What amazing alchemists Wall Street bankers are! They can turn failure into gold and reform into business as usual.
These sorcerers have pulled off both tricks right in front of us since their 2007 collapse. They turned that gross failure into an ongoing multitrillion-dollar bailout by us taxpayers to restore them to even-grosser profit levels.
Then, while the public howled for lawmakers to shackle their greed, these bewitching bankers reached into their magic hat and pulled out the massive Dodd-Frank reform law that — hocus pocus — adds up to the status quo.
As a West Texas farmer once told me, status quo is Latin for “the mess we’re in.”
Wall Street’s greatest deception is the claim that they’re brave risk takers who put their money into enterprises that create America’s economic growth.
Bovine excrement. One, as we’ve seen, they’re not investing in job-creating businesses — they’re frittering away America’s savings on ridiculous, get-rich-quick gambling schemes. Second, they’re not risking their money or that of their shareholders, but ours.
When we deposit money with Chase, Bank of America, etc., we make a practically-zero-interest loan to them that they take to global gambling tables. Of the $2.4 trillion held by JPMorgan Chase, for example, $2.2 trillion is borrowed from us. It’s our cash they’re risking. And when their convoluted gambles fail, as in 2007, everything collapses…and they’ll run to Washington again demanding a bailout.
So the reform that matters is to make them put, say, half of their own money into each roll of the dice, rather than piling 90 percent of each risk on our backs. But does the Dodd-Frank “reform” law do that? No — it allows these “too-big-to-fail” banks to stack 95 percent of their risks on us.
That is Wall Street’s dirtiest trick yet.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.