Matt Taibbi and Yves Smith on Bill Moyers

Matt Taibbi and Yves Smith talk to Bill Moyers about Wall Street banks and their tight relationship to the federal government. Smith makes some great points about these large banks essentially being wards of the government via the FDIC and the Federal Reserve and argues that they should be treated like utility companies. Taibbi has a great quote:

What Yves was talking about with the old people who are dying earlier now...kids who aren't going to school, garbage that's being left in the streets - that's all because some guy was sitting up in a skyscraper in Wall Street and knowingly selling some community, some municipality a fraudulent, toxic mortgage-backed security. I mean, he knows that that instrument is going to blow up in, you know, six months, a year, but he's selling it to them anyway but he doesn't care..."

Man, did we get reamed by Wall Street and we continue to get it. These banks can borrow money - our tax money - at 0% interest from the Fed and then turn it around and lend it to us at 5%. What a racket. The saddest part is that so many people refuse to lay any blame at the feet of people like Jamie Dimon and instead blame pensioners, folks who entered into crappy mortgage deals, unions, and so on.