Same Movie, Different Characters

White collar criminals don't go to jail. They wind up usually at some regional spa.

The recent Wells Fargo scandal looks to be another case in  point. No criminal wrong doing has been proposed. Yet. The bank at first did what these outfits usually do, took the low road and fired 5,300 workers. One can only imagine how many of those 5,300 knew absolutely nothing about this scam but got the axe anyway. High ranking bankers are really brave people.It's a not so subtle way to reduce overhead.

In the settlement WFC coughed up a paltry by today's standards $190 million plus some shop-worn tokenism these folks are noted for and stamped the file, "Case Closed." This is a bank with $2 trillion in assets. So, as the Financial Times, noted today, $190 million is chum change. Former CEO and chairman John Stumpf rides off into his retirement sunset no worse--minus a few stock options that he probably didn't earn via honest labor anyway--for wear.

The immediate scale of the fake accounts scandal is trivial. Goldman Sachs, for example, settled mortgage bond claims for $5bn and frequently is ensnared in uncomfortable situations. Yet, Lloyd Blankfein will probably exit 200 West Street with a parade. Unlike the misdeeds from the financial crisis or complex stock or bond machinations, the Wells scandal is simple enough for anyone who has ever walked into a bank branch to grasp. The video of Mr Stumpf being eviscerated by senator Elizabeth Warren became a social media sensation. Measures such as a forfeiture of $41m of stock by Mr Stumpf and $19m by the former consumer banking head looked lame.

We don't know what's going on but here's another mention about Goldman Sachs. Didn't we just  write about them? And forget not who one of the largest shareholders of Wells Fargo is, Mr. Warren Buffett. Which should raise some questions for Mr. Buffett: What did he know and when did he know it? Most of the folks who were scammed in the big scam were those so-called little people like Buffett, the Phony Saint of Omaha, one of his close comrades, Hillary, claim they cares so much about.

The movie never changes, just the players.