Public Enemies

We went to the movies today. I don't usually go, but this one was about John Dillinger, the bank robber active back during the Great Depression.

Good movie. I recommend it for those that like action.

It occurred to me during the movie how much things had changed since then. Back then, guys like Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson and "Pretty Boy" Floyd were the bad guys, robbing and killing folks.

Today, its entirely the opposite. Now the banks and financial institutions, particularly the great big ones on Wall Street, are the ones doing the robbing and pillaging.

Just think. They had that huge bubble that blew up courtesy of the Federal Reserve and the helpful politicians of both parties in Washington. Those banks and financial institutions sold all kinds of paper, all represented to be good, while at the same time, they and the government were encouraging the public to borrow more and more.

Huge bonuses piled on huge bonuses for the perpetrators of all of this. They all got tremendously wealthy.

Then the house of cards crashed down.

Retribution for their excesses? Of course not. Their enablers in the government decided to bail the perps out with money that will have to be taken from the victims of all of this, namely the US taxpayer.

Instead of ending up like Dillinger, at least figuratively, most of them are going to get even richer off of the bailouts.

I understand from Mr. Barofsky, who is the authoritative person in this issue, that the US taxpayer may get stuck for as much as 23.7 TRILLION DOLLARS.

We need to throw out all of the pols in the government that were, and continue to be, behind this.

Quickly.