Wall Street Reform Turns Out Great for Wall Street -- Why Aren't the Big Banks Being Punished?

I suppose this is a decent piece highlighting that the supposed bank reform bill recently passed does nothing to regulate or reform Wall Street - and in fact has the opposite effect - but it bothers me that left-wing sites like Alternet are so addicted to the State that they refuse to acknowledge obvious answers to the question raised in the headline, like, The banks aren't being punished by the government because the banks are the government.

Do they not know that the Federal Reserve is a private cartel of banksters with an exclusive stranglehold on our economy and thus every aspect of our society? At what point does it become obvious to everyone that this is not a republic, not a democracy (eww), not a free society in any way, shape or form, but a fascist society where corporations control all aspects of American existence? Could someone read a freaking book?

The plunder goes on, but Dems will pat themselves on the backs and move on to the next issue, praising half-baked 'reform.'

Danny Schecter
Alternet -

I was among those initially raving about the passage of the financial reform bill. And now I am just raving.

“Unbelievable,” said one advocate who hoped for the best but expected the worst. He was amazed it even passed. The wise men in the media immediately began making comparisons with the New Deal. The pundits praised the president and the fact that a handful of Republicans did not just say no this time.

Somehow, even the most hard-headed among us realized that something had to be done to bring Wall Street in line if only because the mood in the country on this issue is practically insurrectionary.

You would think as this 1,500 page “reform” went through (anyone want to bet if its strongest provisions will survive the reconciliation process?) the banks would be quaking in their boots. After all, they funded what President Obama called swarms of lobbyists to kill it at birth. They denounced it with doomsday language with their rhetoric helping to drive the market down. Oh, the fear! Oh, the consequences!

But then, what happened? Were bankers jumping out of windows like their predecessors did when the market crashed in ’29? No way.

Read all of it.