Why Bank "Credit Pollution" Is like BP's Gulf Pollution

Why Bank "Credit Pollution" Is like BP's Gulf Pollution

blogs.alternet.org

The Gulf and Wall Street disasters are oddly parallel in many ways, except one: BP is paying for some of its sins. Wall Street isn’t. (And what better evidence than the watered down financial reform bill the Congressional conferees hashed out last night, which gives banks plenty of latitude to keep doing business as usual).

Both calamities were predictable and preventable. BP–and the rest of the oil industry–relies on very risky technology to operate flawlessly under extreme pressure, in deeper and deeper water.

(visit the link for the full news article)

A very interesting premise and idea to look at the parallels, and to look at the differences in how the two are treated.

BP gets rightly castigated for one of, if not the worst, oil disaster ever, while the banks get rewarded for their part (and it was a huge part) in crippling not only the economy of the US, but much of the western world.

This difference highlights why these banks believe they are bulletproof, and shows just how much some people worship money.

Europe is seemingly on the road to recovery, by tightening the purse strings and making sacrifices - something Obama thinks is wrong. His answer is to throw more money at the problem, make the irresponsible even richer, and do little or nothing in the way of penalising or even reining the banks in.

Meanwhile, his vitriol against BP knows no limits - and he's right in this, but why can't he see that the banks were/are responsible for an economic disaster on the same scale?

It all comes down to money - as usual....

blogs.alternet.org
(visit the link for the full news article)