The MF Global scam is "straight-up embezzlement"—Corzine is "the original George Zimmerman"

Will Jon Corzine ever see the inside of a courtroom? Or will his Ruling Class status — poster boy for "They Who Cannot Be Jailed" — keep him free and happy till he dies?

Consider:

▪ Jon Corzine was the CEO of MF Global, a commodities dealer that stole customer funds to cover its own losing bets, then went bankrupt immediately after giving out bonuses.

▪ Jon Corzine is also this guy:

He's Top 0.1% in spades: a Goldman CEO, a senator, a governor, and a major Dem fundraiser in an election year.

So what do you think? In a world where Nixon was pardoned, can this man be arrested? In my view, return to Rule of Law would be a revolution.

Our last news was that big-deal prosecutors, manly men like Preet Bharara of New York and Chicago's own Patrick Fitzgerald, are suddenly going to need a "smoking gun" before they begin to touch the case. (Is that how prosecution now works? Or is that just the "Top 0.1% Rule"?)

Here's Matt Taibbi on why Corzine is "the original George Zimmerman" (my emphases and paragraphing):

So the Senate Banking Committee is beginning hearings today on the MF Global scandal, hearings entitled, "The Collapse of MF Global: Lessons Learned and Policy Implications."

Apparently the government has already moved to the reflective, introspective, South Park-ian, "You know, I learned something today!" stage in its examination of the scandal, despite the fact that the government’s official "response" hasn’t even started yet, i.e. authorities have yet to arrest a single person in this brazen billion-dollar theft story.

To make an obvious comparison: Much like the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case, the outrage here goes beyond the fact of the horrific crime. An equally profound insult in both cases lay in the fact that that serious crime obviously had been committed, and yet authorities refused to act for months. This situation with former Goldman chief and U.S. Senator Jon Corzine and the officials of MF Global involves a less physically savage offense, but the authorities' refusal to act is every bit as incredible.

Elsewhere in the same piece, Taibbi discusses the apparent complexity of most financial crime — which tends to shield the criminals from public outrage. But that's not the case here; this is just "straight-up embezzlement":

MF Global is different. This is not complicated at all. This is just stealing. You owe money, you don’t have the cash to cover it, and so you take money belonging to someone else to cover your debts. ... It’s straight-up embezzlement.

He even quotes an internal company document contemplating the theft and wondering "what is the strategy if we want to keep the customer [cash] and wait until the storm passes?" Click to read; it's an eye-opener.

Which brings us to Taibbi's second point (and mine). Because the crime is so simple, the Our Betters Club — media included — is working overtime to rally round their member. Remember that when you listen to MF Global news stories — the media is complicit.

[T]here’s been an intense effort at trying to convince the public that no crime has been committed.

Whoever is handling MF Global’s P.R. (according to Pam Martens in this excellent piece, it’s APCO worldwide, a former Big Tobacco spin factory) appears to have convinced the company’s officers to emphasize the word “chaos” in describing the last days of the firm – as though $1.2 billion wasn’t intentionally stolen, per se, but simply lost in a kind of uncontrolled whirlwind of transactions that magically carried the money out of accounts off to worlds unknown.

The rest of Taibbi's piece lays out that part of the story — how the Chaos Defense is being played out like silly string by the lazy (or compliant) Our Betters Press Club. Reuters, the Times Dealbook, Corzine in congressional testimony — they're all on board with the Chaos coverup.

The piece is really worth reading in full; for starters, it's Taibbi at his clear-eyed researching best. If you care about Corzine and Rule of Law, it's a must-click.

Taibbi closes with the Rule of Law point:

It would be one thing if this was a country with a general, across-the-board tendency toward leniency for property crime. But we send tens of thousands of people to do real jail time in this country for non-violent offenses like theft. We routinely separate mothers from their children for relatively petty crimes like welfare fraud. For almost anyone who isn’t Jon Corzine, it’s no joke to get caught stealing in America.

Me, I'd like to close with this, a video of Taibbi explaining financial crime to Max Keiser of the Keiser Report. I've trimmed the clip to include just the Taibbi interview. Jump to about the 2/3 point to hear Taibbi discuss MF Global.

