Big Finance Leverages Territorial Representation in the US Big Time

Watching the Goldman Sachs spectacle and at the same time watching the
Republicans perform in the US Senate brings home the point of how the
geographic bias built into the electoral system allows for and actually
encourages the systemic looting of the public purse.

Clearly, the charges laid by the Securities and Exchange Commission -
Goldman Sachs packaged and sold toxic debt securities and then placed
bets on the eventuality that the debt obligations would not be met -
should indicate that investment banks in the US were not properly
regulated. However, although Republican Senators would join in on the
public shaming of Goldman Sachs representatives that occurred during the
hearing, they all voted against beginning the debate to reform the
financial system in the Senate.

In the US Senate, it takes 60 votes from the 100 votes available to
approve a motion. In other words, only 40% of the votes, a clear
minority, is required to block something as important as reforming the
financial system. Keep in mind that the public funds allocated to
bailout the financial system are twice what has been spent on the war in
Iraq. Moreover, since each state is allotted two seats in the Senate
regardless of its population, the 40 votes needed to oppose any reform
can represent as little as 12% of the population.

Now, that's leverage.

With the mid-term elections coming up there seemingly is the possibility
that the Republicans could experience a net loss of seats in the Senate,
which would make qualitative financial reform inevitable.
Unfortunately, the US Supreme Court recently ruled that there can be no
limits to the amount of money corporations can give to political
parties, thus creating an extremely unlevel political playing field.
Without question, Big Finance will target the senatorial races where
their dollars will make the difference, and unless the Democrats can
successfully repeat their performance in getting out the vote last
November, Big Finance will reap huge rewards on their investment and the
industry will continue to suck out the life blood out of the real
economy and out of the nation.

God Bless America for the land is blighted by an amoral rapacious elite
with an insatiable appetite for acquiring riches that has no
reservations bringing misery to millions.