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
