Crime in America

As we watch the grilling take place in the recent hearings of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, one is reminded of the infamous Kefauver hearings of the early 1950's. Except in the case of the latter it was organized criminals on trial and not as hear criminal organizers - to paraphrase Kefauver. Both of these hearings revolve around communication and knowledge. The mobsters were tapping into the news cables and using information about racing results for illegal ends. They set up their own wire services to steal the news. It was all to do with results, (like insider trading). Of course as Estes Kefauver records in his "Crime in America" (1952) based on the hearings, the mobsters were so good that they could repair a connection after the wires were down in fifteen minutes, whereas as a whole army took three hours to get normal transmission then vital for the war effort. They were really organized. They bought people. People who they did not buy, they iced. Now what does this have to do with all these bankers and traders? They aren't in cosca, are they? No certainly not. But they do tend to defend their practices with the temerity of the mafia. When they are grilled. They start damage limitation exercises. Seek ways of offsetting the cost. Maybe they could blow it all away with a tax fiddle? But, you may argue, they are thugs. They are just doing business - one that enriched the US by trillions. Yes, however, the key products they created, the products of intellectual masturbation, the toxic debt repackaging of a Chinese mathematician, were just as insidious as narcotics. Everyone wanted them. Buy, buy. Those in the know, knew it was shit like the tulips of Holland or the real estate in Florida. They knew it was wrong and sold it on. Knowing full well that they would not have to pay - they would just take their commision. Even the mafia mobsters as cold-blooded as they were, would not rob their grandmothers - well some of them maybe. These people using every form of mathematical manipulation available, did a monumental shell game on billions of people. They did it on a scale that makes the mafia's operations look like a corner store robbery. Do they pay for it? Of course not, because like in the Kefauver Hearings, the reach of corruption is so great that if they were put on trial, the whole government at all levels would collapse, because so many politicians and those in the administration were made fat cats from these financiers. Then there is the Donald Trump law - if your billionaire goes down - don't worry - sooner or later he'll be back up again and the glorious system will be spinning its wheels again. What a pity there are no tough guys around to follow through, and kick the ass of what is a very corrupt system - which destroyed the manufacturing base of the United States, robbed people of their dream homes and caused collateral damage world-wide so that the poorer are poorer. The rich. Well they just dust off the insults off their Armani suits and get back on gaining money for themselves - and losing the money of others.