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Guest Post: Will Lady Justice Weigh In On The Greatest Heist In History?
Submitted by Damien Hoffman of Wall St. Cheet Sheat
Will Lady Justice Weigh In On The Greatest Heist In History?
Here we are approaching 2010 and we have not yet punished the
thieves who caused the Greatest Heist in History. It’s one thing for
justice to allude Osama bin Laden as he scurries through miles of
mountainous terrain. It’s another when the assholes who screwed us are
sitting in luxury high-rises going about their daily business in plain
view.
When I was young my great-grandfather told me: “Steal a loaf of
bread and you’ll go to jail. Steal millions (now Trillions) on Wall
Street and you can make it legal.” So true. While petty criminals are
filling our jails, the SEC has their head somewhere dark and moist
because they can’t figure out how to categorize crimes which have been
redefined by decades of lobbying and attached legislative amendments.
We have been consumed with the current health care legislation. We
have sighed as markets have recovered off satanic lows. However, the
only way for future generations to loyally invest in markets is to
apprehend and punish the terrorists.
If you lost a significant portion of your retirement stash, or maybe
even your job, you now have to work that many more hours of your life
to make yourself whole for the crimes of megalomaniacs. If that doesn’t motivate you to take 5 short minutes to write your local representative to ask about punishments for the thieves, I don’t know what will.
Until the criminals are brought to justice and sane rules are established on Wall Street, markets will remain nothing more than short term trading pits.
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Waste of time writing representitives. They're in on it.
Its attitudes like yours that allow the politicians to get away with it. Do you even bother to vote?
you mean vote for change we can believe in?
Yeah, I voted for Bob Barr.
"you mean vote for change we can believe in?"
Wrong... Obamaman does not lie... listen carefully next election cuz he clearly said...
"CHAINS you can believe in... "
And he will deliver... even if it kills us...
i believe you mean bHo said "CHAIN you can BEREAVE in."
LoL. I dunno, I heard 'change' -- loose change, that is.
Yeah, Everything was just peachy pre-Obama wasn't it? It seems like half an argument to me to focus on Obama.
Just a theory but does anybody know a single country that started up as a socialist state or did socialism evolve more as a reaction to corruption and unfair distribution of wealth in a previous system. I dunno. Rather than focus on Obama and socialism maybe y'all should focus on the corruption in the system and I feel fairly certain that socialism would never rear it's ugly head.
Is a class struggle - always was a class struggle. You didn't see aristocrats operating the guillotine. The time for politics is over.
"It was right on everyone's face. Tyler and I just made it visible. It was in the tip of everyone's tongue. Tyler and I just gave it a name."
This country doesn't need another election - we need Mayhem.
Rather than immediate Mayhem, I'd be happy for my more liberal friends to find that they really can handle a rifle. And then start to practice...
Way ahead of you.
Question: what comes after Mayhem?
Humans will always need some sort of law and order, some sort of authority structure... unless you think anarchism is a plausible option.
Do you think select individuals in other countries haven't realized over the last 200 years what was wrong with their countries, as compared to ours? You think they haven't tried as hard as we are to improve things?
The problem is how to establish a system 1. accepted by all, 2. fair to all, 3. based on law (not men).
I guess what I'm saying is, yes, there is a lot of unfairness in our current system, which leads many people (myself included) to want vengence... but remember - things can get A LOT worse... society can be A LOT more unfair... the distance between the haves and have nots can be A LOT greater.
Humans will NEVER escape politics, NEVER... politics, although painful and frequently frustrating and disheartening, is as integral to being a human, as is eating, drinking, and breathing. Best, therefore, to play it as honestly and with as much effort as possible.
I don't think we're talking about sending *everybody* to the gallows. Just the bankers. Hopefully, the politicians will be paying attention and can take a lesson.
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts
they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ...
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure."
- Thomas Jefferson
Twenty years...I'm not a statistics guy...how many standard deviations away are we now?
The Constitution is largest hourglass of general human freedom ever known - but ever since Abraham Lincoln militarily overturned the first major attempt at "alter or abolish" it was pretty clear that it was no longer for the people, by the people. The Banksterz of the early 20th century sealed it. If you want to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, stay of their radar. Period.
Politics - the language of psychopaths; the language of control. You're right - we'll never escape them. A sucker born every minute, they say. Well we are the suckers. Once the system becomes top heavy with people that control the flow of information, manipulate, and lack a shame mechanism there will be a collapse. And once again, we realize that we never do seem to learn from history. This isn't left vs. right - it's top versus bottom! What we don't learn is how to disenfranchise the wolves among us. How ingenious that they control by small margins of perceived victory - keeping us suckers on a Seesaw.
The question is: what political system will be adopted in the various regions of the soon to be "Untied" States? Will there even be states? Will we face invasion? Never, you say? How will a majority of the urbanites here in the lower 48 feed themselves with massive breakdowns in supermarket deliveries? A lot of people talk about their investment schemes as if they're in a vacuum.
If there is any solution it is restoring the primacy of the Constitution (absolutely free travel and unrestricted trade) and re-ensuring the sovreign power and uniqueness of the states. I went to the bookstore to find a copy of the Anti-federalist papers - no such luck - just 10 of the Federalists. If it weren't for the Antis we wouldn't even have the Bill of (freaking) Rights! Imagine that! No civil liberties...
Well, we just to need to keep Ron Paul alive. That guy is a straight talker.
Isn't it funny how one man's patriot could be construed today as anothers terrorist? Ole TJ would be getting a visit from some alphabet agency if he were to dare post something that incendiary either on the internet or in the opinion page of some newspaper.
