The Nazis had special groups to watch for and prosecute “financial opportunists.” A large part of their anti-Semitism was a cultural paranoia that Germany could suffer the financial demise caused during World War I by the wealthy (mostly Jewish) financial class.
In Germany’s severe depression of 1923-24, hyper-inflation increased the cost of a loaf of stale bread to millions of marks. The wealth of the entire middle class was spent buying food. Wealthy Jews, who had hedged their money in art, gold, and foreign securities, remained relatively unscathed.
Modern-day financial regulations actually encourage economic opportunists such as:
- Day traders and
- Hedge fund managers who trade it
- Stock derivatives and
- Mortgage-backed securities
These are all sophisticated electronic techniques to take advantage of investors who put money in the stock market for the long term; people who INVEST in the stock market.
For example, your long-term mortgage obligation is an opportunity for financial wrongdoing. Your mortgage is bought and sold regularly and often. Every time your house is traded, money goes into somebody else’s pocket. They all make a tidy profit, banking on your regular, dependable payment on your debt.
Day traders know precisely when your employer buys stocks for the company 401K plan every month. They watch the graphs on their computer screens for a blip in those stocks, then with millisecond precision, they sell their holdings and suck your money right out of the system.
The five “Too Big To Fail” banks on Wall Street are:
- Bank of America
- Chase
- JP Morgan
- Goldman Sachs
- Citigroup
(And you thought Goldman Sacks went bankrupt after the financial crisis five years ago? LOL)
Worldwide, there are now 29 banks (8 of them in the U.S.) considered “too big to fail.” Why?
These banks collectively own $600 TRILLION in derivatives. $600 trillion is ten times the annual gross domestic product of the whole world. Their wealthy clients earn 3-4% on these derivatives, sucking $25 trillion out of the world’s net worth every year – two times the GDP of the entire U.S. economy!
And it’s all entirely legal, thanks to the “Wall Street Reform Bill.” Thus, the system not only supports “financial opportunists” these days, the rules by which they make their money are institutionalized by law and protected by the political establishment.