16 April 2024

Jon Stewart on "victimless" financial crimes


This Daily Show monologue started with commentary about Donald Trump, but in the embedded segment he extends the argument to the wider financial community:
"He's commiting bank fraud where there is no victim"
"No victim.  The ruling is blatantly unfair."
"That didn't go over well with the investment community, because we're asking each other "who's next"?"
"Every [crime] you've just listed is done by every real estate developer..."
According to Stewart the system is "incentivized for corruption", and that apparently if enough people commit a crime, it automatically becomes legal.

Try to watch the video without getting mad at the US financial system.

I'll file this post under "humor" but it's really trenchant social commentary.

4 comments:

  1. 'According to Stewart the system is "incentivized for corruption", and that apparently if enough people commit a crime, it automatically becomes legal.'

    A contingent of Iowans pushed for an increase in speed limits based on a study from IAState (IIRC) that reported most people were speeding.

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  2. It's not a victimless crime.

    When he got the loans/insurance he should not have, someone else did not. The fact that this person can not be named does not matter. He still got something he did not qualify for. And someone else did not.

    When he didn't pay taxes he should have, he stole from us all.

    This is not complex to understand.

    However, you can explain it in a purposely confusing way to support your dear leader.

    And yes, finance is way over-complicated. This is a design feature, not a bug. It allows those inside the system to siphon off money from the rest of us.

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    Replies
    1. The lender was also defrauded. It doesn't matter that the loan was repaid; loans are priced based on risk, and if they had known the true risk, they might have charged more in interest.

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  3. Raise the cost of an epi-pen from $100 to $600? No victim, no crime.

    Raise the cost of insulin from $50 to over $1000? No victim, no crime.

    It does strike me that real estate is corrupt to its foundations, but I have additional questions to ask...

    P.S. I have always wondered how any Trump buildings in New York are still standing. If Trump would cheat bankers, he would cheat on concrete and steelwork, too.

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