Matt Taibbi is one of my favorite muckraking journalists bar none. His latest RS piece shows why in flying colors. He holds nothing back when it comes to exposing the damning proof that the US (and thus the global) financial system is a fucked. Here’s yet more evidence that the so-called “financial markets” of Wall Street and beyond is skewed. Rigged beyond fairness even by the loosest definition.

If scams like the one he discusses in this article can be allowed to happen, and at the scale that it does, in PLAIN SIGHT, then what hope does that leave for the rest of us? The fact that scams like these not only happen, but do so as the normal course of business should be enough to outrage anyone with a modicum of common sense. Worse, the very cases and prosecutions he covers after they have been exposed, will ultimately DO NOTHING to stop it.  

As I’ve been saying for some time now, the only way anything is going to change is if the public (and this includes municipal and local governments!) changes the way they play the game, and where they direct their money. 

The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia

How America’s biggest banks took part in a nationwide bid-rigging conspiracy – until they were caught on tape

By Matt Taibbi

Illustration by Victor Juhasz

Someday, it will go down in history as the first trial of the modern American mafia. Of course, you won’t hear the recent financial corruption case, United States of America v. Carollo, Goldberg and Grimm, called anything like that. If you heard about it at all, you’re probably either in the municipal bond business or married to an antitrust lawyer. Even then, all you probably heard was that a threesome of bit players on Wall Street got convicted of obscure antitrust violations in one of the most inscrutable, jargon-packed legal snoozefests since the government’s massive case against Microsoft in the Nineties – not exactly the thrilling courtroom drama offered by the famed trials of old-school mobsters like Al Capone or Anthony “Tony Ducks” Corallo.

But this just-completed trial in downtown New York against three faceless financial executives really was historic. Over 10 years in the making, the case allowed federal prosecutors to make public for the first time the astonishing inner workings of the reigning American crime syndicate, which now operates not out of Little Italy and Las Vegas, but out of Wall Street.

…More at The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia | Politics News …

Show your support and Tweet onward to #artificialswedener now!

Having just seen a transition to Andiamo’s latest captain get completed albeit haphazardly, I find myself reminded yet again about some important life lessons. The lessons I went through in my own journey to become a captain. Something even I refused to call myself for most of my early years as an actual captain. First, aboard my maiden boat “La Dolce Vita”, and then of course, aboard “Andiamo”. 

See, I developed my love of sailing and yachting with absolutely no interest in it ever becoming a “business”. I had the benefit of sailing and crewing on several different boats over the years, just for the love of it. Because it was (and still is) a big passion of mine. Despite this, suffice it to say, my humble beginnings in yachting all those years ago came from paying my dues in the charter trade. After first doing charters in Caribbean for more than two seasons (7 day charters, working 14+ hours a day, is HARD work. Even in paradise.), and one season in the Med on a private motor yacht (which, for a sailor like me, was DREADFUL, but worth the experience), I came to understand the “business” side of what it took to be a captain. And quite frankly, at least then, I wanted none of it. Being a deckhand or a first mate was hard enough. 

Read On…

Norman and Oriane Rousseau were one more couple pushed by a huge, greedy bank to the brink of homelessness. On Sunday, desperate and with nowhere to go, Norman Rousseau shot himself.

This is the story of what happens when an average couple is up against a giant, wealthy, powerful bank. Unfortunately the result is what the result always is when people are on their own against the wealthy and powerful: the bank ends up with all of their money, takes their house to sell and throws them out onto the street. In this case the bank is Wells Fargo.

The quick version of this terrible story is that Norman and Oriane Rousseau of Newbury Park, California were scammed into a predatory mortgage. But they made their payments anyway, always paying with a cashier’s check in person at the same branch. Then one day the bank misapplied their payment and said they still owed the money. This started a long, nasty process that led to the bank evicting the Rousseaus from their home. Read on… 

Knowing what I know about where many of these products come from (from my time in Latin America), I assure them that there is simply no difference between “eco”-bananas, and standard Chiquita bananas, regular coffee and “fair trade” coffee, and so on. Only to get eye-rolling and giggling in response. “Silly, cynical American…” they say, “It’s on the label, it HAS to be true!”. Oy vey… 

Seriously people, this whole thing behind “Fair trade” and “Eco” marketing is nothing but a scam. Here’s why. The way business and commerce work in this day and age, it’s simply not possible to have a “parallel” supply chain for produce and raw-materials to produce these “eco” products. Unless, that is, the company selling the product also owns every part of the supply chain going down to the very first link of said chain. This means that the company has to own all the farmland used to grow the produce, the sources of the raw materials, and so on. And quite simply, there is NOT ONE company anywhere in the world that does this.

The supply chain is the same for ALL products in an industry. A “fair trade” coffee seller has to buy his coffee from the same sources as everyone else. The same goes for bananas, wood-pulp, or any other raw material or produce that is needed for a product. There is simply not a “parallel market” that operates on a different plane just to supply “eco” products. No matter WHAT anyone tells you. It’s all smoke and mirrors. 

“Oh, but wait!”, the naysayers protest.. “The products I buy are CERTIFIED to be eco-friendly, organic, fair-trade! Look at the label! CERTIFIED!” 

Yeah, sure. There may very well be a wholesaler, vendor, or distributor that can show to its buyers that its “supply chain” can be “verified”. They can show to their retail buyers that their growers don’t use pesticides, don’t do this, don’t do that, that they pay fair wages, etc. And congratulations, they get “CERTIFIED” by whatever bullshit-certifying authority deems them fit.

But here’s the problem. Demand ALWAYS exceeds their supply. There are simply not enough producers doing things the “certified” way to meet the gullible consumers’ demands. So what’s the “eco-supplier” to do? That’s right…. they buy more product from evil, “non-eco” producers, and mix it in with their product, and sell it for the same price. In fact, I will bet the money I won in poker last night that many of those “certified” vendors are nothing but front operations to earn the certification. Considering that I’ve seen many of these operations myself, I will go even further. I’ll bet that the vast majority of their product are bought from standard producers. Which, of course, makes it the ultimate scam. Pay more for the same shit. 

Consider this your public-service message of the day. If you’re buying “eco” or “fair trade” products, you’re being seriously jacked. Worse, you can be assured that those companies’ marketing departments are laughing at your gullibility. Since there is no way to really know, you might as well do your own research, make your own choices, and pick your products carefully from producers you know and trust. Buy from local producers whenever you can, and just hope for the best. 

Whatever you do, don’t be a sucker. 

It all sounds on the up and up, but don’t be fooled. It’s a classic scam that allows greedy scumbags to make a business of exploiting perfectly good and profitable companies for their own selfish gain. Usually at the expense of their workers, and Joe Taxpayer.

One of the reasons I’m posting this, is to have a convenient link to send friends to when the subject arises, as it inevitably will in this election year. Another reason is because it is by far, one of the clearest, succinct, and factual explanations about the subject I have yet to see. Well done, Dr. Reich.