Banksters Allowed To Continue Wreaking Misery On The World

By Mark Taliano

Not long ago, groups of peaceful protestors and other assorted disenfranchised people camped without permits in public parks throughout the world.  Reactions from authorities differed, but generally there was huge anxiety and concern, sometimes provoking military operations. In the United States, extraordinarily repressive legislation was crafted to disempower and crush the occupiers.

Typically, camping without a permit doesn’t provoke such seemingly excessive reactions.  The question arises then: What does provoke this reaction?

The answer lies in the fact that the occupiers, and protestors worldwide, have hit the electrified third rail of power. 

The third rail in a subway track is electrified, and the protestors are communicating to an ever receptive and growing audience that the metaphorical third rail of society needs to be neutralized.

Specifically, this third rail is charged with a neoliberal current that the 99% is barely able to endure.  Some of the most powerful currents are Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Finance, and the military/industrial/media complex.

Each of these private industries has disproportionate influence on legislatures, sometimes to the point of capturing entire legislative bodies (i.e  Delaware, U.S.A,  London, England and many others) creating legislation that best suits their respective industry “want list”.

 The power of Big Finance is such that even though reckless forces of “liberalisation” and de-regulation were largely responsible for the Great Recession and the current global financial mess, Big Finance has not significantly changed its business practices, nor ( for the most part) has is been held accountable for its incompetence and fraud.

The current Libor scandal is an archetype of what is wrong, and why “business as usual” is not an acceptable response. The LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) creates the benchmark interest rate for banks around the world. Interest rates on THREE TRILLION dollars ($50,000 for every human on earth) in contracts are negotiated, and the banks, in collusion, have been rigging rates, to the benefit of the banks and detriment of the 99%. Graphically, it looks like this http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-the-libor-scandal-explained-2012-7 .

Peaceful protestors are finding themselves behind bars throughout the world on an all too frequent basis, while the banksters, who continue to visit such financial and human misery on the world, have remained largely unpunished and unrepentant.  Worse yet, governments that are beholden to them are either unwilling or unable to adequately control them to prevent subsequent financial disasters.

When politicians and news streams of the neo-liberal ilk attack unions, they are conveniently missing the target.  The real target should be the globalised “third rail” 

Mark Taliano is a Niagara resident and frequent contributor to Niagara At Large. 

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