The top ten banks in the U.S., along with their European counterparts have racked up over $300bn of fines, metered out by regulators since their egregious criminality caused a global crisis that unfolded in 2008. Its lingering influence is felt by billions of people worldwide nearly a decade later in a recovery slower than the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Jails are devoid of the Armani suited mobsters employed by the financial services industry that are now causing the breakdown of the rule of law, threatening democracies and even statehood itself in the countries they operate in.
This is no better demonstrated than through a WikiLeaks release last October where we learnt that the banking giant Citigroup, having played a pivotal role in bringing America and the West to its knees, also having received the largest US taxpayer bailout to resuscitate its insolvent corpse, played a leading role in shaping and even staffing Barack Obama’s first term in office after donating $millions to his election campaign.1
The biggest banks are now so powerful they cast a dark shadow not just over politics but corroding the very fabric of society as a whole. Widespread alienation amongst the general public towards a political elite who defended these banking behemoths has led to civil-unrest and it continues to do so years later. The course of public anger has now spread, its focus now firmly pointed at “the establishment”.