The Bankster Motto: Do the Crime If You Can Pay the Fine

If banks were so worried over image and bank runs do to criminal activity perhaps they would have a moment of conscience and avoid criminal activity all together. But as usual, the very nature of too big to fail affords them the luxury of too big to jail. With DPAs, NPAs, and tax breaks for paying fines the banks are free to do the crime and pay the fines. In a world of true democracy and the rule of law we would still abide by the old adage of not doing the crime in order not to do the time.

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“Shah Gilani writes: Headline news about banks settling charges for violating rules, regulations, and laws – and announcements of the fines they agree to pay – appears every day…

Rarely – if ever – do they reveal how much money is really being paid or where it’s going…

They also seldom explain what kinds of settlements are reached.

Or how banks negotiate what they’ll actually pay and to whom… or how they negotiate tax deductibility of fines… or how they get “credits” for fines they never pay… or how insurance covers some of it…

This is not one of those stories… this is about what really happens behind the banksters’ doors.

The details are shocking…

These Massive Penalties Are Quieted to Protect “Us”

First of all, some settlements never see the light of day. They can be deemed “confidential” by regulators settling with a miscreant bank.

Why are some settlements confidential? Because bank lawyers argue their clients are exposed to “reputational risk” and details of their “alleged” wrongdoing, which they typically “neither admit nor deny,” could impact the health of the bank. Of course, that could create “systemic risk,” they argue, due to the damage to the public’s perception of trust in their banking institutions.

The FDIC, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is one agency that thinks keeping settlements confidential will keep folks from withdrawing money from law-breaking banks. They believe it protects the agency from having to bail out remaining depositors if those banks eventually fail.

Last year, for example, the FDIC, ignoring the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Improvement Act of 1991 that mandates settlements be made public, fined Deutsche Bank $54 million for packaging and selling bad mortgage-backed securities to a failed bank, but no one heard about it.

According to E. Scott Reckard, who reported on the confidential settlement for the Los Angeles Times, “The deal might have made big headlines, given that the bad loans contributed to the largest payout in FDIC history, $13 billion. But the government cut a deal with the bank’s lawyers to keep it quiet: a ‘no press release’ clause that required the FDIC never to mention the deal ‘except in response to a specific inquiry.'”

Also last year, according to the Financial Times, Wells Fargo “quietly settled” with the Federal Housing Finance Agency “for allegedly misleading disclosures on mortgage securities” it sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The FT went on to say, “unlike deals with UBS and JPMorgan, Wells’ settlement, which is believed to be worth less than $1 billion, is governed by a confidentiality agreement.”

The Real Reason No One Goes to Jail

Of course, whether their settlements are confidential or not, too-big-to-fail banks have only faced civil charges, for which they have to pay fines. There have been no criminal prosecutions of any banks or banksters. That’s because of the doctrine: too-big-to-fail and too-big-to-jail.

None of the agencies that bring civil actions against the big banks can pursue them criminally. If a bank’s actions are so egregious that they warrant a criminal investigation, the agency passes along their files to the Department of Justice.

But, the DOJ hasn’t pursued any criminal action against any bank or bankster.

Why? Because as Lanny Breuer, who was chief of the Criminal Division of the DOJ from April 2009 to March 2013, explained in a 2012 speech to the New York City Bar Association, “To be clear, the decision of whether to indict a corporation, defer prosecution, or decline altogether is not one that I, or anyone in the Criminal Division, take lightly. We are frequently on the receiving end of presentations from defense counsel, CEOs, and economists who argue that the collateral consequences of an indictment would be devastating for their client. In my conference room, over the years, I have heard sober predictions that a company or bank might fail if we indict, that innocent employees could lose their jobs, that entire industries may be affected, and even that global markets will feel the effects.”

Lanny Breuer left the DOJ last year to return, for a reported $4 million a year, to his old white-collar criminal defense firm Covington & Burling, who represents Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and others. Attorney General Eric Holder is also a Covington alumni.

Besides not being pursued criminally, when banks and banksters are caught breaking laws they are slapped on the wrist and gifted with Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) and Non-Prosecution Agreements (NPAs). These consistently handed out agreements, in the 20 years since their emergence as an alternative to indictments, are, in the words of the Harvard Law School, “a mainstay of the U.S. corporate enforcement regime, with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) leading the way.”