But Jefferson's much quoted writings about revolution don't apply here. He was wrong. Timothy McVeigh accomplished NOTHING. The American Revolution wasn't a revolution from inside an existing order, like the French revolution, or Russian revolution. Instead, it was a revolution of self determination. The "people" didn't rise against their oppressors, more than a "nation" threw off a distant master.
Generally speaking, and sorry to say, internally generated revolutions FAIL. The French revolution led to Bonaparte, the Cuban to Castro, the Russian to Stalin, Tiennamen Square was crushed, which was probably for the best etc... They don't fail because the ideas of the leaders of the revolution (Democracy, Communism) are wrong or right (which is irrelevant). They fail because they generate disorder, and in disorder you get panic, and an instinctive need for security, and the worst result - a "strong man" autocracy arises. Foment a revolution in this country and watch what comes out of it: a situation much less hospitable to freedom, with less of a pretence toward rule of law, much less personal liberties. You want blood - but the blood spilled will be yours and your childrens' in the end.
That's the bullshit about Fight Club, when he says "I say evolve, and let the chips fall where they may..." Well, (you have to ask) WHERE will the chips fall? Will it really be an evolution?
Accept the fact, that you have only one "front" to fight in the war, which is through the current system. You might not be able to make the change you want, but AT LEAST you may slow, or partially reverse, the gradual degradation of our country, and make a meaningful contribution to future generations who otherwise might grow up in a dark ages.
And btw... I agree with what you say about Lincoln and the FED... Can we undo the damage? I have my doubts, since it takes a well informed citizenry to understand these complexities, and MANY people don't give two shits, as long as they have decent food, clothes, and a roof over their heads, now, and OTHERS have misdiagnosed the problem and actively fight for the wrong side.
Hmm. Something to chew on. Gracias.
Although I do not believe Jefferson and McVeigh have anything do with each other...
"...OTHERS have misdiagnosed the problem and actively fight for the wrong side."
...but your last sentence clears it up!
The question is, when will the proletariat get off their couches - oh, you said it: when they give two shits. Yes Bubba Can.
So, will we slide into a state of perpetual control and surveillance where 2 + 2 = 5 and party members that speak out are commanded to visit the Ministry of Love? Perpetual war? That's the plight of Fight Club - they'd rather die than let this go on - come what may.
This one is for McVeigh:
"To be famous, in fact, one has only to kill one's landlady."
Albert Camus
---
And this one is for Jefferson:
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
Albert Camus
WARNING: You do not want mayhem. Mayhem is what our enemies want, what our enemies are expecting, and what our enemies will eventually try to provoke us into.
Our current enemy is actually an organized crime syndicate that can easily move in or out of a giant bureaucracy like the U.S. Government or a giant conglomerate like Goldman Sachs. By the time the "mayhem" arrives, the criminals will be out, and poised to reap the profits from the ensuing "mayhem."
For example, if the American people start blowing up government buildings or banks, they will sell us the illegal explosives and then secure the contracts to rebuild whatever we blew up. Also, Second Amendment or not, the American people are severely outgunned by the Federal government.Civil unrest in America would open up an entire new market in the black market weapons trade.
Considering that these same people have been stealing weapons from the American military for years, the market is already flooded with the exact weapons we would need to further our "mayhem" efforts. In addition to selling us the weapons, these same people will be more than happy to finance our "mayhem" at an extremely high interest rate.
The bottom line here is that you need to KNOW YOUR ENEMY. Since "mayhem" creates big business for war profiteers, it would actually be playing right into our enemies' hands.
Careful please.
Outright calls for violence (which this makes close approach on) have no place on Zero Hedge. They also tend to attract the attention of the authorities. That is pretty certain to end in tears.I bother to vote and I occasionally do write (and call) my reps - all three of them.
The last time I did this was to ask them to support HR 1207/S 604. I got a non-responsive form letter from one of the three - with exactly the same wording as several hundred others got - and ignored by the rest.
"They're in on it" seems to be a fair assessment of the situation.
Well good for you. The problem is the vast majority of Americans never call or write their elected officials or they believe the propaganda spewed by the Dems and Reps blaming each other to maintain the corrupt 2 party system.
Americans love to mock the French, but at least they get off their ass and have protests and even an occasional riot. Until we Americans start marching on DC or a viable third party starts taking seats in CONgress the taxpayer looting will continue.
Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, "In a Democracy, people get the Government they deserve." Well, the American people are stupid, so we get a Government that lies and steals knowing it can get away with it.
The TEA Party people have been marching on DC. The Conservative party is a viable 3rd party.
Percolator:
You are naive and foolish. I have written to my representatives numerous times and I am convinced that they are in on it. I even voted in the little pissant election last week. I don't know why. My rep, Lamar Smith of Texas, voted for the Paulson bailout in spite of thousands of letters demanding he not do so. Then, as soon as Obama was elected, he rebranded himself anti-stimulus.
He plays politics of the worst kind and he is typical of my senators and virtually everyone else's, so give it a rest. Voting doesn't matter. Writing reps doesn't matter. The game is rigged and they just don't give a damn. If you believe otherwise I would conter that you are the one who isn't paying attention. I have been and after 30 years of this crap I am convinced that voting is a waste of time. The game is rigged. Only fools believe otherwise at this point.
I'm not saying the game is not rigged, I understand what's happening and it makes me sick.
