Banks steal trillions, but no jail
2015Jeff Mackler 2015-06Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 2 →
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Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials. Socialist Action is edited, Subscribe to Socialist Action The “Too Big to Fail” banks, virtually all the major banks in the U.S.—a nearly monopolized few to be sure—were gifted some $30 trillion in government bailout funds in the years immediately following the historic financial meltdown of 2008. It was sufficient for their ruling-class lobbyists to briefly walk the halls of Congress or put in a call to their congressional guardians to open the government’s financial spigots wider than in any time in U.S. history.
Until recently, the torrential flow of virtually free money continued in the form of “Quantitative Easing” (QE), as additional billions (the actual amount until a few months ago was $89 billion monthly for the past two years) were poured into the crisis-ridden finan cial system to keep it afloat.
QE is the ruse wherein the Federal Reserve, suppos edly to encourage investment in job-creating indus Socialist Action: Where we stand is driving down living standards and threatens all life on this planet.
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on the trade unions.
SOCIALIST ACTION Closing news date: June 3, 2015 Editor: Michael Schreiber Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder designed, and laid out entirely by volunteer labor.
$5 for 6 months / $10 for 12 months tries, “lends”—a better term would be “gifts”—billions of dollars to banks and related financial institutions at zero interest rates. But instead of these investments, the profit-hungry megabanks quickly turn the govern ment’s free money around and plunge into the stock market and other speculative ventures, driving the Wall Street stock indexes to new and unprecedented heights.
The chosen few get richer than ever. Indeed, 97 per cent of all new wealth “created” in the U.S. the past few years went to the top one percent!
Today, rarely a week passes that one or another headline in the corporate press or government official fails to proclaim that justice, if not retribution, is at last being done to the admittedly crooked recipients of government bailouts who crossed the lines of capi talist legality. The CCP Research Foundation, an inde pendent UK-based economic analysis group, added up the fines levied to date against the great banks, which effectiveness of mass action. the establishment of a workers’ government, and the fight for socialism.
• Ashland, Ore.: damonjure@earthlink. net Citigroup’s fines amounted to $38 billion since the financial meltdown, almost 25 percent of its market capitalization. The latter term, market capitalization, refers to the total value of all stocks of a company, that is, the price of one share multiplied by the total num ber of shares in circulation.
While 25 percent seems like a significant fine, and in the case of JPMorgan, 33.3 percent of its market cap, the figures pale in comparison to the real financial assets of these massive corporations, which are mea sured in the trillions of dollars, not billions.
Further, the government that represents the inter ests of their leading corporate entities, has been more than kind. Bank of America is one of the most active stocks on the Big Board. Its stock price rose four times since the crash, from a low of $3.87 per share in 2009 to around $16.50 a share today. JPMorgan Chase sold at $22.31 per share in early March 2009, the market bottom; today it is $66—a tripling of its price in five and a half years. Citigroup shares have risen during the same period from $10 to $50, quintupling its mar (continued on page 3, in “Turkish metal workers”) • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629
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