Our nation has lost its decency.

From The Political Carnival
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Corporatism is a full blown state of affairs in the U.S.

JPMorgan Chase was fined $410-million for manipulating energy markets in California and the Midwest. Period. That’s it. No arrests, not a seriously “historic” penalty, no deterrent to speak of, just a measly few hundred million for ripping us off. Seems like a lot to the rest of us, right? But to them? Pfft.

Hiltzik:

It’s chicken feed. A pittance.

It will have no more deterrent effect on white-collar wrongdoing at JPMorgan or anywhere else than telling its traders they’ve got to take the Ferrari to work instead of the Lamborghini, though they can still take the Lambo to the beach house. Our top regulators actually think they’ve gotten the better of a huge illegal enterprise, which is a good sign that they’re delusional. They didn’t even get Morgan to admit that it had done anything wrong.

Look at the numbers. Of the $410 million, $125 million represents the disgorgement of illicit profits from Morgan’s scheme — money the bank wouldn’t have collected at all if it operated within the law. (The sum is supposed to be returned to ratepayers.) So that doesn’t count. The real punishment is the balance of $285 million. How badly will that hurt JPMorgan Chase? Well, the big bank collected $97 billion in net revenue last year, so it represents a little more than a single day of intake… [T]here’s no indication that these individuals will suffer any consequences for this rip-off. They’re not the ones paying the penalties; Morgan’s shareholders are. [...]