But, what disgusts me even more is how it seems most Americans have thrown in the towel and are allowing themselves to be raped. Its up to Americans to stand up and demand change, sadly the few who know what is really happening say nothing can be done and the majority is just plain stupid.
I just don't want to see this country collapse in ruin, unfortunately its probably too late, the question is what rises out of the ashes? That's what really scares me.
Regarding this statement, we did our best during the previous presidential primaries. We wrote countless letters to every news organization in the country. Campaigned until we couldn't walk anymore. Gave million after million in contributions, countless hours of support and talked to anyone who would listen.
However, it didn't really matter. Dr. Ron Paul was the right man running at the wrong time. I am happy for every dollar I contributed to the campaign. It's amazing how someone can be so right about how to fix the mess we are in, yet fall on deaf ears to most who heard it.
The game is so rigged against us free-thinking Americans at this point that there is no means to fix it anymore.
As long as the GEs, Comcasts, Time-Warners, etc. control the media and the rest of the corporations help control congress, then things will just keep getting worse for the rest of us.
Hoping for change is never going to work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIraCchPDhk
Carlin was so right.
"I have been and after 30 years of this crap I am convinced that voting is a waste of time. The game is rigged. Only fools believe otherwise at this point."
Well, you can be consoled in the fact that it only took you 30 years to arrive at the truth of things. Some last a lifetime in the imbecilic insistence that the system is remediable and that if only one were to find the right formula its innate goodness would simply ooze out of nook and cranny. What needs be faced is the fact that we've had our democracy stolen from us by a coterie of financial, arms, drug and foreign policy lobbies with the help of a whore Congress so eager to do their bidding in exchange for campaign contributions that no effort is made any longer to hide the fact. For all intents and purposes, we're in a one party state where one of its factions governs while the other serves to funnel public discontent into a black hole. The possibility of a genuine opposition arising in the form of a so-called "third party" or independent candidacy is ruthlessly suppressed through the routine operation of the ballot access and election management apparatus. The system is long beyond any hope of fixing through parliamentary means. Only mass demonstrations and strikes of the kind that brought freedom to Poland in the 1980's offer hope for the future.
Eloquent.
Ironically, it is an attitude like yours that allow the politicians to get away with it.
As long as corporations can give soft contributions and hire infinite lobbyists to ensure control of nearly everyone in congress, then our vote is quite meaningless.
As long as people get a majority of their news from corporations that give the soft contributions and help hire the infinite lobbyists, then the game will remain rigged.
Why do you even bother to vote?
How does my attitude allow the politicians to get away with it?
See my posts above yours.
I agree there needs to be campaign finance reform.
Merely referring to your blanket statement from above. Millions before you have said it. It is annoying to infer that if you don't vote/don't write your reps that somehow that is all that is needed to fix our broken system.
You could write letters until your hands go numb. As long as those letters aren't filled with millions in campaign contributions, dinner events in their honor, and free trips to anywhere you want then they are absolutely meaningless.
Regardless of your other political beliefs, I was making a shallow statement based upon your previous shallow statement.
Misdirected anger about the tens of millions of Americans that truly believe we live in a free society here.
You know nothing about me or what I do. Save your venom for someone who cares.
Your comment told me something about you. If you don't care, why you do you comment?
they _are_ in on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU6fuFrdCJY
I love you, TD (and the rest of the gang), but I must second what Ivanovich says.
I've been doing thousands and thousands of (unpaid) volunteer work over the past 35 years, and trust me when I unequivocally state, anybody who believes sending e-mails, or snail mails, or calling one's congress critter at this late date will accomplish anything is smoking banana peels.
There are only a handful of senators and reps who aren't on the take, and we are so far in lock and load territory that nothing short of parking guillotines outside the halls of congress and on Wall Street and Broad Street will accomplish anything!
(And I have spent far too many hours contacting my reps to no avail. Just as there are plenty of disinformation and misdirection specialists out there who claim to be "democrats" and "progressives," so to are they misleading anyone who will listen to keep pumping useless monies into the telecom corps and ISPs to make such useless contacts.)
Then either vote to replace them, or "become city hall"
"It’s one thing for justice to allude Osama bin Laden as he scurries through miles of mountainous terrain."
We luv ya Tyler and your analysis, even though at times it seems you have eaten at least half a blue pill.
Sorry, Tyler.
Comments reserved for Damien.
until there are dead bankster bodies rolling in
the streets there will be no change - contrary
to the great kenyan born indonesian citizen
barry soetoro...
and of course stupid people would have to stop
voting for democraps and republicants....
www.obamacrimes.com
"luxury high-rises"
------------------------
some of them are sitting in much more traditional "house"-ing
I'm sorry to say but at this point it should be crystal clear that this system is and has been for quite some time, well beyond repair.
Not only will the thieves not be punished...they will be rewarded with seats of greater power. They will not go to prison, they will become Senators and regulators and lawmakers of every stripe. We have long ago lost the capacity to stand up for what is right. We are past legal recourse. Writing to congress is an exercise in futility, a mere recipe for an ulcer.
In short: We're fucked. The time for the "legal justice system" is over. It's time for street justice.
Burn the banks. Burn the Gas stations. If you meet someone that works for the vampire squid...crack a beer bottle over their head. Forget playing by the rules. THERE ARE NO RULES!
I am all in favor of your plan. However this is just talk and anything more serious will put further red flags next to your name in TPTB data mining operations. Y'all ever thought that they created and bought out facebook and myspace just to use your own words and pictures against you?