According to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, “These types of agreements have achieved official acceptance as a middle ground between exclusively civil enforcement (or even no enforcement action at all) and a criminal conviction and sentence. DPAs and NPAs allow companies and prosecutors to resolve high-stakes claims of corporate misconduct – often the subject of sizable media attention – through agreements to obey the law, cooperate comprehensively with the government, adopt or enhance rigorous compliance measures, and often pay a hefty monetary penalty.”

You’ll Be Surprised Where the Fine Money Lands

So, how does the DOJ and how do attorneys general, and the SEC and CFTC, and the FHFA and FREC and any and all of the other alphabet soup of regulators overseeing the Lords of the Banking Underworld determine what settlement fines banks have to pay?

They negotiate them, of course, with the banks…..”

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“What are we to make of this sudden rash of banker suicides? Does this trail of dead bankers lead somewhere? Or could it be just a coincidence that so many bankers have died in such close proximity? I will be perfectly honest and admit that I do not know what is going on. But there are some common themes that seem to link at least some of these deaths together.

First of all, most of these men were in good health and in their prime working years. Secondly, most of these “suicides” seem to have come out of nowhere and were a total surprise to their families.  Thirdly, three of the dead bankers worked for JP Morgan. Fourthly, several of these individuals were either involved in foreign exchange trading or the trading of derivatives in some way.

So when “a foreign exchange trader” jumped to his death from the top of JP Morgan’s Hong Kong headquarters this morning, that definitely raised my eyebrows. These dead bankers are starting to pile up, and something definitely stinks about this whole thing.

What would cause a young man that is making really good money to jump off of a 30 story building?

The following is how the South China Morning Post described the dramatic suicide of 33-year-old Li Jie…

An investment banker at JP Morgan jumped to his death from the roof of the bank’s headquarters in Central yesterday.

Witnesses said the man went to the roof of the 30-storey Chater House in the heart of Hong Kong’s central business district and, despite attempts to talk him down, jumped to his death.

If this was just an isolated incident, nobody would really take notice……….

……………………..So did all of those men actually kill themselves?

Well, there is reason to believe that at least some of those deaths may not have been suicides after all.

For example, before throwing himself off of JP Morgan’s headquarters in London, Gabriel Magee had actually made plans for later that evening…

There was no indication Magee was going to kill himself at all. In fact, Magee’s girlfriend had received an email from him the night before saying he was finishing up work and would be home soon.

And 57-year-old Richard Talley was found “with eight nail gun wounds to his torso and head” in his own garage.

How in the world was he able to accomplish that?

Like I said, something really stinks about all of this…”

Full article

“It has been awhile since I have posted on the web and thought this was an appropriate article to share. This article focuses on technical analysis of 3 currencies and the US Dollar Index. A lot of the technical indicators I follow are universal, but the way in which they are modified and put together will not be found anywhere else. Developing the Contracting Fibonacci Spiral and the inverse chiral inversion that happened last summer have played a role in the forecast of this article. As unbelievable as the forecast may seem by time the end of this article, there is a significant amount of logic that went into this and may even defy logic. There is a mathematical basis to this pattern and hopefully it will be understood somewhat by the end of this article.

The US Dollar Index has changed its pattern and has confirmed a number of trends discussed over the past few months. I have spent a lot of time reviewing the US Dollar Index this weekend, due to it remaining under pressure and failing to break higher. The Elliott Wave pattern I was following had the longer term pattern fail due to not breaking higher…This has repercussions for everything.

For one, gold and silver are likely to remain in an uptrend for longer than anyone may think…the last update I stated suggested 2-3 months…this could extend into next year, depending upon how the downtrend of the US Dollar Index progresses. The HUI/Gold Ratio is in an uptrend, so holding or adding to precious metal positions is still in effect.

Oil is again over $100/barrel and if it closes above $101/barrel, then it is going to $111 within 6-8 weeks, followed by a move to $130-140/barrel within 8-12 months. Once oil closes above $101/barrel on a daily basis, oil is locked into an uptrend, which will drive energy stocks higher. Conservative investors should look to enter positions once this trigger becomes activated.

