Santa Cruz County in California has had enough of Wall Street banks’ criminal behavior as the county Board of Supervisors voted to suspend its business with Wall Street for five years, reported AllGov.com.
Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS will lose Santa Cruz County as a customer. The board voted to “further direct that the county unwind existing relationships with these five banks to the greatest extent feasible.” County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty said the decision to sever business was bolstered by Wall Street’s destruction of the economy and the fact that no one is ever prosecuted for financial crimes.
The last straw came on May 20 when four of the five major banks pleaded guilty to felony charges of manipulating the foreign exchange markets. No one involved went to jail, and the banks only had to pay a fine. What’s worse, economist Robert Reich said banks can write off those fines as business expenses to claim on the following year’s taxes. After that announcement, Supervisor Coonerty began preparing himself and the county to abandon the banks.
While the federal government wastes billions every year on a fruitless drug war, Wall Street thugs are ripping off the 99 percent and rigging the markets for massive amounts of money. They only have to pay a fine to get out of trouble, which can be easily afforded with how wealthy the banks are.
