Paul Krugman, Movie Reviewer

Here's a bit from an interesting NY Times op-ed by Paul Krugman:

Count me among those who were glad to see the documentary ''Inside Job'' win an Oscar. The film reminded us that the financial crisis of 2008, whose aftereffects are still blighting the lives of millions of Americans, didn't just happen -- it was made possible by bad behavior on the part of bankers, regulators and, yes, economists.

What the film didn't point out, however, is that the crisis has spawned a whole new set of abuses, many of them illegal as well as immoral. And leading political figures are, at long last, showing some outrage. Unfortunately, this outrage is directed, not at banking abuses, but at those trying to hold banks accountable for these abuses.

The immediate flashpoint is a proposed settlement between state attorneys general and the mortgage servicing industry. That settlement is a ''shakedown,'' says Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama. The money banks would be required to allot to mortgage modification would be ''extorted,'' declares The Wall Street Journal. And the bankers themselves warn that any action against them would place economic recovery at risk.

All of which goes to confirm that the rich are different from you and me: when they break the law, it's the prosecutors who find themselves on trial.

There's more. Go read the whole article.

After running through some seriously criminal activity on the part of the banks, Krugman ends with this thought:

In the days and weeks ahead, we'll see pro-banker politicians denounce the proposed settlement, asserting that it's all about defending the rule of law. But what they're actually defending is the exact opposite -- a system in which only the little people have to obey the law, while the rich, and bankers especially, can cheat and defraud without consequences.

The sad fact is that this is a second Gilded Age in America. In the previous and now the current gilded ages, the politicians were bought and sold by the rich and powerful. They were in the pockets of the big trusts back at the turn of the 20th century. They are in the pockets of big Wall Street banks and the big multinational corporations today. The Republicans talk about their concern for "small business" but they really mean the top 200 or 300 big corporations.