It was a global heist as banks and investment banks plundered their investor's money on vast inane investments to line their own pockets. Then in 2008 and 2009 when those investments collapsed, those firms got bailed out with taxpayer money and at 100 cents on the dollar.
Ultimately, no-one was prosecuted, no effective new protective rules and oversight was instituted and those who lined their pockets kept the plunder and continued to compensate themselves at levels far beyond what most of the taxpayers who bailed them out will ever dream of making.
But we as taxpayers and as citizens don't have to tolerate this. We can unite and exercise control over our governments and in the U.S. in fits and starts, we are seeing the first of this in movements such as Occupy Wall Street. But I don't believe these movements will take hold in the U.S. until there is a financial collapse, which the U.S. government has been trying desperately to avoid, even as it can no longer pay its bills without borrowing the money.
In Greece, Spain and Italy, from the collapse of their economies, massive numbers of people have united and taken to the streets. This is forcing their governments, which bailed out the banks, to attempt to restructure their nations' loan terms with the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other giant lending institutions, none of which want to bail out the people.
But this is what it takes, people to unite en mass, and it can make a huge difference, offsetting the lobbyists that often represent the interests of the few at the expense of the many. That is not to say investors aren't entitled to a return on their money, but it is to say that when times get hard, we must all share in the pain.
Dick
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