Malum in se: Goodby Mr. Geithner!

Malum in se

“He is calm in the face of a storm, and he sees the world as it is, not how we’d like it to be.”
-Treasury Secretary Geithner, as quoted in Bloomberg 7-2-12

“Some men see things as they are and say, ‘Why?’  I dream things that never were and say, ‘Why not?’” 
- Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General; U.S. Senator

By J.M. Hamilton 7-14-12

This essay may, for some, get a little crude this week, so for those with virgin eyes, you may not want to read further. 

Who am I kidding?  It’s going to be crude! 

You can almost taste it.  One can certainly feel it, and read about it.  It’s invasive.  And it has metastasized throughout the body politic.  It’s called cynicism, or by any other words:  “an attitude of scornful, jaded, negativity.”

I remember the first time I encountered it.  It was 1990.  We were still basking in the warm Republican glow of Reaganomics.  In Texas, the Republican Party had put forth a businessman named “Claytie” Williams, to run against then State Treasurer, Ann Richards.

democrat!  

And, Mr. Williams was about to politically stomp Ms. Richards, big time.  He had a twenty-point lead. 

Republicans were feeling real good. 

Mr. Williams was about to become the second Republican governor in the State of Texas, since the Civil War’s Reconstruction.  Yup.  A carpetbagger was about to enter the governor’s mansion, but at least he was one of ours. 

And then something happened like a bolt out of the blue… revelations!  Turned out Claytie’s tongue would be his undoing; turned out Mr. Williams had a fondness for cynical, dark humor.  Poof, his lead went up in smoke.  He was quoted as saying amongst the “boys,” the following joke:

“Rape is just like the weather…  it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.”

Ms. Richards never looked back and won the governorship.  Republicans shrieked and howled and chewed on their own body parts.  Damn, I was sore.

Now, you have to remember Mr. Williams comment was Pre-Hillary and Pre- P.C. (politically correct), but it displayed – even if in jest – the dark side of American politics and of human nature.   Many of us have watched political cynicism grow and grow ever since, if not at the state level then certainly at the national level. 

Today, the author of our economic recovery, and our economic messiah, if you believe his P.R., Mr. Geithner, was recently quoted in Bloomberg as praising Mr. Draghi, E.U. Central Bank President, and Goldman Sachs Alum, with the aforementioned quote.

Mr. Draghi gets it, per Mr. Geithner, not how the world ought to be, but how it is.  

According to Mr. Geithner, one might infer, how the world should and will be is with Bank Presidents running the planet, impervious to their own malign actions, backed by the full faith and credit on the American taxpayer, and never, ever sanctioned or held accountable for their outrageous behavior; that is to say, no matter how economically debilitating banker fraud to the global economy; the amount of debt the bank bailouts piled upon the taxpayer; and no matter how many bank created hardships face the ever growing ranks of the unemployed.

Per Mr. Geithner, that’s just the way it is:
·      Libor scandals, impacting hundreds of trillions in banking instruments and investments;
·      Derivative and swaps scandals in London, a la Mr. Dimon and “the London Whale;”
·      Alleged Energy market manipulation in California by J.P. Morgan;
·      Accounting shenanigans and off balance sheet transactions;
·      Money laundering;
·      Offshore accounts;
·      Taxpayer funded Banks gambling in Private Equity;
·      Another Futures Dealer vanishes with hundreds of million in client money gone missing (and the banks and the regulators are unaware?);
·      Tax evasion; and
·      Accounts for drug dealers.

What have I missed?  These are just the Headlines for the last thirty days.  This list doesn’t begin to account for the 2008 Banking Armageddon, even though many of these events are redundant.  

Recidivism is the hallmark of this crisis.

And the proceeding list is a direct result of the 2008 actions of the Gang of Four:  Messrs. Bush, Paulson, Bernanke, and Geithner!  This nation should have led the way for the world, and never bailed out the banks, or certainly not without nationalization, penalty and a change in management.

Lost Japanese decades, stagnation, and malaise… this is what Mr. Geithner, the Bank Presidents, and SCOTUS have delivered. 

Somebody should explain to Mr. Geithner that cynicism is not what government is about.  

What Government is about is doing the impossible.  As Mr. Kennedy so eloquently said above, it’s about dreaming things that never were, and saying why not.  It’s about:

Another Texan, President L.B.J., signing Civil Rights legislation;

It’s about President John F. Kennedy setting the nation’s sites on the moon;

President Roosevelt’s efforts and success in defeating National Socialism in Europe;

It’s about President Truman establishing the policy of Communist containment, which allowed President Reagan to ultimately defeat the Soviets;

It’s about President Lincoln signing the emancipation proclamation, and

President Obama demonstrating vision and attempting to steer this country away from the Bankocracy that rules us all, despite the “ball and chain” that is Mr. Geithner.

That’s what government can be about.  It should not be about a personal bailout fund for the Cartel.

By the way, notice how the dreamers and doers above are all Democrats?  Okay, Lincoln would be a Democrat by today’s standards, as the underwriter of the first Federal income tax. Even Reagan was a Democrat before joining the Republican Party.

In the last four years, the U.S. and Europe have suffered a withering shit storm of deception and greed perpetrated upon us all by the banks, and public officials in the banker’s pockets.  

As Mr. Geithner cynically alludes to, the more things change the more they stay the same.  

But Americans and Europeans, by now, know the difference between Malum in se, and Malum prohibitum.  And just because banking atrocities have not been made illegal, because politicians conveniently abdicate responsibility, or feckless regulators refuse to act, doesn’t mean what the bankers are doing to humanity isn’t inherently evil, or enjoys public consent.

Until what the Economist refers to as “banksters” are held accountable, lost careers and prison time, this storm will continue.

At the end of the day, Americans refuse to take Mr. Clayton Williams advice.   We will not sit back and enjoy the rape perpetrated upon us all by the international banking cartel.

P.S.

Mr. Geithner, how much longer do you think the banking dictatorship, and your world and “the way it is” will last???

“Every dictatorship has ultimately strangled in a web of repression it wove for its people, making mistakes that could not be corrected because criticism was prohibited.”

– Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General; U.S. Senator


 Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2013