"The Madoff Distraction

What Madoff did was nowhere near as fraudulent as what the banking and mortgage executives did. Yet, he has become the latest scapegoat in this cycling pattern of booms and busts orchestrated by the Federal Reserve, Washington and Wall Street. Hopefully by now you're starting to figure out how the media is using every chance they get to deflect blame from the real villains; their Wall Street sponsors. But remember, Madoff's charade had absolutely nothing to do with this crisis.

So the question begs to be answered…when will we see Fuld (Lehman Brothers), Thain (Merrill Lynch), Killinger (Washington Mutual), O'Neal (Merrill Lynch), Prince (Citigroup), Cayne (Bear Stearns), Schwartz (Bear Stearns), Dimon (JP Morgan), Blankfein (Goldman Sachs), Thompson (Wachovia), Raines (Fannie Mae), Paulson (former U.S. Treasury), Greenspan (former Fed Chairman), Cox (former SEC Chairman), and hundreds if not thousands of others responsible for this mess in handcuffs?

Don't hold your breath. It didn't happen after the S&L Crisis or the dotcom meltdown. And it's not going to happen now. Hopefully, you know how the game is played. They'll pick out a few scapegoats; minor players, as a way to appease naïve Americans. This is the way it works. This is the sad reality of America . It's the American Dream for the rich and powerful, and the American Nightmare for everyone else. If you're a true American, you'll contact your congressmen and demand they be brought to justice. If they get enough calls, they'll feel the pressure to file charges. That's how it works. The media knows this. That's why they've done everything but stir the pot.

Tigers Never Change Their Stripes

Don't forget, these men cleared billions of dollars in bonuses by fudging financial statements while packaging trillions of dollars of fraudulent loans into securities. This was money taken from shareholders who were lied to, and investors who bought these toxic securities. It was a twist on the classic pump-and-dump scheme.

In this case, CEOs pumped up revenues using outrageous assumptions, while hiding liabilities. Then they collected their bonuses – millions of shares of company stock at inflated prices; prices they inflated. Then they dumped these shares in the open market; to you and to your retirement plan.

They did this for several years. Over the past four years alone, the financial industry paid out over $100 billion in bonuses to executives. Despite record losses of over $1.5 trillion from the banks alone (with at least another $2 trillion to go), most executives and all of the grunts that serve them have walked away with every penny. It was theft, plain and simple. Yet, there have been no claw backs. Where do you figure that money came from? It came from your pockets. It was the biggest heist in world history. These guys are directly responsible for destroying the world economy.

Not only will they walk away unscathed, they'll walk away wealthier than before, strengthening the precedent that white collar crime pays in America, as long as you work for big corporations; corporations with cozy relationships with Washington. Without the fear of prosecution, CEOs will continue these scams over and over.

Even if you don't have any money in the stock market (no 401k, IRA, pension or any other retirement plan, and 529 plan), these ridiculous payouts still came from you because this crisis caused the Fed to smash rates to record lows. And this will eventually destroy the buying power of the dollar. In the meantime, banks are paying practically no interest on your savings.

Still, they aren't finished with you. They've taken your tax dollars and made sure to collect more bonuses while raising fees for bank accounts and credit cards. The banks are screwing you every way possible; you, the innocent victim. You should expect them to devise new ways to screw you. Tigers never change their stripes."