My suggestion is all the out of work people in NYC, CT, and NJ should storm the gates of Wall Street (will compare this to Michael Moore but violent) and start some serious chaos. Flaming bags of poo, broken beer bottles, whatever trash y'all can find.
Do this for all the folks that aren't close to the center of the universe. You know you will eventually...why not start today.
And then what?
FYI - the earth's estimated carrying capacity of nomadic hunter-gatherers (pre-civilization) is about 10 million people...
We have about 500x that currently living on this planet.
In order to encourage the cultivation of the earth, YOU NEED RULES. The bedrock of civilization is protection of private property.
Without rules, nearly everyone will DIE, and those that live will be pitiful creatures who will design their own rules anyway...
I'm not saying don't change the system... but you had better have a plan for how to do it (which you don't).
I've got a great situation...do you?
The point I was trying to make speaks more to the idea that civil unrest is quickly becoming a necessary inevitability. The pleas for justice from the legal system fall on deaf ears, the only option is to change the noise we make. We don't need to have a plan...We need only to voice our discontent with the existing plan and from that, true change will come.
Let's face it: Voting does not change anything. If voting could change anything, it would be illegal. We can't vote the criminals out of office and the seats of power, we must drive them out...physically if need be.
I don't agree... the only option is to do what the bankers and politicians do, USE the system to promote your values. They want you to give up... they don't want you to hold them accountable. They are much happier with everyone disaffected, but not politically active, because then you can bitch and whine, and they'll throw you a bone, but in the end they have the guns... and can relax.
It's like a war... eventually one side will capitulate, exhausted, and the spoils to the victor. In this country the "people" had the deck stacked for them for a long time, due to a propicious series of events when the country was founded, but gradually the politicians started winning... why? Because for the politicians, it's a livelihood, its a full-time job to get power. For ordinary people, it's AT BEST an avocation.
And violence won't help either... violence will make it HARDER for you to convince the rest of the population of your point of view. Kennedy gets killed, and all his social legislation flies through the Congress.
And violence is the lazy way out... that's what you should be fighting against. That's the politicians that say "don't like who we give money to, too bad"! You think you can fight that by saying "don't agree with what I say (not we, because you're only one person), too bad!" Fact is if it comes down to violence, they will win, since the status quo is with them, not you.
You have a very reasoned point and many of the things you say are in fact logical and even once held true. But I really believe we, as a country, are approaching a tipping point. This is not a Democrats or Republicans "debate". We are slipping into what will be understood to be class warfare. It's not unlike what happens in third world nations or developing countries. We think it can't happen here...and then one day we wake up to realize it already has: our rights stripped away, our childrens futures sacrificed, our jobs outsourced, our government hijacked by the highest bidders and our currency worthless. And then one day, one little guy, out of frustration and desperation, throws a rock at just the right time...setting off an avalanche...and all hell breaks loose. It's really not a terribly unique occurrence and we have all the required ingredients already in the soup...It's just waiting for somebody to light the match.
Not only is it possible for this to happen here. It is in fact likely and only a matter of time.
I agree with everything you say... but do you want to encourage that? Do you think that will lead to more or less justice?
I think the time for encouraging that or discouraging that has past us by. Weather it will lead to more justice or less justice for the time being will take a back seat to the prevailing reality: This can't go on much longer.
These are not events that I look forward to. I'm not a survivalist living in a bunker with a stash of weapons and canned food. I live in a condo and I drive a convertible for god sake. I don't own a gun nor do I particularly like them. But what's going on just cannot and MUST NOT continue. And I sense the word "please" is no longer useful in our requests for change or justice.
It's gonna be what it's gonna be...and it's not gonna be pretty...at least not at first.
You make much sense, alien-IQ, and those posters disbuting you make, I'm sad to say, little to none!
Civil unrest will come whether we wish it or not, as too few Americans can still identify the enemy. Just as too few Americans realize that the Financial-Intelligence Complex (those who decide whom the presidential candidates will be every four years) runs the country, and that Military-Corporate-Congressional-Entertainment (etc.)-Complex is second-tier.
Anyone suggesting one uses "the System" is either one of the enemy, or too damn stupid to be taken seriously. They own "the System" just as they make "the Rules" and laugh whenever anyone says they followed their rules and still got screwed! 'Nuff said.....
This has no place on Zero Hedge. This is the third warning of this kind I've had to put in this thread. It isn't going to take much more for me to get pissed off and start banning people.
Long overdue in my opinion... A great site, with lots of insight and spirited discussion is in danger of being turned into an online "Teabag" rally (by a small minority). You have every right, and in my opinion an obligation, to keep the dialogue civil in ZH comments.
From Max Keiser's site:
You can't punish God..hold hands and repeat these words:
The Lloyd’s Prayer [as in Lloyd Blankfiend]
Chainman Who Art At Goldman,
Blankfein Be Thy Name.
The Rally’s Come.
God’s Work Be Done,
We Have No Fear Of Correction.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Gains,
And Bankrupt Our Nearest Competitors,
Just As You Taught Lehman And Bear A Lesson.
And Bring Us Not Under Indictment.
For Thine Is The Treasury,
The House And The Senate
Forever And Ever.
Goldman.
I think down near the end it should read "Mine is the Treasury, the house and the senate" not thine. Mine.
Sorry to nitpick, but it's important.
We will soon know how Lady Justice feels about the theives. Madoff's CPA is about to be sentenced. If he gets 50 years, and the hedge fund insiders get 35 years each, then we will know that Lady Justice is angry. Our offshore CD buddy should be getting about 120 years.
