Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Obama's Justice Department Rushes to the Rescue of LIBOR Criminals
18 Jul 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

The Justice Department has launched a flurry of phony investigations in the LIBOR scandal, with the ultimate aim of protecting the banks from the consequences of their crimes. That's the same role the Obama administration played in the “robo-signing” scandal: immunizing the criminals. In the LIBOR scheme, Attorney General Holder and his crew will try to shield the banksters “from legal action by a host of other government agencies and, ultimately, from the global universe of parties that have been harmed by the bankster’s schemes.

 

Obama's Justice Department Rushes to the Rescue of LIBOR Criminals

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The reason Eric Holder is staging criminal investigations is because that’s the only way he can protect the bankers, through immunities and by gradually narrowing the scope of the case.”

The Obama Justice Department is in theater mode, again, pretending to threaten the bankster class with criminal penalties – prison time! – for their manipulation of the global economy’s benchmark interest rates. The Justice Department claims to be building criminal and civil cases in the LIBOR scandal, which in sheer scope is the biggest fraud by international capital in history. But that’s all a front, a farce. Barack Obama has spent his entire presidency protecting Wall Street, starting with his rescue of George Bush’s bank bailout bill after it’s initial defeat in Congress, in the last days of Obama’s candidacy. He packed his administration with banksters, passed his own bailout and, in collaboration with the Federal Reserve, channeled at least $16 trillion dollars into the accounts of U.S. and even European banks – by far the greatest transfer of capital in the history of the world. Obama has reminded the banksters that it was he who saved them from the “pitchforks” of an outraged public. He pushed through Congress so-called financial reform legislation that left derivatives – the deadly instruments of mass financial destruction that were at the heart of the meltdown – untouched.

Wall Street may or may not remain loyal to Obama, but Obama has been loyal to Wall Street, the guys who gave him the campaign cash to become a viable candidate. His Attorney General, Eric Holder, a corporate lawyer to the core, is busily staging a pre-emptive LIBOR prosecution of bankers in order to shield them from legal action by a host of other government agencies and, ultimately, from the global universe of parties that have been harmed by the bankster’s schemes – a list that stretches to infinity. Holder’s job is to monopolize the LIBOR case, to the extent legally and humanly possible, grabbing jurisdiction and consolidating the cases against the banks with the aim of reaching a settlement that does not further destabilize the financial system.

“The Justice Department has already given immunity to Barclay’s Bank, of Britain, and to the Swiss banking giant UBS.”

Holder and his boss already pulled that trick earlier this year with settlement of the bank “robo-signing” scandal – a scheme that would have ranked as the “crime of the century” until LIBOR came along. A small group of state attorney generals were holding up an administration-brokered settlement that effectively gave the banksters immunity from prosecution, in return for a measly $25 billion payout. Obama used every power of his office to pressure the state law officers into line. The last one capitulated with a promise from Obama that a “special unit of prosecutors” would expand the investigation into abusive mortgages practices. You haven’t heard a peep about it, since.

Now Obama and Holder are playing the same diversionary game, making tough noises about criminal investigations of the LIBOR conspirators. But the Justice Department has already given immunity to Barclay’s Bank, of Britain, and to the Swiss banking giant UBS. More immunities will follow. The reason Eric Holder is staging criminal investigations is because that’s the only way he can protect the bankers, through immunities and by gradually narrowing the scope of the case. In the end, there will be settlements all around, and the banksters will move on to even more fantastic heights of criminality – thanks to the loyal, protective hands of President Obama.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20120718_gf_HolderProtectsBanks.mp3

More Stories


  • The Coup in Bolivia: Lessons for our Movement
    Stansfield Smith
    The Coup in Bolivia: Lessons for our Movement
    15 Jan 2020
    The ruling class has the capacity to manufacture and implement a coup or a domestic wave of political repression almost off-the-shelf.
  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 13, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 13, 2020
    14 Jan 2020
    Dems Won’t Impeach Trump for Crimes They Favor
  • Black Women and Babies Endangered by Untreated Depression
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Women and Babies Endangered by Untreated Depression
    14 Jan 2020
    Journalist and activist Aneri Pattani, in an article for Truthout, said a number of factors contribute to high rates of post-birth depression among Black mothers in the US, in
  • Uncle Sam the Hit Man
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Uncle Sam the Hit Man
    14 Jan 2020
    Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, says the US is living up to its reputation as an international assassin with its hit on an Iranian general on Iraqi soi
  • British Colonial Racism Comes to Roost
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    British Colonial Racism Comes to Roost
    14 Jan 2020
    Although Britain never experienced a civil rights movement on its own soil, such movements did take place “in its colonies...in anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggles,” said Adam E
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us