Also, I have been thinking more about what the Chiral Inversion of the Contracting Fibonacci Spiral and what that means. From everything what I can fathom at this point in time, things are going to really move higher between now and Q2-Q3 2015. The CFS had a series of higher lows from 1932 until 2013, which had a series of higher lows. The chiral inversion of the CFS that happened last summer implied a reversal to this trend. A cycle low is expected sometime between Q2-Q3 2016 and suggests a series of lower highs from 2016 until 2020. The following time points are required to complete the CFS sequence after 2016: 2, 1 and 1. Two years after 2016 is 2018, which is the next expected cycle low, followed by 2019 and 2020. The 2020 low should mirror of the amount of time taken for the 2019 leg. As we reach the point of singularity in 2020, the volatility of the cycle will only increase.

So, going short at the right point in time during 2015 will be critical, because between now and then, many people are going to get burned and will not even want to try shorting anything again. At the 2016 bottom there should be a very powerful rally that lasts into 2017/early 2018, followed by another crash into mid to late 2018. Knowing the information above is going to be very critical, because a lot of money will either be made, or lost during this period of time.

I have a lot of updates to do this week to get back on track after spending too much time on this side analysis and thought process for how things unfold, but viewed this as a more important step. It is important to anticipate the hypothesis and continue to alter it and make the required changes to fit the model as time progresses. This is what Science is about…forming thoughts around a number of observations and extrapolating the thought into abstract form to model future experimentation. In our case, the field testing of our hypothesis is the market and because time only travels in one direction, we can not repeat the experiment. We can look back at history, but alas, it too only has one path.

One final thought…if the US Dollar Index is going to go down, then commodities are going to rise, which should in turn raise the value of the Canadian and Australian currencies going forward. It appears that Q2-Q3 2015 is going to represent the cycle low for the US Dollar, which should rise during the deflationary bought expected after this point in time.

Based upon this analysis, a list of gold and silver stocks to consider will be posted this week. Hint…most of these are one’s that I have covered in the past, but a few new one’s will be discussed over the coming week’s.

Currencies

The daily chart of the Canadian Dollar Index is shown below, with lower Bollinger bands beneath the current price, suggestive that a bottom was put in place. Full stochastics 1, 2 and 3 are shown below in order of descent, with the %K above the %D in all three instances. Extrapolation of the %K trend in stochastics 1 and 2 suggest at least another 2-3 weeks of further upside before a top is put in place. I will post the monthly chart of the Canadian Dollar Index next week, which suggests the upward trend could last into next year. The Canadian Dollar has been in a down trend for over 18 months, so a bounce is expected.

Figure 1

The daily chart of the US Dollar Index is shown below, with upper 21 and 34 MA Bollinger bands in close proximity to each other with rising stochastics, suggestive that further sideways to upward price action is likely. The lower 21 MA Bollinger band is beneath the 34 MA Bollinger band, suggestive that an oversold condition is developing. Full stochastics 1, 2 and 3 are shown below in order of descent, with the %K above the %D in all three instances. Extrapolation of the %K in stochastics 1 and 2 suggest at least another 2-3 weeks of further upward price action before a top is put in place. There is a noticeable positive divergence between stochastics 1 and 2 relative to the price action of the Aussie dollar, suggestive that further upward price action is pending.

Figure 2…..”

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“BEIJING—China’s factory activity lost ground in February, as a key gauge of manufacturing slipped to a seven-month low, signaling further economic weakness and rattling markets.

Some analysts called for more government support for the world’s No. 2 economy to ensure that momentum doesn’t slow further. But Beijing may be comfortable with an economy that is expanding—though at a slower pace—as it seeks to focus on longer-term structural changes that will reduce the reliance on government investment and export-led manufacturing for growth.

The preliminary HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, a gauge of nationwide manufacturing activity, fell to 48.3 in February from 49.5 in January, HSBC Holdings HSBA.LN -0.87% PLC said Thursday.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion from the previous month, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction.

“There is continued downward pressure on the economy,” said Ding Shuang, economist at Citigroup. “Economic growth will continue to decline to 7% over the next two quarters.”

With domestic demand weak and the global economy still recovering, China’s economic growth slowed to 7.7% in the final quarter of last year from 7.8% in the third quarter.

A government official said this week that the government is looking for growth in industrial output of about 9.5% this year, down from 9.7% last year. Manufacturing is still a major driver of growth, and such a slowing would point to overall weakness ahead. A weaker Chinese economy would mean softer global demand for commodities from grains and metals to coal and oil.

The Australian dollar slipped against the U.S. currency after the release of the manufacturing PMI data. Australia is a major supplier of resources that fuel China’s economic expansion. Hong Kong’s benchmark stock index and shares in Tokyo were also under pressure.