These sentences will open the flood gates for prosecutions and, the squealling sound you hear in the night will not be coming from the pig farm.
The Madoff sentence and the sentence of the accountant and anyone else they find guilty related to this means nothing about the present day justice system.
It's all showbiz. Lady justice was put on a morphine drip by those that bribe and control years ago.
Naccio, same thing. Showbiz to placate the masses.
It is all very well complaining and asking what happens, but if you can't get the politicians to listen to you what can you do? Protest in the streets in a large group?
No you can't do that either.... UK people protested in large groups about the illegal war in Iraq but the governments still went ahead and ignored the voices of the people.
People protested about the huge taxes on fuel duty over here.... nothing was done and they have continued to increase the fuel duty so a significant proportion of fuel price is now tax.
I have written to my MP many times, so don't think I don't complain!!
I have written to the FSA about concerns I had but nothing was done and I was right about my concerns but still no-one has been punished
Hey dumbass, it's "elude" not "allude." Hard to have credibility with bad spelling.
Gee.
For real, man?
For real? Get a grip. Most of the articles on this blog have typos and some even have poor grammar. There were several typos and (sic)s in an article put out by Goldman reprinted on this site. At least we knew what they meant.
Save your critique for Tuesday nights at the community college, okay?
In the words of Dearest Leader, "Let us withold judgement."
Hear hear, Tyler.
DavidC
Americans! Shut down the Fed, break up your monster-banks, and retake your currency! Then DECAPITATE the BANKSTER class...and you MAY have a democracy again. It will take a bloody revolution to save your nation from the oligarchs & kleptocrats who hold it hostage and suck its life blood into their offshore accounts and futile oil-wars. Vive la guillotine!
One out of my two Senators said that they support the senatorial version of "audit the fed" and my congressional representative concurred (I have always voted against whomever is in office for decades). Nonetheless there is still no substantive governmental action regarding the financial crises. Besides auditing the fed, breaking up TBTF is imperative. Ideally the breakups would extend into the wider corporate community, eliminating business behemoths that require an over-sized government to ensure that the big boys play fair, follow reasonable "potty training protocol" and clean up after themselves. Downsize the government too. Instead we have no action. Like the republicans, the present administration of hope is maintaining the status quo. The amerikon two party system is synonymous for "fraudulent put-on", a means for the rich and powerful to steal from the poor. What can one do. I suppose I will have to become more politically active. Hardly anyone votes so that making a difference should not be too difficult. I taste a little vomit in my mouth.
Nothing will happen to these guys.
During the Bush years, I'd visit Talking Points Memo site from time to time (I'm a moderate Indie, for the record). Everyone there would be all up in arms over news leaking out. We knowingly tortured people in violation of our own laws and lied about it (also in violation of our laws). We turned the Justice Dept. into Karl Rove's Young Republican Summer Camp. We offered no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars to the VP's old company. We hired mercenary armies to gun down whatever moves in Iraq even as we were trying to win Iraqi civilians over.
Always the question: When will these guys pay?! We know they did it! When will someone, any one face the music? Surely the US of A, the truth and law and order prevails eventually, right?
The answer was never. Scooter Libby would receive a wrist slap and Rumsfeld and Gonzales would be allowed to resign, and that's about it. That was the sum total of what happened.
The answer to this latest "heist" is exactly the same. No one will pay any real price, and a great great many of them will be richer than ever. Get used to it.
A few people tangential cases will be brought forward: Ken Lewis for an SEC violation. Some inside-trader DBs that no one has ever heard of. But no cases will get at the heart of the cancer. Or even close. Get used to it.
Not for nothing, but do you think you could work-up as much outrage for what's going on right now as for crimes, real and percieved, that happened 4-6 years ago?
Just asking.
I am just as angry right now as I was four years ago.
I'm just saying that I learned over the last 8 years that powerful people can commit crimes in broad daylight, the media can pick it up and report it in detail, with corroborating evidence, and nothing happens.
I'm trying to warn people who still have faith that law and order usually shines through in the end, that that faith is misplaced. In our country, the fact that a crime is plain and day, and everyone knows it occurred, is no longer any assurance that something will be done about it.
Our level outrage is irrelevant.
Fair enough. Personally, I'm pretty "outraged-out" at this point.
Cheers -
I agree completely with Chet's assessment. There is no outrage for crimes committed in broad daylight. Breaking the laws of physics, for example, and there is no outrage, no open outcry. The truth becomes only a faded whitewash.
My words, not Chet's:
When they can bring down three reinforced-steel buildings with kerosene and a giant match and no one in authority even blinks...you know something is wrong with the world. Stealing trillions of dollars after that was as easy as taking candy from a baby. (All the "powers-that-be" are in cahoots, after all.) We were told what to believe and, collectively, we believed it. Jessica Simpson was hot. What's Brangelina up to today? To say we have been "dumbed-down" as a society doesn't even come close to the travesty of these perps.
When the people are truly outraged enough, they will put together all the pieces and there will be at once a societal epiphany. Pitchforks will not be necessary. When they know the gig is up, the roaches will scram quicker than you can say "subpoena."
Maybe then- and only then- can we restore our once-great country to its true potential.
I'm with Chet on this one. Resistance is futile and you are hugely outnumbered at this point. All we needed was a march on 85 Broad sometime this fall and it never had a chance of happening. Back to work. Meet your destiny: utter mediocrity and servitude. But buy SPY - the Clampdown has this under control so at least buy the baby a new pair of shoes.
Your great-grandfather sounds like he was a very smart guy. And you end up writing for a blog?
