In the international edition of Newsweek, and posted to the Daily Beast, author Michael Thomas writes about Wall Street’s “Big Lie,” and the coming firestorm of retribution:

The Street and its ministries of propaganda have fallen back on a Big Lie as old as capitalism itself: that all that has gone wrong has been government’s fault. This time, however, I don’t think the argument that “Washington ate my homework” is going to work. This time, a firestorm is going to explode about the Street’s head—and about time, too.

[…] Over the next year, I expect the “what” will give way to the “how” in the broad electorate’s comprehension of the financial situation. The 99 percent must learn to differentiate the bloodsuckers and rent-extractors from those in the 1 percent who make the world a better, more just place to live. Once people realize how Wall Street made its pile, understand how financiers get rich, what it is that they actually do, the time will become ripe for someone to gather the spreading ripples of anger and perplexity into a focused tsunami of retribution. To make the bastards pay, properly, for the grief and woe they have caused. Perhaps not to the extent proposed by H. L. Mencken, who wrote that when a bank fails, the first order of business should be to hang its board of directors, but in a manner in which the pain is proportionate to the collateral damage. Possibly an excess-profits tax retroactive to 2007, or some form of “Tobin tax” on transactions, or a wealth tax. The era of money for nothing will be over.

But it won’t just end with taxes. When the great day comes, Wall Street will pray for another Pecora, because compared with the rough beast now beginning to strain at the leash, Pecora will look like Phil Gramm. Humiliation and ridicule, even financial penalties, will be the least of the Street’s tribulations. There will be prosecutions and show trials. There will be violence, mark my words. Houses burnt, property defaced. I just hope that this time the mob targets the right people in Wall Street and in Washington. (How does a right-thinking Christian go about asking Santa for Mitch McConnell’s head under the Christmas tree?) There will be kleptocrats who threaten to take themselves elsewhere if their demands on jurisdictions and tax breaks aren’t met, and I say let ’em go!

And no, Thomas is not some dirty, fucking, hippie commie. He’s a former partner at Lehman Brothers. Read the whole damn thing.

25 replies on “The Big Lie”

  4. If the people ask “why?” they will be told that the crops have failed because their immorality has angered the gods. And they will believe it. Then they will sacrifice more of their young to appease the gods.

  5. What a great find! Thomas has always been a wonderful read, and can be funny as hell. He’s gleefully burned more bridges than most of us will ever get to cross. Alan Dershowitz once tried to get him taken off a book review he feared would make his client Milken look bad. He’s been hoping for a Wall Street comeuppance for decades – and a career resurgence for his writing, too. We’ll see if he gets at least one of his wishes.

  6. Ah, so this is what sells ad space in the international edition of Newsweek.

    Let’s all have a guess at what the target demographic looks like, shall we? My guess is “upper middle class Europeans killing time in hotel lobbies.”

  7. @5 and @7 are both absolutely right. Not that it wouldn’t be delightful if these predictions came true, but come on. Systemic corruption doesn’t suddenly get ripped down unless there is a dramatic and sudden shock. Depressions, even great ones, are not that.

  9. What’s that saying? If it sounds too good to be true…? I’ll believe it when I see it. And a new report shows that congress is chock full of multi millionares. They’ll protect only themselves.

  10. It’s absurd to say that there are “good” people among the 1%. How many of them are involved with doing anything other than lining their own pockets? Not many, I’ll bet.

  11. The 1% is a VERY heterogeneous group. If somebody starts a company which makes successful products and becomes insanely wealthy, good for them (even people/companies I despise, like Bill Gates/MS). If somebody just inherits billions and shuffles it around, or is some B-school drinking lad who wormed into the right crowd, or some scumball Romney-ish hedge fund douche bag, then they are just high-rolling shitballs.

  13. All of the imagery of Charles Darnay and Madame Defarge is represented in this story. And I think he’s correct. The ramp-up period is uncertain, but the repressive measures are definitely well beyond the prototype phase. This will not be an entertaining grab-a-bag-o-popcorn show.

  14. Arguably, it WAS the government’s fault: the repeal of regulations that would have prevented the mortgage apocalypse, and the failure to enforce what little regulation remained, falls square in Congress’ lap, and both Clinton and Bush II must take responsibility for signing those laws into effect.

  15. To clarify what I wrote in #15: History shows, very clearly and very frequently, that investment bankers are little more than spoiled, greedy children. When a child goes on a crime spree, it is legitimate to ask, “Where were the parents when all this was happening? Why didn’t they step in to stop this?”

  19. Well, that’s TWO true believers by my count: Thomas and Goldy.

    Is there anything, anything, anything, Goldy can post that isn’t just someone’s daydream? At least give us a daydream propped up by SOME empirical evidence. Fucking ad hominem, argument from authority, …, there’s smoke and more smoke.

  21. Doom, for somebody who thinks he’s so smart, you sure are a dumbshit. Nobody gives two craps about what you think. Go fuck yourself and save us the effort of having to skip over your mindless posts.

  24. @22 Wow. So much paranoia, delusion, conspiracy theory, macroeconomic stupidity, anger, and general ignorance in one single post! Well done, lad!

    I’d offer you some advice, but I wouldn’t know where to begin.

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