Exploration 8: The "Golden" Rule

The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."

After watching The Inside Job, I felt angry, but really was not all that surprised that the top dogs of the banking firms creating these loopholes for their own gain at the public's expense; to take it a step further they were able to do it with much of the Congress' backing. However, this idea of the elite bankers is far from anything new, since they have been in control pretty much since the signing of The Federal Reserve Act (1913). The signing of the bill by - which upon his being elected into office was turned into law - Woodrow Wilson's signing of this bill included the likes of: J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Paul Warburg... just to name a few, which took place at Morgan's private estate on Jekyll Island - located off of the southern Georgia coastline. The signing of the bill did not go without a price; the bankers pumped the would-be president's campaign in exchange for the signing - and passing of the bill into law once Wilson was elected - of The Federal Reserve Act, putting forth a centralized bank as a means of currency for our nation, in a borrow/take system. Let us fast-forward 95 years; past the Great Depression, the Savings and Loan Crisis, and Enron...

At this time, I would just like to pose one question: Should it be "right" for bankers to manipulate the rules for their own greed and private gain at the expense of the public? 

I mean, they did create a loophole that would not allow them to take any losses should their money-making schemes fail. (i.e. Selling the CDOs to private investors with AAA credit ratings, knowing that these CDOs were sub-prime and destined to fail.) Also, they have had Washington in their back pockets - which enabled them to overturn old laws - which stemmed the deregulation of their systems in place. Andrew Sheng stated, "They had large private gains at public loss." Therefore, with the new law that promote the deregulation of how the banking systems make their money, AND the loophole put into place to enable the bankers to take excessive risks with minimal losses (or in some cases, next to none), then the answer to my first question would be absolutely not! My hat tips to those who have become successful (honestly), but to build wealth from assets that "lesser class" people work hard to get - in my eyes - is absolutely disgusting. These people were already rich. So why build wealth - that is already available at these bankers' disposals - off of taking from those who have less? A: Selfish and merciless greed.