And that’s how the wealthy one percent does its dirty business. They are, by the way, as we were reminded by CNN’s Charles Riley in his report, “Can 46 Rich Dudes Buy an Election?” almost all men, mostly white, “and so far, the vast majority of their contributions have been made to conservative groups.” They want to own this election.
Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone found it hard to watch all of the U.S. Senators giving homage to Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase. You can read his detailed report here. And here's the lesson Dimon doesn't get:
You can either be a commercial bank, with all the federal support that entails, or you can be a high-risk gambler. But you shouldn't be allowed to be both. We could have Chase Commercial Bank, and Chase Investments Inc., and they can each be as big as they want, but those companies should be separate. Why do we need companies like Chase that are both things, under one tent? The real answer, from Jamie Dimon’s point of view, is simple – there’s no way he could have a $350 billion hedge fund if he didn’t have mountains of federally-insured money to play with, and a steady stream of low-interest loans from the Fed.
Keep in mind that all of the U.S. tax receipts for an entire year are only two trillion dollars. Now read this:
""This report reveals the inherent conflicts of interest that exist at the Federal Reserve. At a time when small businesses could not get affordable loans to create jobs, the Fed was providing trillions in secret loans to some of the largest banks and corporations in America that were well represented on the boards of the Federal Reserve Banks. These conflicts must end," [Senator Bernie] Sanders said."
[T]he playing field has changed in fundamental ways. In the traditional model, we'd see two major-party candidates, each backed by their respective national party. In 2012, President Obama's campaign team will effectively have two extremely well-financed opponents: Mitt Romney and the RNC, which are projected to raise at least $800 million, as well as a $1 billion outside attack operation. Obama, in other words, is going to face a far-right wall of at least $1.8 billion between now and Election Day. To say this is without precedent in a major democracy is a dramatic understatement.
Wow. Arizona opens the floodgates to private prisons that are LESS cost efficient than state run prisons. Sounds like not-democracy in action.