NoahFeb 22, 2023
The Mormon Church is being fined 5 million because it hid a 32 billion dollar investment fund. This was not accidental. The SEC proved that both the investment firm and church went to great lengths to knowingly hide these assets. For the folks playing along at home, that’s a fine of 0.016% on the investment. Imagine lying on your taxes and you hid an extra $100K offshore and the IRS said “No sweat, pay us $15.63.” If there are no other repercussions, that’s not a fine, that’s encouragement.
Show threadPhDog 🇮🇪Feb 22, 2023

@monkeyninja

David Graeber got an economist to admit that he was not aware of single case where a company was fined more than the profit it turned breaking the law. He summarized this as the government saying: "Do all the crime you want, but if we catch you, you have to give us a cut."

Show threadThomas H Jones II

@dogfox @monkeyninja

See: "cost of doing business"

G7 countries like to think of themselves as having non (minimally) corrupt oversight of their countries' respective economies. That, unlike "banana republics," you don't have to pay bribes to politicians just to do business. Instead, we have lobbying and civil fines for misconduct ...where the fines amount to little more than "you failed to lobby adequately ".

Yeah, real wrongdoing can become criminal, but not if you're "too big to fail".

Feb 25, 2023 at 12:13pmMastodon for Android
Show threadThomas H Jones IIFeb 25, 2023

@dogfox @monkeyninja

...and criminal liability is on individual employees, not organizations.

Reminds one of the joke, "I'll believe corporations are people as soon as Texas puts one to death".

Show threadPhDog 🇮🇪Feb 25, 2023

@ferricoxide @monkeyninja

He had a whole shtick about how the US just legalized the bribery. What's lobbying? What are campaign contributions? What's paying an extra fee for expedited document processing?