by B. R. GOWANI
A combo of file photos showing branches and office buildings of JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Barclays, Citigroup, and Royal Bank of Scotland. The five banks are to pay fines of a total of 5.7 billion U.S. Dollar for manipulating the foreign exchange market PHOTO/Epa/EPA/The Washington Post
corporations have certain rights
similar to what human beings have
and so corporate personhood
hence in the name of corporations
the people running the corporations
can cheat, manipulate markets, or destroy millions of people
and can get away without being punished
because the corporations are
hands-less, heartless, headless
hands-less can’t be handcuffed
heartless can’t be made to sympathize about their victims
headless can’t be made to understand how economy works
that too much greed is bad for themselves
obscene and vast income disparity,
and too much poverty and too many poor people
are extremely bad for the economy
but then, even if the economy is destroyed
big shots in corporations have international citizenship
borders can’t bound them
borders are fetters only for the wretched of the world
fines are imposed on banks and financial institutions
which doesn’t hurt them at all
since the 2008 financial crisis
penalties amounting to $235bn has been paid by 20 banks
its like a slap on the wrist
or like loosing a few drops from the giant profit-bucket
and in the latest scandal
5 banks have agreed to pay $5.75 billion in fines
corporations can’t be arrested
now that’s a fact one can’t deny
but they can be shut down
but then the corporate thieves and their supporters will scream:
“it’ll be bad for the economy”
“people will lose jobs”
“the county will suffer”
so nothing will happen
or rather, same thing will go on
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com