This paragraph from this morning's New York Times put me in mind of a complaint Dean Baker often makes. The CFTC is considering rules that might prevent criminal syndicates banks from fixing LIBOR rates :
And it underscores increasing worries by large banks in general that the rules and regulations that have come in response to the recent spate of scandals and crises — requiring higher cash cushions, for example, and hiving off bank trading arms — will cause unneeded harm not just to the banks themselves but the broader financial climate as well. “None of this is going to catch the next London Whale or A.I.G.,” said Stephen O’Connor, the chairman of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, one of the three groups that brought the suit. “What we really need is a common international approach to these rules.”
At its heart, the challenge reflects a broad worry among industry activists and conservative lawmakers in Washington that the trading commission, under its aggressive chairman Gary Gensler, who is soon to step down, has gone too far.
Dean would say, I'm sure, that the Times can report on what the bankers say, but not that they “are worried”, particularly about the effects of the rules on anyone but themselves. In fact, anyone with half a brain knows that they rarely worry about anything other than their own profits.
But here's a thought experiment. Let's suppose, for instance, that a regulatory agency were considering some new money laundering rules. Would the Times use language like this:
And it underscores increasing worries by large criminal organizations in general that the rules and regulations that have come in response to the recent spate of crimes — requiring record keeping of large cash deposits, implementing procedures to make money easier to trace — will cause unneeded harm not just to the crime families themselves but the broader financial climate as well. “None of this is going to catch the next Al Capone,” said Michael Corleone, the chairman of the International Drug Dealers and Gun Runners Association.
There really is no distinction. The large banks are criminal operations pure and simple. Yet we genuflect before them and give credence to their pious posturing.
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