To get to that point more precisely, look at the digital clock ticking in the lower left corner of the screen, then use the slider to jump to the :54 minute mark and start watching (h/t Susie Madrak):



The entire Max Keiser segment is here.

Straight-up embezzlement, that's all it is. As Taibbi explains in the clip, we put poor women in jail all the time for stealing a little day care to which they're not entitled.

But Jon Corzine will float on Angel Soft clouds, clean and perfumy-fresh, to the next meeting of the Gotcha Club — his feet never touching the ground, much less a courtroom.

GP

(To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius)
 

Don't let business lobbyists kill the Post Office

That headline isn't mine, it's Taibbi's, and it's nicely direct. In addition, this post has an Action Opportunity, something you can actually do.

As you may already know, the USPS is going broke, thanks to Bush II and a 2006 law that forces it to fund its pension obligations completely for the next 75 years — and complete that funding in 10 years.

As you'll read below, because money earns money, no one (literally, no one) funds pension funds more than 30%.

Now Taibbi (all emphasis mine):

In 2006, in what looks like an attempt to bust the Postal Workers' Union, George Bush signed into law the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. This law required the Postal Service to pre-fund 100 percent of its entire future obligations for 75 years of health benefits to its employees – and not only do it, but do it within ten years. No other organization, public or private, has to pre-fund 100 percent of its future health benefits.

"No one prefunds at more than 30 percent," Anthony Vegliante, the U.S. Postal Service's executive vice president, told reporters last year.

The new law forced the postal service to come up with about $5.5 billion a year for the ten years following the bill's passage. In 2006, before those payments kicked in, the USPS generated a small profit. Not surprisingly, the USPS is now basically broke.

And the reason is obvious — unions, plus privatization:

The transparent purpose of this law, which was pushed heavily by industry lobbyists, was to break a public sector union and privatize the mail industry. Before the 2006 act, the postal service did one thing, did it well, and, minus the need to generate profits and bonuses for executives, did it cheaply. It paid for itself and was not a burden to taxpayers. ... This is a classic example of private-sector lobbyists using the government to protect its profits and keep prices inflated.

Taibbi's piece explains all the non-postal benefits of having post offices in a great many places not served by profit-hungry businesses.

Action Opportunity — Senator Bernie Sanders has a bill to delay the worst outcomes, such as Saturday closings.

Sen. Sanders is pushing a bill that would delay the end of Saturday delivery for two years, and prevent a number of post-office closings, but the writing is on the wall, unless there's a public outcry.

We have more about that bill here.

You can let your senators know that you strongly support that bill. Here's a nice list. And thanks!

(Update: Deleted an errant link.)

GP

(To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius)
 

GOP committee chair calls Obama admin "most corrupt government in history"

And House Committee chair Darrel Issa knows a thing or two (or three) about corruption.

Last year Rep. Darrell Issa retracted his statement that President Barack Obama was one of the most corrupt presidents in modern history, saying he should have parsed his words more carefully.

Tuesday, the California Republican's more careful parsing apparently included declaring Obama's government the most corrupt in history.

"We are busy in Washington with a corrupt government, with a government that I said more than a year ago was perhaps -- because of the money, because of the amount of TARP and stimulus funds -- was going to be the most corrupt government in history, and it is proving to be that, just exactly that," Issa said in a Bloomberg television interview.

Murdoch's Times of London in the news for hacking

The Murdoch media empire really struggles with following the law. Whether it's hiring Special Ops or private hackers to spy on the competition or promoting a "culture of illegal payments" this sounds like a rogue organization. Their latest problem is hacking a police blogger. As in a police officer who blogged.

Rupert Murdoch's Times of London is facing a claim for exemplary damages after admitting hacking into the email of an anonymous police blogger to expose his identity, lawyer Mark Lewis told Reuters on Friday.

Lewis, of law firm Taylor Hampton and representing police detective Richard Horton, said Horton had filed for misuse of confidential information, breach of confidence and deceit at London's High Court this week.

The Times exposed Horton as the author of the blog, in which he wrote about police work under the name NightJack, in 2009. Horton had sought an injunction to protect his anonymity but lost his case.

What will be the next scandal at News Corp?