Letter from America: (1) Banksters...

These are trying times.

Just when our bankers and financiers seem to be behaving, they come out with a stunt like Barclay's rate fixing and everything reverts to square one. Their power, authority and corruption needs to be reined in with increasingly tighter surveillance and regulation. This means government intervention and as a result, wider scope for collusion.

Our system of crony capitalism has seriously damaged the American, and I dare say Western, middle class to the extent where some 40% of pre 2008 American wealth has been lost. At the same time, our bankers carry on with reckless abandon; at least until their trickery is exposed. I understand that Bob Diamond of Barclay's has threatened to sing about collusion between the last Labor Government and his bank re Libor rate fixing.

 What is one to conclude from all these repeat offenses? Crime pays? The bankers have stolen the common from the goose for so long now that they are not only habituated, their are institutionalized and feel offended should they be exposed. We talk about entitlements ruining the US economy well, the entitlements taken by banking executives contribute substantially to this problem.

And I cannot believe anything will be done about it. When the government is in bed with the bankers, there is no hope of administering justice. Not only do we need a clean sweep of our Senate, House and Administration, we need to clean out the financial people as well. Were these financial people content with an annual income in the low millions, things might be different. But a million dollars is chicken feed to them and they cannot help but grasp for more and more money as if it were the arch criterion of power and status. I guess maybe it is.

I fear also that the Libor scam is not the end of a long line of misdeeds, but rather just another example of overweening greed on the part of the crony capitalists and their political allies. Again, I cannot believe that anything will be done to get to the bottom of the problem. Meanwhile, the shame of it all rests will all of us for allowing it to happen and to continue.