Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Madoff Trustee Makes the Case; the Justice Department Collects the Money

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The Madoff Trustee Makes the Case; the Justice Department Collects the Money

Click here to access article by Pam Martens from Wall Street on Parade.

Thanks again to Martens whose reporting sheds much light on how the Wall Street/financial centers of the US Empire function. In this unusual Department of Justice case against JP Morgan, a global financial services firm whose executives are highly influential in all matters of the Empire, it was found that many large investors were duped by Madoff's pyramid scheme in collaboration with JP Morgan executives. People who facilitated this scheme ought to have gone to jail. Instead, JP Morgan pays a fine and the executives aren't even mentioned in the settlement.

This case illustrates a lot about justice in the USA. Justice, like everything else in this capitalist country, is class based. It is only when other capitalists are threatened that the wheels of justice turn, but they turn carefully to avoid bringing any capitalists to justice.