He is looking down on you and shaking his head in disgust.
Because writing a blog is shameful somehow? Huh? What?
-1
Blogging is one of the most honorable pursuits possible in our current society. How else would we get real information and non-elite perspectives? It's freedom incarnate, the American dream.
You, sir, are an idiot.
Emerson Electric CEO: "Washington is doing everything in their manpower, capability, to destroy U.S. manufacturing,"
http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2009/11/emerson-electric-emr-ceo-washing...
Go team DC!
Anyhow enough complaining... isnt Jon and kate makes 8 on tonight?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/4582535/Senior-HBOS-executive-sacked-...
Thats what foresight and diligence gets you while dumb shits like Cioffi walk.
These pigs will eat their own to keep their head in the trough. I'm on the side of mass default, mayhem and a revolutionary government. Burn the fucking Hamptons to the ground.
Courage is of no value unless accompanied by justice; yet if all men became just, there would be no need for courage.
--Agesilaus the Second
Wrong. In a just world, courage would take us to other worlds, planets, and galaxies without the need to conquer.
A (fucking) Men TD
really, much would be gained by just turning the TV off. Our children need to walk away from the media and the brain-warping messages and develope some true character...
This is actually happening. I've heard several friends decide lately to discontinue cable subscriptions. Myself, I just moved and for the first time ever I will not have TV. Internet, movies, and selective downloads YES. Mindless propoganda TV, NO.
Here's an analogy I sent to pragmatic capitalist in February 2009.
Say there are only so many jail cells in a country. Crime has been so rampant recently (frauds and ponzi schemers included) that all jail cells have been maxed to capacity and criminals have no where to go. To combat this situation, logically would simply be to build more jailhouses and for the government to create even more strict rules and laws on criminals to deter crime which in turn 'should' discourage people from committing crime. The Death penalty should be brought back so criminals who committed severe crimes will be executed and this should also help to alleviate the overcrowding situation in the jail cells. The criminals who committed severe crime worthy of capital punishment should be executed (Citigroup and Bank of America comes to mind).
However, it seems like the government is planning to do the exact opposite to resolve this overcrowding situation. To acheive this, they lax the rules so that the crimes that initially could send someone to jail will not do so after the laxes rule change comes into effect. Now people who committed less severe crimes (such as robbery, tax evasion by Turbo Tim and a few Dems) will be let off scott-free and will not go to jail. Of course, these new laxed laws apply to a select few of the society whereby normal citizens will still be tried under the older stricter laws.
The government, by letting less severe criminals off the hook, are actually worsening the situation in that these actions which once resulted in jailtime will now not result in any. This will lead to even more crimes happening which the government does not even acknowledge as crimes anymore. It is now the norm. People know they wont get punished for these acts so they will do it and continue to do it until the government realizes that they created a bigger problem which needs another solution (the solution which should have been to stricten the laws like they should have done in the first place). Chaos ensures as the real losers are society in general, and the winners are all those who committed crimes and got away with it, which includes the CEOs of banks who mismanaged their companies, got huge compensation and can walk off as if they were not guilty of any crimes.
zh is losing its credibility with these "lifes so unfair" posts
yeah, aus punter...that whole concept about disregarding and disrespecting the "rule of law" really belongs in the "lifes (sic)so unfair" column.
Zero hedge is not strictly about esoteric quant and credit market topics. Cease your whining.
I agree. I am not in the financial industry, but I visit this blog because of the range of interesting perspectives and non-mainstream information available here. It's like The Oil Drum of economics.
If you don't like these non-finance articles, don't read them.
Hey, aus-punter, this is Remaining Men Together. Find a shoulder to cry on or get the **** outta hear, ya gddmn tourist!
Send money to those who might fight for you.
http://www.randpaul2010.com/
http://schiffforsenate.com/
Politicians are for sale, you can't get around that. What you can do is be the buyer, freedom isn't free, write a check, it's the American way.
As much as I have enjoyed this site over the last ten months, I can feel it is dying. As Dick Cheney would say, it’s in its death throes (I hope I am as wrong as Cheney). Old posters are fading away, or making only the occasional appearance, and other folks are immigrating from the Yahoo! boards and lowering the level of dialogue.
Maybe there is nothing to be said that hasn’t already been said. Maybe it’s capitulation to the dark side. Maybe it’s fatigue. Maybe it is just too painful to watch what has happened to the markets and the country. Maybe it is what MsCreant spoke of the other day...acceptance.
We all know how bad it is, how unfair it is, and how dangerous this game is. We also know nothing is going to change it. Audit the Fed is dead. Bloomberg’s FOIA is dead. Regulation or TBTF break-up is dead. Transparency is a dream. FASB is usurped. Fraud is not only not prosecuted, it is welcomed so long as the market goes higher. Even the Bear Stearns HF managers, who clearly lied and misrepresented, walked away scot free. The PTB do not even bother to try to hide their self-dealing; they know they don’t have to. A position of authority in Government is vacant? What Goldman partner needs a tax wash?
The hopelessly naive among us still try to petition our elected officials, deluding themselves into thinking the system either has the ability or will to right the wrongs, or that policy actually has anything to do with the will of the majority.
All of our anger and frustration has been diffused either through time or in a flash realization that we are all sheep and wimps and cowards. Our tails are between our legs and we are going back to Idol and Dancing and wondering who is schtupping who in Hollywood. We are weak and compliant and complacent. We scream in each other’s ears, preaching to the converted, but haven’t the courage to raise a hand against those who would oppress us. They know it.
