Thursday, May 14, 2020

Modern Moron Book Review



The witches and warlocks of Wall Street devour money from the middle class and send it upwards while as alluding justice and continue their quest to pulverize the poor.

New York Times bestselling author Matt Taibbi’s 2014 book, “Divide, American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap” suggests that simply being poor in America is a crime. Taibbi makes some valid points. He talked about the 2008 stock market crash in which huge companies, such as J.P. Morgan and many others skated away with billions of dollars in big business the thefts, while the general public got absolutely nothing in the end, no justice and not even a bake sale as Taibbi some eloquently phrased it.

Wall Street steals money daily Taibbi said, and not a single high-ranking executive from any financial institution has gone to jail since 2008 for crimes that wiped out 40 percent of the world’s wealth in less than a year. Again, this book was released in 2014, so a few high-end executives may have gone to jail since 2014, but I’d bet no on that one.   

“These business assholes,” George Carlin said on one of his HBO specials.

If a single mom in the projects commits fraud on her welfare application, the law is followed systematically and justice is swift, yet when deep pocketed businesses such as the Lehman Brothers, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo siphon funds from peoples retirement accounts among other sources of income that is not theirs, nothing happens to their leaders. 

The book “Divide…” covers a vast array of injustices done to the general public and it’s often frightening when you really analyze the wealth gap in America that is only getting worse.

“America is in a winner take all economy right now,” Political commentator / entrepreneur Andrew Yang said.

If my math is correct, a business quarter in terms of time is three months. Simple math, there are 12 months per year, hence four quarters in a single year. 

In 2008, the Lehman Brother, before they filed for bankruptcy were borrowing up to as much as $50 billion per quarter, and on paper, those loans were documented as sales, hence, they did not have to pay anything back! I learned from this book, that the Lehman bank robbery was the greatest one you never heard of.  

For Americans who are getting rich now, beware. Even the rich can fall into a legal and financial meat grinder. An enormous collapse in one’s credit score, a robo signed foreclosure, stolen identity or a vaporized retirement account via institutional theft or fraud may happen to anyone in today’s economy governed on sheer greed.

Taibbi also mentions the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. All policemen, sheriff’s, rangers and game wardens have the authority to instantly separate children from their mothers and husbands from their wives. America has become a dragnet Taibbi said.

President Trump did not start ICE, but he has certainly done nothing to end their terrible tactics.

Companies such as J.P. Morgan, Countrywide, Bank of America, Wachovia, TD Ameritrade, Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab and others corporations have committed $26 billion in fraud, and not a single executive was jailed, nor had to pay back a single dime for their crimes, yet more than 25,000 doors a year are literally kicked in by law enforcement for thefts in the hundreds of dollars.

A solid 3.5 star read for “Divide…” Anyone who likes to read political books, or simple wants to acquire some insight on the harsh realities that go on in the world of big business, Taibbi’s book is a great read.

Mark Izzy Schurr

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