Originally Posted By Mr X <a href="http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/09/ca_citibank.html" target="_blank">http://www.consumeraffairs.com...ank.html</a> And we wonder why people don't have faith in corporate America these days? What..the..heck!? I love this quote... "In the words of a Citibank executive, “Stealing from our customers is a business decision, not a legal decision.” The same executive later said that the sweep program could not be stopped because it would reduce the executive bonus pool" Note that the executive remains nameless. How nice. Also note that, despite the long list of penalties and retributions the giant, faceless megacorporation is "punished" with (mostly just refunding what they stole, with oversight so they don't do it again!)...one thing seems to be missing. Why are no Citibank executives going to PRISON over this theft!!?? Between this sort of thing, and the outright, blatant fraud of the mortgage lenders (criminal in its' own right, all the lying those guys did!), I really am getting the feeling that the justice system in America is designed to protect the powerful and subjugate the weak. Anyone else feel that? One further point, a blogger pointed out something interesting to me, and that is why does this sort of thing not result in a revocation of the bank's charter to operate a credit card business? **blog source** <a href="http://market-ticker.denninger.net" target="_blank">http://market-ticker.denninger.net</a>
Originally Posted By Mr X Well, the fail part is a myth (just ask Countrywide and Bear Sterns...oh, wait. They got "bought out"). Yeah, I guess you're right SD. *sigh*
Originally Posted By mawnck See, this is what turned me all liberal in the first place. Conservative economic policies are based on the theory that what's good for business is good for the country. And while it's a nice theory, it assumes that business will behave ethically. And they DON'T. This is why you have to regulate the snot out of them. And we haven't been doing that much lately, have we.
Originally Posted By Elderp I got an email from the DAs office saying they are going to get sued in CA over this. I seriously doubt anyone is going to see jail time.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***I seriously doubt anyone is going to see jail time.*** Me too. Does anyone think that's fair and just though? If any of us robbed a quickie-mart, we'd be tossed in jail faster than we could say "blueberry squishy". But these guys get away with the very same thing. Why?
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I got an email from the DAs office saying they are going to get sued in CA over this. I seriously doubt anyone is going to see jail time.<< What I'd like to see: A politician leading a nationwide boycott of Citibank. Now THAT would be a candidate I could get enthusiastic about!
Originally Posted By Mr X Well, I wouldn't go THAT far. But don't you agree they should be punished? I don't mean the "company" should be punished, that's meaningless. Any damage done will simply be passed on to the consumer as usual. I mean the PEOPLE responsible with coming up with the idea, keeping it going, and trying to cover it up when the heat was on.
Originally Posted By Ursula Yes, clearly you didn't understand me. The executives should be shot. There is no way for the customer to ever recoup those losses. Especially the dead ones.
Originally Posted By Mr X Note that the customers they were going after (aside from the deceased) were customers in trouble. It's likely they wouldn't notice (underneath a mountain of debt, perhaps), or even if they did they'd be afraid to speak up since the credit card companies can be very intimidating. Sorry, Ursula, I couldn't quite tell whether you were being sarcastic or not (my bad).
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Between this sort of thing, and the outright, blatant fraud of the mortgage lenders (criminal in its' own right, all the lying those guys did!), I really am getting the feeling that the justice system in America is designed to protect the powerful and subjugate the weak. Anyone else feel that?>> Oh my yes. I have come to the conclusion that Corporate America is run by thugs and crooks.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "See, this is what turned me all liberal in the first place. Conservative economic policies are based on the theory that what's good for business is good for the country. And while it's a nice theory, it assumes that business will behave ethically. And they DON'T. This is why you have to regulate the snot out of them. And we haven't been doing that much lately, have we." I nominate this for one of the top five WE posts of the year. Especially the part about regulating the snot out of them. I'm not kidding.
Originally Posted By Mr X Agreed. One thing that because pretty obvious to me during the 07 lending company carnage was that, beyond simply not acting ethically in general, many corporate leaders won't even act "ethically" in terms of trying to create a sustainable, reasonable business model for their peers and shareholders. In other words, as long as they got out with the loot in time (they all did, and noone did any time notice), they couldn't even care less if their company proceeded to crash and burn (and MOST of them did). This while, all the while, they were scooping out the loot for themselves and lying through their teeth about the relative health of their companies (keeping the music going for just a few more seconds so they could get their chair all set up, basically). THAT scared me. I dunno why it should have, but it did.
Originally Posted By Ursula ^Ergo, they should be shot. Back in the day, if I were to walk into a bank and rob them, I'd be shot. There is no difference from what Citibank did to these poor people. You couldn't even defend yourself in person. Even if you were paying attention to an overpaid bill, the money would be already gone by the time you'd get your statement.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <I mean the PEOPLE responsible with coming up with the idea, keeping it going, and trying to cover it up when the heat was on.> Exactly right. You steal, you go to jail. I don't care if it's 100 bucks from the 7-11 or millions via this kind of thing. It wasn't just "the bank," some faceless entity, that did this. Some PERSONS made the decision to do this and were conscious it was going on. Those persons need to go to jail. Period. <And while it's a nice theory, it assumes that business will behave ethically. And they DON'T. This is why you have to regulate the snot out of them. And we haven't been doing that much lately, have we.> Absolutely correct, and I agree with SPP, that's one of the best things I've seen posted in a while. Others have said similar things, but not as well and concisely. Yes, conservatives, there's such a thing as over-regulating. But we're a long way from there by now in many industries. There's also a thing as under-regulating and that's where we are now, with the results we see in things like this and the recent bank troubles in general.
