Guest Post by Jesse
“Holder doubtless seriously believed at first that in a time of financial crisis, he was doing the right thing in constructing new forms of justice for banks, where nobody but the shareholders actually had to pay for crime. You’ve heard of victimless crimes; Holder created the victimless punishment.
But in the end, it was pretty convenient, wasn’t it, that “the right thing” also happened to be the strategy that preserved Democratic Party relationships with big-dollar donors, kept the client base at Holder’s old firm nice and fat, made the influential rich immeasurably richer and allowed Eric Holder himself to crash-land into a giant pile of money upon resignation.
What a coincidence! In any civilized country, it’d be a scandal. In America, though, he’s just another guy selling whatever he can to get by. It was just too bad that what Holder had to sell was the criminal justice system.”
Matt Taibbi, Eric Holder, Wall Street Double Agent, Comes In From the Cold
Holder was no rogue political appointee. He was very much in the mainstream of the Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party, founded by the Clintons. Obama did nothing to reform it and added Big Healthcare and Big Pharma into the corporatist money mix.
And so these reformers, throwing their constituency under the bus, have become the facilitators of the deep capture of our regulatory and political system in a bipartisan effort to get rich.
This is not to say that these are evil people. They are just people, being carried along by an unsustainable tide of cynicism and personal greed that has imprinted itself on the minds of our privileged elites.
The worldview of the self-appointed elite is that now that I have gone to the right schools, said the right words, protected the right people, taken the right jobs and done the right things, now I get to cash in and get in filthy rich on easy money and the looting of the real economy. I am finally gettin’ paid. This perverse mindset, which used to be a denizen of rural enclaves and big city bosses is becoming pervasive in Washington and New York.
It has all the hallmarks of the kind of dual class system that is specifically prohibited by the framers of the Bill of Rights. But who will watch the watchers when ‘everyone is doing it.’
The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.
“This is not to say that these are evil people”.
Really? Sorry, I have to disagree.
I agree with Montefrio’, but that opening italic intro is the shit!
Why didn’t why Matt taibbi didn’t ask and say these things when Eric holder was in office. Because Matt is a liberal piece of shit himself that’s why. He likes to appear all self righteous but he hid what he knew for all these years.
Holder supported the Corporates, Unions, and wealthy Bondholders – thus screwing the shareholders, which would not be influential for his future enrichment.
And my son thinks the Democrats care about the people. HAH!!!
Holder was in the firm that created MERS and the banking/housing regulatory debacle. He played a lead roll in destroying 500 years of property rights/deeds/title precedents.
He was rewarded by being placed with the Feds to then pardon or ignore his former cronies and friends.
A banksters’ lawyer he is. By all accounts, the new girl is worse.
So it goes.
And @bb, I do believe Matt DID call Holder out while still in office, but could be wrong, if not him then others were. We still didn’t listen/care/be bothered.
I never heard shit from Taibbi about Holder until this, and I try to read all things Taibbi. I disagree with his solutions for everything, but his epic takedowns of Tom Friedman have earned Taibbi permanent respect from me. I pull those up once in a while just to laugh at the buffoon that is “Tom Friedman, Deep Thinker”.
Yeah, Taibbi can turn a phrase;
“Bank of America is out of control, yet they’ll never do time or go out of business, because the government remains creepily committed to their survival, like overindulgent parents who refuse to believe their 40-year-old live-at-home son could possibly be responsible for those dead hookers in the backyard.”
And,
“These folks at the “top” of the game ought to be doing some serious reflection about now. Under any rational system of justice they’d all be in the gray bar motel here and now, getting their hour in the prison yard and spending the other 23 in a nice little cage. No caviar, no raw oysters, and the “sauce”, if they got any at all, would be their cellmate’s and administered involuntarily.”
Finally,
“The history of the bailout era reads like one of those awful stories about what happens when a long-dormant criminal compulsion goes unchecked. The Peeping Tom next door stares through a few bathroom windows, doesn’t get caught, and decides to break in and steal a pair of panties. Next thing you know, he’s upgraded to homemade dungeons, tri-state serial rampages and throwing cheerleaders into a panel truck.”
Unfortunately Taibbi seems to think Bernie Sanders is somewhat of a model politician (http://tinyurl.com/ksl9bz3). I respect his ability to write well, but his political views make me wary.
BB you’re such a dumbass. Taibbi has been one of the few journalists with backbone to take Wall St to the woodshed. He’s done this in articles many times, but you wouldn’t do any research before spouting off, now would you.
I dream of a day when all these MFers are rounded up, indicted, tried, and thrown in prison for the rest of their lives. Guess I better keep dreamin’!
Montefrío says:
“This is not to say that these are evil people”.
Really? Sorry, I have to disagree
—
Agreed, seems like the very definition of evil is the ultimate n greed and self absorption which causes all kinds of terrible tings.
Westcoast , I said he never wrote anything revealing Holder .His lies or hypocrisy. His views are as obnoxious as your views on social issues but I never considered you to be a dumbass. Just a degenerate .
Because all charges where dropped for Holder’s armed takeover ROTC building in his Afro panther days,Was there hostages?I think even then he was a CIA recruit like Soetro. Look how he rose up in the ranks of banker “too big to prosecute”How many would commit an armed crime like that and become Att General?
It’s the old revolving door scenario. The guy knows which side his bread is buttered. So much for the invisible hand, rational egoism, and any other capitalist philosophy that advocates self interest before anything else. If it’s not illegal, then it’s fair game. No laws against unethical behaviour, and this guy knows about the law. Shameful!!!