Wells Fargo: As if we needed another reason to hate Big Banks

“The only way that Wall Street will change is if executives face jail time when they preside over massive frauds.”

— Massachusetts senator, Elizabeth Warren

Big Banks have been allowed to operate outside of jurisdictional oversight for so long they have developed a façade of inscrutability. The Finance industry has assumed a “business as usual” maxim in the midst of some highly questionable shadow banking — not the least of which was the 2008 Mortgage debt crisis and Banks’ subsequent bail out to the tune of $700 billion. Banking legislation is so clandestine that we — the banking public — can’t wrap our heads around it. It’s exhausting even trying to figure out the fine print on our credit card statements so we acquiesce. People accept the labyrinthine terms and fee structures as something they are powerless to change.

It’s not that people don’t complain. Online forums are riddled with tales of Wells Fargo’s Machiavellian banking practices. It’s nothing new but it’s becoming harder to allege. “The fine print” is forged in the corridors of clandestine legislation overseen by lobbyists who ensure legislators are securely in their pockets. Fraud in the banking industry has been elevated to a marketing aphorism. “Cross selling” is part of our business…” according to Wells Fargo CEO, John Stumpf. He was responding to Elizabeth Warren’s question asking whether or not he was aware of the scam his employees had been running on unsuspecting customers: It’s not a scam, he insisted — it’s “cross selling.” It also has another name: Financialization.

“Financialization” is the lynchpin of economic stagnation. Coupled with “Globalization” it’s part of an epic economic restructuring to secure profit at any cost. It’s capitalism operating at its zenith and has spawned a technocratic hierarchy where an elite can dominate and control the masses and their access to social resources. Our burgeoning rentier economy is based on Financialization and its mechanisms have rendered income distribution irretrievably broken; it basically guarantees that wealth stays at the top. Financialization lines executive’s pockets and drives up share price — the modus operandi of Wall Street. For an incisive look at exactly how this is happening, take a look at Rana Foroohar’s, Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of Business.

For my full review of her book, head on over to The Indypendent.