HSBC economist Qu Hongbin said that China needs to make policy adjustments to ensure sufficient momentum in the economy. “We believe Beijing policy makers should and can fine-tune policy to keep growth at a steady pace in the coming year,” he said.

Nomura economist Zhiwei Zhang said he expects Beijing to act. “We reiterate our view that the recovery in China is not sustainable and that GDP growth will slow to 7.5% year on year in the first quarter and 7.1% in the second quarter despite favorable base effects,” he said, adding, “we expect the government to loosen monetary policy in the second quarter to support growth.”

But others said that the weak measure of the nation’s manufacturing health was partly due to the timing of the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.

They also noted that government policy makers have so far been comfortable with slightly slower growth, though they are carefully watching the employment situation….”

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“A troubling new study has found that the number of chemicals capable of impairing child development worldwide is more than double what was previously believed, according to a new story by Time Magazine.

Back in 2006, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai pinpointed five industrial chemicals that they linked to brain disorders such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), reduced IQ, and more.

These chemicals were lead, methlymercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (a coolant fluid in motors), arsenic (found naturally and also in pesticides), and toluene (in paint thinner, nail polish, and more).

In a review of their 2006 study, though, the same scientists have now discovered brain development in children could be negatively disrupted by another six chemicals. These chemicals are: chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, fluoride, manganese, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, tetrachloroethylene.

Alarmingly, the researchers discovered that manganese and fluoride, both of which are present in drinking water, can lead to poorer performance in school, lower math scores, and increased hyperactivity. High levels of fluoride, in particular, are potentially capable of lowering a child’s IQ by seven points.

Chlorpyrifos, meanwhile, is a common pesticide that is still used in public areas and in agriculture despite the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency banned it from residential areas in 2001. According to a report by CNN in 2012, even low levels of chlorpyrifos could result in disrupted brain development.

“It’s out there and we do not know what the longer term impact is of lower levels,” Virginia Rauh, professor of Clinical Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, told CNN. “But it does seem to be associated with cognitive damage and structural changes in brain.”

As RT reported this week, some health experts believe the increased rate of severe birth defects in rural Washington state could possibly be linked to prolonged exposure to pesticides, though officials have been unable to determine the precise cause.,,,,”

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Click here for a recent interview with WSJ

“About Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.”

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“Washington Orchestrated Protests Are Destabilizing Ukraine

Paul Craig Roberts

The protests in the western Ukraine are organized by the CIA, the US State Department, and by Washington- and EU-financed Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that work in conjunction with the CIA and State Department. The purpose of the protests is to overturn the decision by the independent government of Ukraine not to join the EU.

The US and EU were initially cooperating in the effort to destroy the independence of Ukraine and make it a subservient entity to the EU government in Brussels. For the EU
government, the goal is to expand the EU. For Washington the purposes are to make
Ukraine available for looting by US banks and corporations and to bring Ukraine into NATO so that Washington can gain more military bases on Russia’s frontier. There are three countries in the world that are in the way of Washington’s hegemony over the world–Russia, China, and Iran. Each of these countries is targeted by Washington for overthrow or for their sovereignty to be degraded by propaganda and US military bases that leave the countries vulnerable to attack, thus coercing them into accepting Washington’s will.

The problem that has arisen between the US and EU with regard to Ukraine is that Europeans have realized that the takeover of Ukraine is a direct threat to Russia, which can cut Europe off from oil and natural gas, and if there is war completely destroy Europe. Consequently, the EU became willing to stop provoking the Ukraine protests.

The response of the neoconservative, Victoria Nuland, appointed Assistant Secretary of State by the duplicitous Obama, was “fuck the EU,” as she proceeded to describe the members of the Ukraine government that Washington tended to impose on a people so unaware as to believe that they are achieving independence by rushing into Washington’s arms. I once thought that no population could be as unaware as the US population. But I was wrong. Western Ukrainians are more unaware than Americans.

The orchestration of the “crisis” in Ukraine is easy. The neoconservative Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told the National Press Club in Washington on December 13, 2013, that the US has “invested” $5 billion in agitation in Ukraine. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37599.htmThe crisis essentially resides in western Ukraine where romantic ideas about Russian oppression are strong and the population is less Russian than in the eastern Ukraine.

