And Still, Nobody Goes to Jail; Banksters Edition

Nearly six years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bank of America reached a $16.65 billion deal on Thursday to resolve federal government accusations that it had misled investors into buying cratering mortgage securities prior to the financial crisis. The government had previously reached a $13 billion deal with JPMorgan Chase and a $7 billion settlement with Citigroup , but the Bank of America deal is the biggest ever and likely the last monster financial crisis-era settlement, resolving investigations federal prosecutors and state attorneys general have conducted from Manhattan to Los Angeles.

Other than a few schmucks picked up for insider trading and for running Ponzi schemes, nobody has gone to prison for wrecking the economy.

Bet your ass that the local prosecutor in St. Louis County will go after every protestor he possibly can. Because those cases are easy and most of the people he'll charge can't afford an attorney, so they'll be appointed a "meet and plead" public defender. Unlike the banksters, who can afford $1,000/hr white collar criminal defense legal teams.

I personally think that Bank of America is an evil entity. If you are trying to negotiate a short sale, Bank of America has five people assigned to that program. Not one of them has an IQ above "tepid". Every document that is sent to them has to be sent to a 1980s vintage fax machine, which is in a different office entirely. The paper they use goes blank when exposed to light, so you have to fax everything to them again and again. Until you either give up and go through foreclosure or you off yourself.

And if anything in the preceding paragraph strikes you as an exaggeration, Gentle Reader, I suggest that you try dealing with those people.

I'm not saying that the fine is small potatoes. But it's still equivalent to their profits for a year. Which means that they still have enough to pay all of their high-falutin' executives all of their pay, for that's a pre-profit expense. And they'll probably be able to pay the fine without breaking a sweat.

For it's dead-nuts certain that Bank of America made far, far more than that from their massive swindling and manipulation of the home mortgage market.

Rob a bank and you'll do ten years in prison. Use a bank to rob millions of people and the bank will pay a fine. Oh, maybe a few of them might be barred from banking in some state, but none of those goniffs have had to pay a real penalty for their fuckery.