Until it blows up, we will continue to pay for the mistakes of others, and continue to contribute our collective wealth to the undeserving. They will take our wealth believing they earned it. And when it all finally does explode, we will pay for that, too. We know our purpose on this Earth is to allow our pockets to be picked clean by the self-appointed, self-chosen few. They ARE better than the rest of us, at least in the Darwinian sense. They won. We lost. It was a shutout.
As our anger ebbs, and we accept the fate we have earned, we won’t be needing Zero Hedge as much anymore. The venting is almost done. Visit this site every day and it is clear it is almost over. More manipulation? Ho hum. Another bailout? Where do I send my money? Where should my kids send their money? Is it warm enough in your forty room mansion? Want to siphon my gas for your kid’s Ferrari? We exist to serve the master.
They take what they want, when they want it. We let them. The future is theirs. Time for me to get out of the way of my betters.
Unfortunately, you say it better than I could. But come out from behind that anonymous moniker, and join your comrades in arms. We're still here. No matter what happens, I will always be outraged at what has happened since September 2008, and I know I'm not the only one.
What can we DO? That is the question.
And fuck Dick Cheney.
nice attitude.
Wow. Stunned silence here. Thinking. You are right, it's over. Great post.
Don't be discouraged. Inspiration is where you find it. If ZH goes down we move on. Go have some kids that'll strengthen your resolve. All the best to you.
Your key mistake here is equating Zero Hedge with some kind of populist revolution furthering some kind of armed or unarmed insurrection that will kill all the bankers and replace them with [ - blank - ] in order to restore fairness, justice and utopia to the world. This has nothing to do with Zero Hedge.
What Zero Hedge is about is actually quite simple:
First and foremost, Zero Hedge is about finance.
Plain and simple. We are finance people. We are rabid, card carrying capitalists and believers in the free market. It seems like a lot of people don't realize that. We are constantly amazed at the fringe genres that latch onto Zero Hedge, though we tolerate them respectfully so long as they don't misbehave too badly. "Out there" we seem to be characterized as some sort of stellar nursery for right-wing republican supernovae. But this betrays quite a bit of ignorance. In fact, I defy you to characterize our staff, readers or even our resident nutjobs. Not a week goes by that I am not personally accused of being a left and then a right wing nutjob at least twice. I've been called fascist, socialist, communist and even a royalist all in the same 48 hour span. I suppose that means that we represent a craving that defies explanation simply because a political party that embodies our ideals does not exist today:
Zero Hedge is about a level playing field, insofar as Zero Hedge is about finance. Finance is a rigged game without a level playing field.
Zero Hedge is about transparency, insofar as Zero Hedge is about finance. Finance is a one-sided slot machine without transparency.
Zero Hedge is about government waste, insofar as Zero Hedge is about finance. Finance is a tool of central control in the face of rampant government waste.
Zero Hedge is about the rule of law, insofar as Zero Hedge is about finance. Finance cannot exist in any useful form in the absence of the rule of law.
Just about everything we put up on the front page touches these issues and does so with a nexus to finance.
I'm sorry that because the Bear Stearns sell-siders didn't seem to a jury to quite cross the line into "criminal" far enough to let you savor the salty taste of their blood on your tongue before lustfully swallowing that you think the "battle" (for what?) is somehow lost. I think you are fighting the wrong battle.
FASB is not the problem.
The Fed is not the problem. (Though it makes it much worse).
Too Big To Fail is not the problem.
FOIA exceptions are not the problem.
Goldman is not the problem. (They are a symptom).
The problem is a new class of entitlement: The entitlement to riskless 8% returns per year, endless low interest rates, subsidies for those stupid enough to build their house on a 20 year floodplain (twice in 20 years) a deity-divined "right" to insurance and perpetually appreciating real estate prices. A combination of this and the sad state of the two party system in the United States pretty much assures that your bankers, representatives and members of the executive branch will turn out a bunch of thieves. Of course they did, dingbat. You asked them to. You demanded this of them. Every time you voted out some member of congress who was for cutting entitlement spending. Every time you whined to your friends about rising interest rates. Every time you complained about the cost of your mortgage. Every time you sat idly by while they raised someone elses taxes to pay for the next big program. Every time you failed to educate yourself on the issues before voting.
Stop it. Stop it now.
We think the solution is deep-dive financial education for every citizen, an understanding of the laws of thermodynamics (you can't get something for nothing forever), a shift to personal responsibility, and several metric asstons of sunshine.
Sorry we couldn't deliver the skins of some hedge fund managers for you. But that's just not what we do.
As for the site dying, you just aren't paying attention. We have more and more amazing content every day. In my personal opinion, Tyler's recent pieces on the Fed and Interest Rate Swaps are the best things ever written on Zero Hedge. Readership is hitting new records every day as well. Yes, that brings in some new entrants who try, in different ways, to see if the site is for them. Some find it is. Others slip away when they figure out we don't think those were demolition charges in the World Trade Centers because at least two of us on senior staff actually saw planes strike the towers with their own eyes up close and personal, or that while we find the behavior of the Fed outrageous, at least three of us don't think it should be abolished outright.
While you may make Zero Hedge into an outlet for your rage or anger, and while we respect that need, and even facilitate the outlet to some extent, that is not our primary purpose. Speaking for myself, I think our primary purpose is to re-enshrine the right to the pursuit of happiness and finally drive a splintered, wooden stake through the heart of anything resembling an attempt to create a right to happiness itself.
