The Government-Citizen Partnership

While there a many problems in this political/economic landscape, the bank risks are significant ones and the most obviously recent. Here is Lawrence Lessig on Saturday's "Up w/Chris Hayes" (via Jim's Slog) talking about Jamie Dimon and BoA. What is interesting is that there is an element in what he says that sounds urgent and specific, as if this political influence and distortion of our system is somehow unique. Instead it is less specific and more metaphorical. For example, is this "crisis" worse than the ideological sub-prime mortgage crisis? And is it more politically manipulated?:

"The real story here is the fact that these guys are gambling because there's a government that's going to back them up. There's a bail-out that's going to come. And the most striking thing...for me was: here's a guy who's already demonstrated they can blow up the economy. And now another explosion goes off.

The fundamental reason why we should be afraid of them is the regulatory structure that makes it so that when they blow up we all go down with them. And the Senate is filled with a bunch of people who only want to make this guy happy. Now why is that?

It's because they know that this guy has the power to blackmail both the Democratic and Republican Party parties because if you don't have some kind of support from Wall Street, you lose the election! So it is the power he has in the political system that makes this so terrifying. This is the first financial crisis in the history of United States where the people who caused the crisis have enough power to block any effective reform that led to that crisis. And that's what we should be terrified about."