Links: Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail

This should make you angry.  You're paying for it, and will pay perhaps thousands of dollars for it.
You.  Personally. And that may be if you're just lucky, since this sort of things screws up civilizations.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fail-20120314


Higher taxes. Higher prices.  Fewer services. Degraded quality of life.

The bank(s) is(are) half the problem.  The essential complicity of our government is the other half.

And more of the same with the so called JOBS bill  (Jump-start Our Business Startups) now going through Congress.   Investors will have another reason to beware, since it essentially reduces or does away with a lot of pesky disclosure formerly required of companies raising money from the public. Not that that will be a real problem, except to the suckers, er, investors, any company unwilling to disclose is looking for. 

Further, there is no reason to invest in an economy that is essentially frozen by excessive rent seeking, and as Matt Taibbi documents, is increasingly run as a Kleptocracy.

And this is the real reason for the decline in IPOs. (IPO is initial public offerings, the stock companies offer when they go public.) After all, disclosure wasn't a problem before  Certainly not in the 1990's, when there were hundreds each year, despite the disclosure laws they are now getting rid of.
 
As far as I can tell, the only difference between Democrats and Republicans is that the Democrats seem to use a little more grease. 

The Greek Problem Again

Well, it's 12 days since my post on the Greek Debt. Euro 440B from the eurozone, euro 60B from the European Commission, and euro 250B from the International Monetary Fund. Never let it be said the IMF doesn't take care of its own. Plus the US and other countries are going to guarantee dollars. Couldn't find out how much.

So that's a lot of money. But it is all loans, and the fans are not impressed. A The markets seem to think that this is just pushing the problem down the road. And it is. Germany doesn't want to bite the bullet and let Greece, and the other countries it has a current accounts surplus with, off the hook. But it will let the bankers and other speculators off, and put the European taxpayers on instead. We are talking about a massive transfer of wealth here. And the problem: Still the producer-consumer problem. The only way out is to give the Greeks, and the other PIIGS for that matter, back their money, so they can spend it on German goods again, and keep those factories in the Ruhr humming. So, with the people of the European Union somewhat poorer from the experience, they can all go back to work. Will they be wiser?

Meanwhile, a trillion dollar contribution to sovereign debt. The wise banker should be shaking in his shoes, because bankers the world over are going to succeed beyond their wildest dreams. If things play out.. wrong, and this is a giant step in that direction, they're going to end up with all the money! What a happy day that will be for them!

All our banker has to do is give it away. But, like the monkey with his hand in the jar, he won't let go of the banana. And if the monkey won't let go of the banana, he can't get his hand out of the jar. So he's stuck there.

Clues you in to how smart our masters are. Unfortunately running a monetary system requires a little more intellect, and a lot more balls, and pandering to the powers isn't going to do it.