A Time to Act: Jail the Financial Fraudsters

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A TIME TO ACT: A CAMPAIGN TO JAIL FINANCIAL FRAUDSTERS

“I’ll have the Chateau Mouton-Rothschild from 1982,” a Wall Street investment banker recently told his waiter at the latest and greatest shi-shi restaurant in Greenwich Village.

“Yes sir, but I want you to know, the cost is $$3,950,” according to the New York Times.

“No Problem”

And so it goes at The Lion, where no extravagance is too costly for today’s banksters and Lion Kings.

The men they call the Big Swinging Dicks are back.  In the words of the New York Times, Wall Street is getting its “groove back,” anticipating their latest round of bonuses while gloating about how their strategic and undisclosed campaign donations assured that the overdue regulations they fear will be put on hold.

For them, buying the 2010 election was a small price to pay. Read  Economist James Galbraith’s  column in how they did it. (http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/11/05/obamas-problem-simply-defined-it-was-the-banks-26159)

Oh, happy day.

Meanwhile the rest of us cling to our “jobless recovery” while the prospect of inflation engineered by the Federal Reserve Bank threatens what purchasing power we have.

Increasingly, economists in the know are saying that unless financial fraud is prosecuted, there can be no recovery, as Washington’s Blog reports:

“As economists such as William Black and James Galbraith have repeatedly said, we cannot solve the economic crisis unless we throw the criminals who committed fraud in jail.

And Nobel prize winning economist George Akerlof has demonstrated that failure to punish white collar criminals – and instead bailing them out- creates incentives for more economic crimes and further destruction of the economy in the future.

Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz just agreed. As Stiglitz told Yahoo’s Daily Finance on October 20th:

“The legal system is supposed to be the codification of our norms and beliefs, things that we need to make our system work. If the legal system is seen as exploitative, then confidence in our whole system starts eroding. And that’s really the problem that’s going on.”

OUR RESPONSE:  We Don’t Need More Bailouts. We need a Jailout

Support the JAILOUT Economic Justice Campaign by signing the petition at newsdissector.com/blog

We pledge allegiance to Justice for all.  Not to those who steal and defraud us.  Not to those who wrecked our economy.

We need laws enforced, not winked at with financial settlements that allow those that enriched themselves at our expense, and destroyed the lives of so many, to get off scot-free, often with obscene bonuses and promotions.

Now, it is time for all of us to speak out and demand that something is done, to stop foreclosures and create jobs.

We can start with a petition to the President, Attorney General, and political, labor and youth leaders not in the bag to Wall Street.  We can call on the media to do more to cover this story instead of blaming the victims for the crime.

Will you stand up with us and call for action now?

Will you sign this simple appeal to the President, Leaders of Congress of both parties and the Attorney General?

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

1. Investigate fraudsters and financial criminals.

2. Indict those responsible.

3. Prosecute using RICO laws that target criminal enterprises spawned by three industries working together: finance, insurance and real estate.

4. Incarcerate the guilty.

All of this has been done before. More than 1500 bankers went to jail after the S&L Crisis.

Why not today?

We demand a criminal investigation.

We demand to see the guilty parties indicted. Their illegal gains should be seized and distributed to their victims.

We demand the federal and state governments prosecute these crimes, using RICO laws when possible, not cut deals that allow these crooks to walk free.

We want a national moratorium on foreclosures until all the shady legal issues are sorted out — and not just by the banks

We want our government to be on our side, to stand up for Main Street, not Wall Street.

Please tell us: I am with you. I agree with this call to action,

NAME:

ADDRESS:

CITY, STATE and ZIP CODE

EMAIL:

Educate yourself by ordering a copy of PLUNDER [DVD} and THE CRIME OF OUR TIME [book].  Also available on iTunes, Netflix and Amazon.

Visit the web site: Plunder The Crime Of Our Time

SPEAK UP. DEMAND FAIRNESS. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

If you committed these crimes, you would be doing time.

So should they!

News Dissector Danny Schechter directed the DVD “Plunder The Crime Of Our Time” and wrote the companion book, ‘The Crime Of Our Time.’

If you can help, write: [email protected]


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Articles by: Danny Schechter

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