This week the news media gave Americans plenty of reasons to be outraged. There was the announcement that Sen. Carl Levin has referred to the Justice Department the name of Lloyd Blankfein for potential perjury in his testimony to Congress. Were you surprised? Were you angry that the chairman of one of the largest US banks might have lied when he said the firm never betted against its clients in the housing market?
Chances are you have become inured to accusations of malfeasance and criminality on Wall Street. We used to read about this sort of thing only in the blogosphere; then it traveled to what used to be called the “Main Stream Media” (the lines between the two are now blurring so let’s just call it the media). Now we have a Senate committee issuing a report over 600 pages long on the financial chicanery that defines the way Wall Street makes its money, and even those people who pay attention to this sort of thing are saying to themselves “So what else is new?” What are the odds, for example, that the Justice Department is actually going to indict the Chairman of Goldman Sachs for perjury? The stock market. which certainly knows a rigged game when it sees one, thinks they are pretty low: Goldman Sachs stock closed down a modest 2.5% on the day of the news. Wall Street thinks at most a slap on the wrist is going to be brought down on Mr. Blankfein, if that.
http://agonist.org/numerian/20110416/dont_wait_up_for_the_outrage
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