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The Wussification of America: How We Let Wall Street Become The New Schoolyard Bully

Thu Aug 2, 2012 by on Florida Law News

Wall Street, The New Bully of the BlockAs I worked out in the gym today and watched the Olympics, I realized that Americans as a whole no longer participate in the sports that we used to as kids. It used to be the case that regular kids would go to the local Y and do activities like archery and dodge ball.

Today, most high school students don’t even get any physical activity, let alone participate in organized activities that can be perceived as violent or risky. Schools and the Y’s no longer want to risk having the liability for kids to develop a little toughness. Instead, we have become a nation of couch potatoes that wusses out of the sports we used to do in summer camp as kids.

This wussification also explains why we have faced scandal after scandal on Wall Street.

Americans as a whole do nothing more than shrug their shoulders and grumble; even as the scandals only grow larger and larger.

It started with the savings and loan crisis in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, and then came the overhyping of the tech bubble in 1999 and 2000.

Then it got really big, with the largest drop in economic output since the Great Depression, all because of Wall Street greed and government regulators asleep at the switch or coaxed into a drunken stupor by Washington lobbyists.

With the housing crisis, we have seen predatory lending, fraud, forgery, robo-signing, tax evasion, and the wrongful eviction of homeowners from their own homes in such large amounts that even the bankers should be blushing.

Then, in quick succession, we had the Facebook trading debacle, HSBC getting into the money laundering business, and the breaking open of the LIBOR scandal; a scandal so big it makes the real estate crisis seem like a boo-boo we had as kids.

Let’s take a look at how big the LIBOR crisis actually is.

We have actually gotten to the point where, instead of the $90 billion cost for the savings and loan crisis; we are faced with a crisis that has impacted $800 trillion worth of financial products through manipulations of the LIBOR rates.

And still, there are no bankers have been arrested, for the fraudulent manipulation of everything from credit cards and mortgages to student loans and interest rate swaps; products whose combined value is more than 11 times the entire world’s GDP!

The threat of arrest is growing louder, but until it one actually happens, I will remain skeptical.

We the People have allowed the banks to walk all over us. Even now as the evidence mounts, the masses still offer a collective yawn.

Even the media, outside of the business press and oddly enough The Daily Show, seem more enamored with Lindsay Lohan than one of the largest financial scandals in recent memory.

It’s as if we have all become tepid and meek in the face of their shiny solid gold watches and matching planes. The banks may have committed the crimes, but we have stood idly by for too long.

It’s just like a bully stealing lunch money, and just like all other bullies, they won’t stop until we fight back.

Yeah, that’s right; I’m advocating we stand tall and show the bullies some moxie .

A bully never stops until you fight back.

We should’ve fought back at the beginning and neutered Wall Street back in the ‘80’s; then we wouldn’t be in the predicament we are in today.

And if we don’t start fighting back against Wall Street now, you better get used to counting frauds in the 1,000,000,000,000,000’s (quadrillions) of dollars!

From The Trenches

Roy Oppenheim

Foreclosure Defense Attorney Roy Oppenheim

Tags: bank, banker, bully, financial crises, financial institutions, financial services, hsbc, Libor, london interbank offered rate, savings and loan association, savings and loan crisis, schoolyard, standee, subprime mortgage crisis, the bully, wall street, wall street now, wussification, wussification of america

2 responses to “The Wussification of America: How We Let Wall Street Become The New Schoolyard Bully”

  1. […] How We Let Wall Street Become The New Schoolyard Bully | South … […]

  2. […] essentially turned the tables on the banking industry – which over the years has found ways to manipulate the financial markets and create one of the largest economic crises in U.S. […]