The American Mafia

When people think "Mafia" they think men in suits firing machine guns, but the real mafia is about making millions by establishing a pseudo-government which collects taxes in the form of bribes, corruption, over-priced rent and protection payments. Italy's mafia, Afghanistan's Taliban, and Pakistan's ISI all operate this way, and by this definition, the US has a mafia of its own, that occupies a portion of Wall Street.

The good news is some portion of US mafia went to prison. The bad news is they got right back out, seemingly due to mistakes made by the government prosecution, maybe due to bribes. More bad news: The case shows clear evidence of the convicts bribing government officials, including former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for $100,000, in that case in exchange for $1.5million of New Mexico's money.

There are too many schemes employed by those in the trial to cover here - see the article - but generally, someone would hire them to invest money, and they'd take a large chunk of it for themselves. To keep states hiring them, they'd bribe politicians - and by bribe I mean fund their SuperPACs, which the US defines as legal and not a bribe.

The list of things we need to change to stop this secondary government to operate is pretty long. That politicians require campaign funding (bribes) to operate is a major factor. Another is the way US states continue to award contracts worth more than $1 million to a single vendor, in a confused belief it will allow them to bid it out and get the best deal. Inevitably any large contract from a single provider leads to incredible corruption, because even a .1% kickback on that sort of contract is worth 10s of thousands of dollars, enough to get a lot of iffy people paid off.

Maybe the worst part is that everyone involved in all the schemes uncovered continue to operate banks and other parts of Wall Street - they didn't lose their jobs and once they escape prison they're often promoted or given a bonus. The author of this article is clearly frustrated when he proposes we have them all killed. But we should at least ban them from the Finance industry, politics, and lobbying.

Rolling Stone: The Scam Wall Street Learned from the Mafia

Bloomberg: Bankers Win Reversal of Convictions for Bid Rigging