Thanks to Wall Street, America Has Growing Greek-Like Debt Bombs By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

From the $1.2 trillion instudent debt now on the backs of U.S. college students, a growing number of whom are turning to prostitution to keep up, to teetering Puerto Rico, the bankruptcy of Jefferson County, Alabama in 2011, Detroit’s bankruptcy in 2013, Wall Street was on hand to grease the skids or set the train wreck in motion.Greece has two things in …

Pillage and Class Polarization: The Rise of “Criminal Capitalism” By Prof. James Petras

About 75% of US employees work 40 hours or longer, the second longest among all OECD countries, exceeded only by Poland and tied with South Korea.  In contrast, only 10% of Danish workers, 15% of Norwegian, 30% of French, 43% of UK and 50% of German workers work 40 or more hours.  With the longest work day, US workers score …

Banker Deaths: JPMorgan Tech Workers Have New Conspiracy Theories; Former Intern Allegedly Commits Suicide By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

Since December 2013 there have been a rash of unusual deaths among workers at JPMorgan Chase, including alleged leaps from buildings and two separate alleged murder-suicides in New Jersey. A noteworthy number of the deaths have been among technology workers. With the exception of Julian Knott, who was a high level technology expert for JPMorgan in both London and later …

When Is a Felony Not a Felony? When You Are a Bank – Alexis Goldstein

Good news, America: We can now get guilty pleas from banks! Bad news, America: That’s only because guilty pleas from banks are now absolutely meaningless. Last week, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays, and Royal Bank of Scotland pled guilty to felony charges of conspiring to manipulate currency prices, and UBS pled guilty to manipulating benchmark interest rates. Regulators and prosecutors found …

The Big Banks Are Corrupt – And Getting Worse – Richard eskow

The Justice Department’s latest settlement with felonious big banks was announced this week, but the repercussions were limited to a few headlines and some scattered protestations. That’s not enough. We need to understand that our financial system is not merely corrupt in practice. It is corrupt by design – and the problem is growing. Let’s connect the dots, using news …

Latest Guilty Pleas Prove Big Bank Criminality ‘Rampant,’ But Jail Time Non-Existent – Deirdre Fulton

In the wake of Wednesday’s announcement that five global financial institutions have agreed to plead guilty to multiple crimes and pay about $5.6 billion in penalties for manipulating foreign currencies and interest rates, corporate watchdogs are reiterating the call to ‘break up the banks’ in light of their ongoing malfeasance. As with other recent settlements, Wednesday’s news provides further evidence to …

Deutsche Bank Pays $2.5 Billion Fine For Interest Rate Rigging – Pratap Chatterjee

Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay out a record $2.5 billion fine to settle U.K. and U.S. government investigations into allegations of fixing global interest rates, just months after six other banks paid out $4.3 billion on similar charges. Activists say that the banks should have faced criminal charges. “The question remains: does the punishment fit the crime?” writes Angela McClellan of …

Big Bank ‘Crime of the Century’ Results in Guess What? No Jail Time for Anyone – Deirdre Fulton

While corporate watchdogs hailed the record $2.5 billion settlement paid by Deutsche Bank to U.S. and U.K. authorities for its rate-rigging role in the massive LIBOR scandal, some noted that the fine—while large—suggests that some institutions are still considered “too big to jail.” Authorities announced Thursday that Germany’s biggest bank would pay $2.5 billion in penalties, a record for cases involving interest …