How about you quash the defeatism and re-ignite some flames to work on those goals? Sorry if you're not excited. We sure are. Get your head back in the game. We've got a lot more time on the clock.
- Marla
Excellent.And thank you for what you do Marla.I think Zero Hedge is incredible, and important.And I am very happy to see the increase in readership.
You and Tyler and the whole team rock.
Nice one, Marla.
ZH is alive even if there are maggots crawling all around.
Maggots only eat dead stuff.
Nice speech Marla.
Anonymous, pull your thumb out of your mouth and puff out your chest.
This is a great article, along the lines of many posts today and will provide clues:
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article14967.html
Absolutely spot on. Don't give up and seek the truth. Always.
Finance and money are the lubricant of this economy and when talking about this all sorts of topics spring up. Even though I disagree with many of the stances that you describe here, (for example concerning the fed: if you disagree with its behavior then in my opinion you should disagree with its existance; it could not have acted in any other way since it is the lender of last resort) but it is not the stances that makes me frequent this site (as much as I can anyways), it is the purpose: the search for the truth. As some bloke (whose views on certain things are also not a bother for me) once said: the truth shall set you free.
Keep on fighting the good fight and hopefully freedom will not be wasted.
What you describe is natural. Inspiration is a fleeting experience. We adjust to our environment. Survival and comfort are pursued without volition.
We can only stay angry or interested so long before we realize there is more to life. It doesn't matter if they try to monetize the entire universe, we are inherently free. No one owns anything. You only control it while you are alive and hold legal rights over it in social reality.
Life is short and ephemeral. Enjoy the sunshine. Love something. Be loved. Those who aim to steal, control, and posses are already lost.
Huxley said the great divide in humanity is between those who are awake and those who are not. If you are truly awake, genuine happiness is yours no matter how many people try to reach in your pocket. What's in there anyway?
ZH will be here for a long time. They have filled a void. Although the passions and comments may have waned for the time being, that's cyclical. Clearly, their site traffic is not. So keep reading. And keep telling others to read. We are living in the very beginning of the Information Age. To accept defeat is to completely miss the power of what's happening. We may not win this battle, but your great-grandchildren will still be fighting the war.
Live life!
Inspirational thoughts, I recommend registration so that we can look for your comments.
I'm punishing myself. Good thing I have servants to do it for me.
Have to agree with Alien-IQ. If you see a Goldman banker, bernanke, geithner, congressman or senator and have the opportunity to slit their throat, you have to do it. They don't fear the law. Make them fear us..
This has no place on Zero Hedge.
If I see it again, or any form of it, I'll start banning IP addresses.
This is probably a set up. Prepare for a DOJ request for IP addresses.
Time to pre-emptively dump the log to protect the innocent.
Marla... per my earlier reply, it's long overdue... ZH is too important to let it sink to this level!
As a registered member, you have my full support... how about the rest of you?
How's this for a peaceful protest idea. Thousands of bags of poo and trash deposited at the gates of wall street giants demanding greenbacks in return.
Wall street did the same via various Fed and Treasury mechanisms so we certainly have precedence.
Folks living in NYC or thereabouts: please consider organizing a protest on these lines.
stealing one loaf of bread is a crime, stealing 13 trillion dollars is a statistic figure (to rephrase Joe Stalin)
Stealing 13 trillion means everybody gets a great bonus.
The real question is how to steal 20 trillion next year.
Marla:
On behalf of all of us who DO appreciate the enlightenment, education, and (yes) entertainment provided to all of us by ZH, I would like to thank you and Tyler and the many "named" contributors who both enlighten and entertain us here daily.
I wish I could say the same for many of the "anonymous" contributors who think it's funny or amusing to use this site to incite violence or disorder (with the exception of "fatwas" or "jihadi" activities against certain cephalopodic entities, and you all know who I'm talking about).
Let me spell it out for you people - talking like that IN THIS FORUM is going to attract the unwanted attention of certain "alphabet soup" agencies of the "government" to EACH OF YOU INDIVIDUALLY and unfortunately to a lot of other people who visit or contribute here as well.
Yes, we are governed by Kleptocrats - but WE elected them. They sold themselves out to The Squid and his pals - what else would you expect of thieves and criminals?
The only solution - and one that has worked in history before - is to peacefully decouple yourself from TPTB. If they don't mess with you, consider yourself fortunate and don't mess with them.
But if they do mess with you, make it both painful and inconvenient for them to do so.
At the end of the day, remember this - there are more of us than there are of them.
So, when GS (Great Squid) declares $20BN in bonuses for his minions and Chairman Lloyd (I mean Jabba The Hutt in a pinstripe suit),appears as Great Caesar giving largesse in front of 85 Broad St. he should be met by crowds - in peaceful, utter, contemptuous stony silence.
At that same moment, everyone working in a GS-financed business across the country should lay down their tools and walk out.
The idea is non-violent passive resistance folks - just as Solidarity did in Poland, Mandela did in South Africa, Gandhi did in India, and Martin Luther King did in our own country.
An armed and violent "few" will be crushed by the oligarchs and made an example of.
But the actions of a peaceful, unarmed MANY will give them pause.
If we withdraw our participation, they will fall - guaranteed.
So - learn everything you can here at ZH -break out an old economics or finance texbook if you have to - EDUCATE YOURSELF.
And then decide where your "strategic non-participation" in their various cephalopodic schemes will do the most damage.
Kptlt. laughing swordfish
9er Unterseeboote Flotille
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29235.html
I don't think representative will do anything about it. Talk about bad timing :)