The hatred of Russia in western Ukraine is so dysfunctional that the duped protesters are unaware that joining the EU means the end of Ukraine independence and rule by the EU bureaucrats in Brussels, the European Central Bank, and US corporations. Perhaps Ukraine is two countries. The western half could be given to the EU and US corporations, and the eastern half could be reincorporated as part of Russia, where the entire Ukraine resided for as long as the US has existed.

The disaffection from Russia that exists in western Ukraine makes it easy for the EU and US to cause trouble. Those in Washington and Europe who wish to destroy Ukraine’s independence portray an independent Ukraine as a hostage of Russia, while a Ukraine in the EU is allegedly under the protection of the US and Europe. The large sums of money that Washington funnels into NGOs in Ukraine propagate this idea and work the population into a mindless frenzy. I have never in my life witnessed people as mindless as the Ukrainian protesters who are destroying the independence of their country…..”

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“Wages aren’t keeping up with food inflation, creating a problem for American families.

While consumer prices overall have risen 6.4 percent since 2011, chicken has jumped 18.4 percent, ground beef 16.8 percent and bacon 22.8 percent, CBS News reports.

“Food inflation is far greater than the government thinks it is,” ConvergEx market strategist Nick Colas told CBS.

At the same time, median income has gained only 1 percent a year, CBS reports. That makes it difficult for parents to save for their children’s college expenses. College tuition has increased 6 to 8 percent a year for the last five decades, according to CBS.

While some economists see the overall economy in fine shape, “middle-class families are quietly struggling,” writes CBS correspondent Michelle Miller.

Colas is concerned. “The disconnect is severe…”

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“The New York Fed’s Empire State manufacturing survey fell to 4.58 in February, below Wall Street expectations.

Economists expected that the New York area index dropped to 9.01 in February from 12.51 the month prior….”

Full report

“A man jumped off of JP Morgan’s Hong Kong headquarters to his death, according to George Chen of the South China Morning Post.

JP Morgan has confirmed that the man who jumped was a 33 year-old employee at the firm with the last name Li…”

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“As various tax-funded international institutions explicitly outline plans to plunder humanity’s wealth to prop up governments drowning in odious debts, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last week officially unveiled a new socialist-backed plot to create a global tax information-sharing regime to ensure that nobody except the establishment escapes the upcoming fleecing. Under the proposed scheme, admittedly inspired by “FATCA,” the Obama administration’s latest addition to the sprawling U.S. tax regime, governments and dictatorships worldwide will automatically share all private financial data on citizens with each other to extract as much wealth as possible from the public.

Calling its scheme to put the final nail in the coffin for financial privacy “game changing,” the tax-funded OECD said it would require governments to collect massive amounts of sensitive personal information on individuals from banks and other financial institutions in their jurisdictions. Once gathered, the vast troves of private data would be automatically exchanged between all participating governments and dictatorships. “You collect the data, you put it in the pipe and it goes to the other party,” said OECD tax policy boss Pascal Saint-Amans, who pays no taxes on his bloated tax-funded salary.

Over 40 governments, which the Paris-based OECD misleadingly refers to as “countries,” have already committed to adopt the controversial scheme. In a “joint statement,” participating governments celebrated the plot, which they believe will help extract more revenue from the public. “Tax evasion is a global problem and requires a global solution,” said representatives from dozens of governments, including more than a few run by self-described socialists. “We therefore strongly support the development of the single global standard for automatic exchange of information between tax authorities.”

Sounding suspiciously like a threat, the participating governments also claimed that only countries with rulers who submit to the draconian new regime will “prosper in the future.” In other words, join the global tax regime and violate the privacy rights of everyone in the jurisdiction, or suffer financial penalties. “We call on other countries and jurisdictions to commit to join this initiative at the earliest opportunity with the aim of rapidly creating a truly global system of automatic information exchange,” the governments continued in their joint statement.

Among the early participants in the scheme is the imploding socialist regime ruling Argentina — currently searching frantically for wealth to plunder as the economy it misrules collapses around it. Also onboard is the radical South African Communist Party-African National Congress regime, which has been implicated in genocide in South Africa by the world’s leading expert in the field. Not coincidentally, at a 2012 summit in South Africa hosted by the SACP-ANC government, the premier global totalitarian alliance known as Socialist International signed a declaration demanding global taxes, a planetary currency — and a global tax-information-sharing regime along the lines of what was outlined last week by the OECD.

