Once again, columnist Thomas Sowell has hit the nail with his head. In his Jan. 28 column “Talk of income inequality ignores an important point,” this professor at Stanford University attacked “intellectuals” for decrying the gross wealth inequalities in this nation. What he failed to point out is that the much-maligned government treats the wealthy with soft kid gloves while the back of its hands go to the rest of us. Food stamps and unemployment benefits are cut and the minimum wage has been stagnant for decades while fat cat bankers are taxed at a measly 15 percent.
And let us not forget that it was those Wall Street fat cats who caused so much grief a few years ago by manipulating sophisticated “instruments” like derivatives of crappy mortgages.
In the past year, JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank, has settled charges that it was an accomplice in Bernie Madoff’s $20 billion Ponzi scheme, that it filed false reports to conceal over $6 billion in derivatives losses, that it sold toxic mortgage-backed securities on false pretenses, and that it manipulated energy prices, defrauded credit card customers and forged home foreclosure documents. As a result of these settlements, the bank posted a loss in the third quarter of 2013, its first quarterly loss since 2004, and reported net earning for the entire year of $17.9 billion, down by more than 15 percent from 2012. Nevertheless, the CEO, Jamie Dimon, was awarded a 74 percent raise to $20 million.
We should all be outraged.
Phil B. Scott
Vancouver
