Citibank is too big to fail, too big to effectively regulate, operates above the law, and exists in its current form thanks to generous government subsidies and taxpayer bailouts.
The banking cartel is the one place where it's obvious to all sides that there is no effective form of market-based leverage that can punish them, and representative democracy has no leverage either. My point is there's no avenue for interest groups to stop this kind of meddling.
If the banks come together and decide they're going to change the way a constitutional right is exercised in the US, there is no realistic hope of putting together a market-based (i.e. boycott, divestment) or regulatory fight against it.
In fact, trying to bring down a large bank by getting everyone to move deposits out is illegal. You just can't organize a run on a large bank, as some OWS types found out.
What I'm getting at is this: this kind of thing is really, really dangerous, because the system doesn't provide a real release valve for public anger and backlash.
These are institutions that have taken homes and business from people, and that have robbed customers and faced slap-on-the-wrist fines. And now they're going wade right into a hot-button social and political issue? Not gonna end well.
They've laundered money for drug cartels, manipulated interest rates, racked up millions in bogus fees, and the list goes on. They're basically criminal enterprises. This is going to make for some strange bedfellows in the coming days.
If you thought the sight of establishment and activist Democrats linking arms with the intelligence community was bizarre, wait until the Warren/Sanders wing of the Dem party goes to bat for Big Finance over the gun issue. That's gonna be a real good time.
It's almost like bankers looked out the window, didn't see enough torches and pitchforks, and were like, "🤔.. what can we do to REALLy stir up some right-wing populism? Warren is cool and all, but what we really need is some right-wing anti-bank rage."
