Matt Taibbi and Yves Smith join Bill Moyers to
discuss our criminal
global financial system. A synopsis of
their discussion follows here.
Rolling
Stone editor Matt Taibbi and Yves Smith (the creator of the finance and
economics blog Naked Capitalism) join
Bill to discuss the interlinked folly and corruption of banks and government,
and how that tag-team is leaving deep wounds in our democracy and economy. Taibbi's latest piece is "The Scam Wall Street Learned from the Mafia."
Smith is the author of "ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest
Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism."
As we saw in
2008, when big companies go down, we all end up paying for it. This is how we ended up financing a multi-trillion-dollar
bailout in 2008. So, if and when a
company like JPMorgan Chase now goes under, there will certainly be some sort
of similar federal action, which is why we should now learn as much as we can
about JPMorgan's stunning new losses. We
should damn well find out what led to those unexpected multibillion dollar
losses, which will ultimately affect all of us.
Here then is an attempt to find out that and more.
The first
thing to understand is that the big banks have been guilty of gaming the system. And the main way they've done this is by
using depositor money to make very large, profitable, and risky bets in the
derivatives market. The main problem here
is that the entire derivatives market is essentially a gigantic black box. This means that regulators lack access to much
of the information they need to have. And
the banks are doing everything they can to keep it that way. Why? To
maximize their profits (at the expense of everyone else).
But this is
not the only way that banks like JPMorgan game the system:
Example:
quick summary of the con game JPMorgan played in Jefferson County,
Alabama
Jefferson
County had to build a new sewer system. And
they had to borrow a bunch of money to do that.
It was originally a $300 million project. But they got into a series of deals with
JPMorgan Chase to basically push the financing well into the future. As it turned out, the deals were heavily
mispriced in Chase's favor. And Chase actually
bribed another bank to stay away from these bilking opportunities Chase had
scoped out, because they wanted exclusive rights to exploit this "opportunity' .
. to take Jefferson County to the cleaners. So they bribed their potential competitors to
stay out of it. But they were discovered
and were heavily fined by the SEC. Nevertheless,
the scheme resulted in a disaster for Jefferson County which will now be
bankrupt for a generation. Financing
their sewer system will end up costing them $3 billion as compared to
what was originally to be a cost of $300 million. Who will pocket most of the difference
between $300 million and $3 billion?
JPMorgan Chase.
Consequences
for the people of Jefferson County: Basically they cannot have access to the
sewage system without paying at least 50 bucks a month. So there are people in the poor areas of the
county who are deciding what they're going to have: electricity, water, or sewer. They simply can't afford all three. Some can only afford one.
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