic recovery is not even remotely possible.
Besides fibbing to ourselves about our true economic strength with falsified economic numbers, we’ve apparently also been living with a government captive to the interests of Wall Street. Not only has blatant and massive theft been running rampant on Wall Street, but it has been done under the protection of the federal government.
In short, what I have been calling the “Greatest Looting Operation in History” is now laid out in stunning detail in Matt Taibbi’s article. To face facts squarely, we live in a kleptocracy, a massive racket where the misdeeds are never punished for the largest players, only the bit players, now and then and purely for appearance’s sake (think Martha Stewart).
If you thought or hoped that Bernie Madoff was some sort of a fluke, this article makes clear that he was not the exception, but the rule.
The conclusions from this article could not be more obvious:
- Bailout monies will not help, because they will be diverted and stolen instead of actually repairing anything.
- Wall Street and the big banks run the country.
by steves