You Want To Know Exactly How Small Your Life Is?

Just read an article in Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi about major banks in this country being prosecuted for ripping off the American public on a scale that is unimaginable.
I love this guy. I consider him a direct descendant from Hunter S. Thompson, and that is high praise coming from me.
He is not in Hunter's league, but he captures the same sentiment of outrage, sarcasm, and provocative statements based on a wicked intelligence and a deep understanding of the subject he is writing about.
I am not going to get into the details because it is overwhelming and confusing stuff. I read the article carefully and I understood only 1/2 of 1 %.
In a nutshell, virtually every major bank and finance organization in this country - including GE Capital, J.P.Morgan Chase, Bank of America, UBS, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Wachovia and more, collaborated to rig the bids on $3.7 trillion of municipal bonds.
For example say a city or town wants to build a school. They go to Wall Street to issue a bond in the town's name. The bond is supposed to be submitted to a competitive auction  of at least three banks so the town can get the best interest rate.
What these a**holes did was to work together to ensure that the town got a lower rate than it could have on the bond, reducing the town's return and increasing the banks profit. Payoffs were made to middle men, financiers and politicians to make the whole thing work.
The reason we know this to be true is because the case went to trial. GE Capital was prosecuted for their part in the scam. It is extremely rare that Wall Street and financial institutions are brought to trial, so this case is heavy duty.
The three individuals on trial as employees of GE Capital were found guilty. And are likely to get sentenced to up to five years in jail.
All of the above mentioned banks were proved to be involved in the scam. They all got off with slap on the wrist fines, and allowed to retain their positions of power in the municipal bond market.
Let me say this clearly - it was proved in court that these banks were part of an entrenched system that affected major bond issues in every state in the nation; they ripped off the entire country, virtually every day for more than a decade. They stole from schools, hospitals, libraries and nursing homes.
And they got a slap on the wrist and are still allowed to participate in this market.
As Taibbi says, "get busted for welfare fraud even once in America, and good luck getting so much as a food stamp ever again. Get caught rigging interest rates in 50 states, and the government goes right on handing you billions of dollars in public contracts."
This is the country we live in, folks.
This is why the 99% will never get ahead, never improve their standard of living.
The odds against us are too huge and the money men have the power to keep it that way.
The American Dream, my ass.