The Lies That Will Kill America- Bill Moyers [View all]
Here in Manhattan the other day, you couldnt miss it the big bold headline across the front page of the tabloid New York Post, screaming one of those sick, slick lies that are a trademark of Rupert Murdochs right-wing media empire. There was Uncle Sam, brandishing a revolver and wearing a burglars mask. UNCLE SCAM, the headline shouted. US robs bank of $13 billion.
Say what? Pure whitewash, and Murdochs minions know it. That $13 billion dollars is the settlement JPMorgan Chase, the countrys biggest bank, is negotiating with the government to settle its own rip-off of American homeowners and investors those shady practices that five years ago helped trigger the financial meltdown, including manipulating mortgages and sending millions of Americans into bankruptcy or foreclosure. If anybodys been robbed its not JPMorgan Chase, which can absorb the loss and probably take a tax write-off for at least part of it. No, its the American public. In addition to financial heartache we still have been denied the satisfaction of seeing jail time for any of the banksters who put our feet in cement and pushed us off the cliff.
This isnt the only scandal JPMorgan Chase is juggling. A $5.1 billion settlement with institutional investors has just been announced and criminal charges may still be filed in California. The bank is under investigation on so many fronts its hard to keep them sorted out everything from deceptive sales in its credit card unit to Bernie Madoffs Ponzi scheme to the criminal manipulation of energy markets and bribing Chinese officials by offering jobs to their kids.
Nor is JPMorgan Chase the only culprit under scrutiny. Bank of America was found guilty just this week of civil fraud, and a gaggle of other banks is being investigated by the government for mortgage fraud. No wonder the camp followers at Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC and other cheerleaders have ganged up to whitewash the banks. If justice is somehow served, this could be the biggest egg yet across the smug face of unfettered, unchecked, unaccountable capitalism.
One face in particular: Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. One of Murdochs Fox Business News hosts, Charlie Gasparino, claims the Feds are on a witch hunt against Dimon for criticizing President Obama, whose administration, we are told, is brutally determined and efficient when it comes to squashing those who oppose their policies. But hold on: Dimon is a Democrat, said to be Obamas favorite banker, with so much entree hes been doing his own negotiating with the attorney general of the United States-
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http://billmoyers.com/2013/10/25/the-lies-that-will-kill-america/