So JP Morgan Chase is being fined again for essentially colluding with Bernie Madoff.  Ho hum–big deal.  Well, for them anyway.  Because even though the latest $2 billion fine–according to Marketplace–“brings the grand total of fines JPM has paid in just the past year to just about $20 billion,” that’s really no skin off Chase’s back.  Because that seemingly gigantic number–$20 billion–is merely a month or two of QE Unlimited cash, paid directly from the Fed to the big banks.

Yes, every month, the privately-owned Federal Reserve creates $35 billion (from September 2012 until this month it was $40 billion) out of thin air and gives it to the big banks.  So the banks get a monthly bailout of billions while the people are not only ultimately saddled with that monthly bill, but there is no concomitant monthly bailout for regular people.  Like you.  Or like me.  Or our sisters and grandmothers and cousins and friends.  We’re on our own, while the banks are given literally billions per month in bailout money.

Back to the lecture at hand…

But I’m getting off the subject here, which is this: fines aren’t fine.  Because any amount Chase (or any other bank) has to pay in some wrist-slapping settlement like this is at least offset, if not completely covered, by the $35 billion per month the Fed is creating from thin air to give to these criminal banks.  So the fines have no effect.  Indeed, anyone else find it curious that these fines get levied only after the banks have been given $40 billion a month for the last year and a half?

Oh we’re told that the $35-40 bill is to purchase bad MBS from the big banks.  Yeah, and Chuck Ponzi was just selling stamps.  Even if the Fed really does take possession of worthless MBS in exchange for billions every month, the point is that the banks are getting money in exchange for garbage.  It’s as though the banks took a dump on the floor and the Fed says “Will you take $40 billion for it?”  See what luck any one of us would have doing the same thing.

Fed makes banks Even Steven, at the very least

So because of this $35-40 billion transfer per month to the banks–of which Chase is the biggest by assets–these fines don’t affect Chase at all.  The government makes a big show of taking from Chase with one hand (i.e., the above-mentioned fines), while with the other hand putting the money right back in Chase’s pocket (i.e., with QE).  Puts one in mind of a certain Seinfeld episode…

But of course, “our” biggest banks don’t just wind up breaking even like Jerry.  No, they’re doing better than ever, fines and the law be damned.  Oh yeah, because everything is rigged.