The Libor scandal [10] seems to be waking people up to manipulation and fraud by the big banks.
There are many other types of fraud they've engaged in as well ...
Here is a partial list:
- Committing massive and pervasive fraud both when they initiated mortgage loans and when they foreclosed on them [11] (and see this [12])
- Pledging the same mortgage multiple times to different buyers. See this [13], this [14], this [15], this [16] and this [17]
- Cheating homeowners [18] - especially veterans [19] - from laws meant to protect people from unfair foreclosure
- Engaging in mafia-style big-rigging fraud against local governments. See this [20], this [21] and this [22]
- Cooking their books [23]
- Pushing investments which they knew were terrible, and then betting against the same investments to make money for themselves. See this [26], this [27], this [28] and this [29]
- Engaging in unlawful "frontrunning [30]" to manipulate markets. See this [31], this [32], this [33], this [34], this [35] and this [36]
- Engaging in unlawful "Wash Trades" to manipulate asset prices. See this [37], this [38] and this [39]
- Shaving money off of virtually every pension transaction they handled over the course of decades, stealing collectively billions of dollars from pensions worldwide. Details here [42], here [43], here [44], here [45], here [46], here [47], here [48], here [49], here [50], here [51], here [52] andhere
- Laundering money for drug cartels. See this [56], this [57] and this [58] (indeed, drug dealers kept the banking system afloat [59] during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis)
- Owning [60] and largely running [61] the Federal Reserve ... which is itself arguably a Ponzi scheme [62]
But at least the big banks do good things for society, like loaning money to Main Street, right?
Actually:
- The big banks no longer do very much traditional banking. Most of their business is from financial speculation. For example, less than 10% of Bank of America’s assets come from traditional banking deposits [63]. Instead, they are mainly engaged in financial speculation and derivatives. (and see this [64])
- The big banks have slashed lending since they were bailed out by taxpayers ... while smaller banks have increased lending. See this [65], this [66] and this [67]
- A huge portion [68] of the banks' profits comes from taxpayer bailouts. For example, 77% of JP Morgan’s net income comes from taxpayer subsidies [69]
- The big banks are literally killing the economy [70] ... and waging war on the people of the world [71]
- And our democracy [72] and republican form of government [73] as well