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unhappycamper

(60,364 posts)
Wed Feb 26, 2014, 09:02 AM Feb 2014

Taxing the Money Shufflers -- Wall Street Boys Gone Wild

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Taxing-the-Money-Shufflers-by-Dean-Baker-Banks_Billionaires_Congress_Money-140225-763.html



Taxing the Money Shufflers -- Wall Street Boys Gone Wild
By Dean Baker
OpEdNews Op Eds 2/25/2014 at 23:38:11

Many people already had low opinions of the Wall Street elite. I'm referring to the investment-banker types who get incredibly rich through financial manipulations, government bailouts and implicit government guarantees provided for too-big-to-fail banks. But a recent New York magazine piece showed that even the most jaded were being too generous in their assessment of this gang.

Kevin Roose, who was working as a New York Times reporter at the time, managed to infiltrate a black-tie party at the St. Regis Hotel sponsored by a secret Wall Street fraternity. The so-called Kappa Beta Phi (the reverse of Phi Beta Kappa, the academic honor society) was not made up of a bunch of college kids or recent grads. It featured many of the leading figures on Wall Street -- multimillionaires and billionaires, all of whom were well past the age at which we expect people to start being responsible for their actions.

Roose, whose new book, "Young Money," includes this episode, reported on childish skits by men dressed up in drag and sexist and homophobic jokes directed against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D -- Mass., among others. There were also tone-deaf wisecracks about the financial crisis and their bailout by the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department, which apparently is quite amusing to these people.

The rest of the country has experienced these events a bit differently. On the basis of Congressional Budget Office projections, the collapse of the housing bubble will have cost the country more than $24 trillion ($80,000 per person) in lost output through 2024. The people who are unemployed, underemployed or have lost their homes probably don't have as much to laugh about these days as the brothers of Kappa Beta Phi.
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Taxing the Money Shufflers -- Wall Street Boys Gone Wild (Original Post) unhappycamper Feb 2014 OP
Great article JustAnotherGen Feb 2014 #1
and Sadly OLDMDDEM Feb 2014 #2
Posted to for later reading. 1StrongBlackMan Feb 2014 #3

OLDMDDEM

(1,553 posts)
2. and Sadly
Wed Feb 26, 2014, 09:33 AM
Feb 2014

Very few, if any, have been charged with criminal behavior. These blood suckers lobby congress and get their way. We pay for their sins. I'm sick and tired of the whiny responses that those at the top are taxed too much. BULLSHIT!!!!

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