HSBC Bosses Get Away With It.

The world's largest "local" bank was today found guilty of laundering billions of pounds for criminal organisations that are far from local. The man who was in charge of the bank at the time, Lord Green who is now Minister of State for Trade and Investment in Cameron's shambolic government, has made no intelligible response. This is strange since, as anyone who has ever worked in a bank knows, the money laundering laws are well known, it is relatively easy to spot and anyone who even suspects that it is going on is obliged to report it immediately to the necessary authorities. The group chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, stated that "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes," and "We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again." And, apart from a $1.9 billion fine which will undoubtedly be paid for out of the money that we gave them, that's about it. That is even stranger since, if you or I had been caught red-handed smuggling even a measly few million in a suitcase, we would have found ourselves in prison for several decades. The idea that the whole thing came about because of a "mistake" is risible - it came about because of a deliberate disregard for the law and a systematic criminality by those who ran the bank. Who are these people who can create a giant Ponzi scheme that crashed the world economy, who are rewarded with huge bonuses for running grossly inefficient businesses, can help themselves to tax payers money to shore up their bankrupt empires and can, it now appears, commit any crime they like with personal impunity? HSBC is not the world's largest "local" bank, it's branches are merely the local offices for international organised crime.

HSBC Laundered Money For Drug Cartels.

HSBC has been found out laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels as well as some "suspicious" money eminating from Iraq, Libya and Syria. The rules governing such practices are well-known while the techniques for detecting it are fairly straightforward. So what went wrong? Well, nothing actually. HSBC were simply doing what banks have been doing for years - acting as criminal organisations. This is what the neoliberal experiment in de-regulation has delivered - a world economy that is nothing more than organised crime. And how will HSBC be punished for helping those who kill our children with drugs and those who murder their own citizens? Will individual executives responsible for such law breaking be hauled in front of a court and then sentenced to life imprisonment? We'll see, but so far it doesn't look good. The US seems content with an "apology" from the bank and are set to "fine" the bank - in other words it is going to tax income from illegal activities - but no executives have yet been named and there is no sign that individuals will be put on trial. Nothing demonstrates the essentially criminal nature of our economic system than this, nor how deeply involved our politicians are. To add insult to injury shares in the bank have actually risen in value - a clear indication as to how the de-regulated market regards banking crime. It is for this and crimes like it that ordinary people face an uncertain and insecure future in which the word "austerity" is nothing more than a codeword for making the poor pay for the crimes of the wealthy.