Federal Bank Examiner Fired When She Refuses to Approve Goldman-Sachs' Banking Practices

Carmen Segarra, a New York federal bank examiner, was fired three days after she refused to change her report criticizing Goldman-Sachs' banking practices. In other words, she was fired for doing her job. She is currently suing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for illegally firing her for doing her job.

This should really come as no surprise. Corruption is rampant in American banking, which is why I found a recent segment in "The Daily Show" so entertaining when John Oliver was doing the show. Jason Jones interviewed Canadians (6/25/13 video, tragically no longer available) and invited them to give their opinions of Canadian bankers. Their reviews were all positive. He also interviewed Canadian bankers on their views on Canadian banking regulations, which tend to be conservative and strict compared to American banking regulations. Canadian bankers were comfortable and nodded their approval of those regulations.

Random Americans on the streets of New York City? They think American bankers are all scoundrels, vermin, and worse. American bankers? They abhor what few regulations manage to cling to the ravaged remnants of the regulatory system still in place after Congressional Republicans passed and Pres. Bill Clinton signed the Gramm-[former Rep. Jim] Leach [R-IA]-Bliley Act, which repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act, enacted after the Great Depression, and deregulated the banks. Clinton acknowledges that it was a huge mistake to sign the bill and make it law, but the damage has been done. Just the fact that Republicans wanted the bill should have made him suspicious. I don't think he's really that dumb.

Why do American presidents, whether they are Republican or Democrat, nominate crooked bankers from Wall Street to be their Secretaries of the Treasury? They figure that only devious and brilliant crooked bankers can fix what devious and brilliant crooked bankers have managed to do to our economy. 

Hence, we not only don't want to fix what's wrong with Goldman-Sachs and hence fire bank examiners who want to fix what's wrong with Goldman-Sachs, but the last Secretary of the Treasury under Pres. Obama before Jack Lew was Timothy Geithner, formerly of Goldman-Sachs. (Read TARP Bailout Inspector General Neil Barofsky's book, "Bailout," if you want the low-down dirty on Timothy Geithner and the White House. It's an eye-opener! Sen. Charles Grassley emerges as an unexpected hero and Congressional ally, despite the fact that Barofsky is a Democrat who was inexplicably hired by Bush43.)

That's why the Great Recession, very nearly the Great Depression of 2007/2008, is likely to happen all over again, especially now that the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party has shut down the government and is apparently accountable to no one, not even their Wall Street donors, much to the dismay of Wall Street.

What we need to do is be more like Canadians or move to Canada. My niece moved to Canada. It's not cheap though. The application fee was $1,500 when a SE Iowa City neighbor applied to emigrate and it takes a year before they tell you whether you can come.