Secret Obama Debt Reduction Scheme Revealed
Tuesday's agreement by mega-bank, HSBC, to pay a record $1.9 Billion in fines has inadvertently revealed a secret Obama administration scheme to quietly reduce the national debt and allow more social spending which, according to one unnamed administration official is "the funnest part of getting that mandate from the American people."
In light of the HSBC $1.9 Billion, the Standard Charter $327 Million, the $619 ING Million, and previous penalties assessed against Barclays, UBS and Citi, today's page one article in the Wall Street Journal about UBS's near settlement of yet another penalty due to interest-rate rigging, it appears that Washington has fallen upon a win-win situation.
Because these violations never result in prosecution of any individual (I guess corporations are people after all) due to a newly revealed trick called deferred prosecution, several beneficial benefits occur.
First and foremost, the number of attorneys both on the financial side and in the various governmental regulatory agencies is increased and sustained.
Second, the prison system avoids the cost of maintaining high profile, high maintenance prisoners.
Third, a new industry has been created around 'compliance training and mitigation', and we know that once an industry category such as this has been born, it will sustain itself in perpetuity through lobbying and contributions.
And fourth, it is a never-ending source of new funding for the Treasury, since the only downside to violation of these finance laws is for the perps to pay a fine (also known as a bribe.)
Of course, the biggest upside for the banks is that they make way more in profits before they get caught than they pay in penalties, plus, their ability to sustain these huge financial hits keeps the smaller banks out of the lucrative money-laundering and rate-fixing business.
It brings an all new meaning to the phrase "Too big to fail."
In light of the HSBC $1.9 Billion, the Standard Charter $327 Million, the $619 ING Million, and previous penalties assessed against Barclays, UBS and Citi, today's page one article in the Wall Street Journal about UBS's near settlement of yet another penalty due to interest-rate rigging, it appears that Washington has fallen upon a win-win situation.
Because these violations never result in prosecution of any individual (I guess corporations are people after all) due to a newly revealed trick called deferred prosecution, several beneficial benefits occur.
First and foremost, the number of attorneys both on the financial side and in the various governmental regulatory agencies is increased and sustained.
Second, the prison system avoids the cost of maintaining high profile, high maintenance prisoners.
Third, a new industry has been created around 'compliance training and mitigation', and we know that once an industry category such as this has been born, it will sustain itself in perpetuity through lobbying and contributions.
And fourth, it is a never-ending source of new funding for the Treasury, since the only downside to violation of these finance laws is for the perps to pay a fine (also known as a bribe.)
Of course, the biggest upside for the banks is that they make way more in profits before they get caught than they pay in penalties, plus, their ability to sustain these huge financial hits keeps the smaller banks out of the lucrative money-laundering and rate-fixing business.
It brings an all new meaning to the phrase "Too big to fail."
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