“There is a pressing need to dismantle tax havens, close loopholes and create automatic tax record exchange systems,” claimed one of the resolutions adopted last year by the socialist outfit’s oftentimes brutal members, many of which are currently in power in ruthless autocracies around the world. “Only under the auspices of a new Global Financial Architecture can this take place, one that significantly increases transparency and strengthens enforcement of the regulations.”

In fact, the OECD even boasts of its collaboration on the plot with tyrannical socialist regimes famous for human rights abuses and in some cases, even mass murder. “Working with partner countries (including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, the Russian Federation and South Africa), the OECD is advancing rapidly in the development of a common model for reporting and automatic exchange of certain account information held by financial institutions, including due diligence rules, reporting formats and secure transmission methods,” the outfit explained before releasing the actual plan on February 13.

A senior OECD bureaucrat claimed that the Obama administration had also committed to “early adoption” of the new world tax plot, though experts and analysts have pointed out that the U.S. president has no lawful authority to follow through on such a pledge without approval from Congress. Multiple EU member governments have also reportedly promised to adopt the scheme. More than a few brutal autocracies are expected to join as well, making the potential for abuses of the highly confidential data even more alarming to analysts.

Developed at the behest of the G-20, a group of the most powerful governments and tyrants including the barbaric communist dictatorship ruling mainland China, supporters of the new tax regime are demanding that it be in effect by 2015. Finance bosses for G-20 powers are expected to sign off on it later this month at a meeting in Australia. With the unaccountable bureaucrats almost always more than happy to trample individual rights and siphon more wealth out of the productive sector, little to no official opposition is expected. Plus, powerful socialist forces and tax-funded “non-governmental organizations,” so-called, are already working overtime to make sure the scheme moves forward.

The New American first reported on the G-20 and OECD global-tax plot early last month. Backed by socialist luminaries and international bureaucrats at various outfits funded primarily by U.S. taxpayers, the planetary regime is being pushed under the guise of ensuring that governments can collect as much tribute as possible. The global plot is admittedly based on a “devastating” new Obama administration taxation scheme known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, which purports to force all governments and banks worldwide to become agents of the IRS. Some analysts and critics of the OECD’s international version of the regime have referred to it as “GATCA.”

If and when it goes into effect, governments all over the world will have instant access to people’s most sensitive financial records including bank accounts, assets, income, insurance, interest paid, capital gains, property ownership, investments, sale of real estate, and more. In other words, the age-old notion of innocent until proven guilty is being flipped on its head, and authorities will not require any warrants or even suspicion to search through people’s highly personal information in search of potential crimes. Critics are already sounding the alarm on the vast array of possible abuses and problems that could result from the scheme, too. The OECD, though, celebrated the move…..”

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“Tom Perkins, the legendary venture capitalist who provoked a firestorm by comparing the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany to the way rich people are treated in the United States, on Thursday offered a provocative idea about how to “change the world.” During an interview with a Fortune magazine jornalist, Perkins said that only U.S. taxpayers should be able to vote in elections.

But that’s not all. Perkins went on to say that wealthy people should get more votes than others because they pay more in taxes. The comments by Perkins, who made his fortune as one of the founders of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, provoked laughter at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club, where he was being interviewed by Adam Lashinsky ofFortune. Perkins would later say that his comments were meant to be “provocative,” according to Reuters, and at least one reporter at the event said the 82-year-old later claimed he wasn’t being serious.

Earlier in the interview, Perkins elaborated on his controversial view that the wealthiest Americans — sometimes called the 1% — are currently being “persecuted” because they are rich. “The extreme progressivity of taxation is a form of persecution,” Perkins said. “I think if you’ve paid 75% of your life’s earnings to the government, you are being persecuted.” In the U.S., wealthy people pay higher rates of income tax — in what’s known as a progressive tax system — in part to fund social programs for less affluent people.

Later in the interview, Lashinksy asked Perkins for a “60-second idea to change the world.” The venture capitalist’s response: “The Tom Perkins system is: You don’t get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes. But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you should get a million votes. How’s that?” (Video below, see comments at 1:03:00.) Perkins later elaborated on those comments to Fortune by saying that because 50% of registered U.S. voters don’t pay taxes, “we got ourselves into a mess.”…”

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“Occupy participant Cecily McMillan is being prosecuted for felony police assault and may face up to 7 years in prison. In reality, it is the NYPD that should be on trial for their assault on McMillan. The trial has already been delayed because of the credibility of the arresting officer; however, New York City should review the case and drop all charges against McMillan.

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