The U.S. banking
giants that instigated the worst economic crisis since the Great
Depression have gotten off virtually scot-free for their predatory
lending, foreclosure swindles and other crimes. Millions of working
people in this country—billions around the world—have faced job
loss, benefit cuts, evictions from their homes, rising food and
gasoline prices and outright violence as the crisis drags on. But the
instigators of the crisis have been rewarded with
multi-billion-dollar bailouts and a banker-dominated regulatory
environment.
It comes as no
surprise, then, that outright illegal acts by the biggest banks on
the planet are punished with mere wrist-slaps.
A case in point is
Wachovia, the sixth-largest bank in the country before the
consequences of the 2008 financial panic forced its acquisition by
Wells Fargo—financed by billions in taxpayer dollars. Wachovia
recently completed what was effectively a one-year probation as part
of its deal with the federal government related to its part in
massive international money-laundering. It also paid the government
$110 million in forfeiture, for allowing transactions later proved to
be connected to drug smuggling, and incurred a $50 million fine for
failing to monitor cash used to ship 22 tons of cocaine. (Guardian,
April 3)
While the
punishment seems substantial, it amounts to less than 2 percent of
Wells Fargo’s
profits in 2009. The fact remains that Wachovia played a significant
role in laundering $378 billion of drug money tied to Mexico’s
brutal drug cartels—responsible for over 40,000 deaths since 2006.
None of the bank
executives who surely knew of the illegal activity face a second of
jail time.
Meanwhile, poor and
working-class people who commit even the simplest drug-related crimes
face onerous, life-altering (even life-taking) punishment. A man in
Alaska, for example, sold
a half-ounce of
crack cocaine and was sent to prison for 10 years.
Workers face harsh
penalties for breaking the laws enacted by capitalist politicians,
regardless of the harm done to others. Under ridiculous felony laws
in some states, theft of a pair of socks can lead to life in prison.
But the most vicious, law-scoffing activities of the biggest
capitalists result in little more than legal formalities. Untold
numbers of working people suffered and died as a result of Wachovia’s
crimes, but the penalties barely touched the bank’s bottom line.
The capitalist
state will never hold the class it serves accountable for its crimes
against humanity, but it will grind working people to dust for daring
to break rules not of their own making. Only a revolutionary change
in society can bring capitalist criminals to justice!
