Banks Fined $4.6 Billion: Hate the Player But Hate The Game More

[The following post is by TDV Chief-Editor, Jeff Berwick]

There is a saying, “Don't hate the player, hate the game,” but when it comes to the political and financial systems of today it is perfectly fine to hate both… but the game should be despised more than the individual players.

This week, Barclays, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS were fined a total of $5.7 billion for their role in manipulating the foreign exchange markets.

Many people who correctly and instinctively think the major banking cartel is a pox on humanity cheered the decision.  But, let's look at what really happened and why “manipulating” the markets not only shouldn't be a crime but is the least worst thing these banks do.

To start, all markets are manipulated.  That is just a fact of life.  Manipulation is just a part of being involved in a market.  When a store has a summer sale they are trying to manipulate sales from a longer time-frame to a shorter one.  When a person offers a house at a higher level than what they would be willing to accept they are attempting to manipulate the buyer's perceived value of the home.

And when a number of too-big-to-fail banks in a government created monopolized fascist business dealing in the trade of fiat currencies backed by the violence of law get together to move rates in a direction they desire that is just to be expected and is actually not a criminal act.  What backs these banks and the central banks in particular, however, is a crime against humanity.

To have the government, who works hand in hand with the banks, appearing to be “overseeing” them and fining them is the height of ridiculousness, though, as government is itself a crime against humanity.

Many people, however, will hear about how the government fined the banks and cheer thinking that somehow the money fined will end up in their own pockets.  That, of course, is not the case at all.  Has anyone received their cheque in the mail, yet?  I know I haven't.

Will taxes in the UK be reduced due to this windfall?  You must be kidding if you think that would ever happen.

No, what happens is that money goes into the government, most of it gets wasted on bureaucracy, as always, and then the rest is mostly paid back to the banks who have the legal right to lend money printed out of thin air to the government at interest, making hundreds of billions per year in the process.

All that really happened was some paper shuffling and the illusion that the government is watching over the conduct of these banks when, in fact, the only reason they can do what they do is because the government allows it.

The real problem that is impoverishing the world, facilitating war and destroying the economy are the government and the central and commercial banks themselves!

Some people who aren't happy with just the fine and want to see the bankers in jail also have it partially wrong.  There shouldn't be such a thing as a government run jail.  This is a medieval concept.  In an actual free market these banks wouldn't be able to exist in their current form but, if they ever did steal from another party all restitution should be financial.  Putting someone in a cage is not only medieval but also incredibly costly and solves nothing.  And that goes for the millions of non-violent people who sit in the Amerikan gulags today.

The problem is the game itself where people allow governments and central banks to continue to exist despite their flawless track record of death and impoverishment of the economy.  Until people realize this and cheer things like the system fining itself from time-to-time for a small percentage of what they plunder then we will continue to live in an unfree world.

Demand an end to the Federal Reserve and, at the same time, remove yourself from their systems via many of the ways we talk about here all the time at The Dollar Vigilante including precious metals, bitcoin and hard assets outside of your own district where people in funny hats and wigs portend to own you.

It all is just a game, really, and we can end it by refusing to play.