THE JAZZ GODS, MILES DAVIS, JOHN COLTRANE, THELONIOUS MONK, SONNY ROLLINS, GONE, BUT STILL HERE, THEIR SOUND IS STILL HERE

Birdman was sitting in 1962 in the front row at the Village Vanguard, Greenwich Village, NYC.  A black cat slowly moved into the spot light, like a jaguar stalking a deer in British Honduras.  It was Miles Davis, dressed in an immaculate French suit, handsome, his golden horn sparkling in the blue and red light.  He turned around and started blowing Kind of Blue, a chill went through the body of Birdman, he was awed and overcome by the sound, the man, the rhythm, the music.  Later on in the decade of the 60's,  he again saw the legend, Miles Davis at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco.  Davis played from his Sketches of Spain,  and the same feeling took over the soul of Birdman. The audience gasped with disbelief.   It was if a god of music had descended from the Elysium, to blow out the unbelievable sounds into the night of San Francisco,  and the Universe above. 
       "Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes."  Walt Whitman, American Poet
       Miles Davis, sat in with his horn when he was 19, at a club in Kansas City with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.  He said in his book, "Miles" he knew at that moment, he had an epiphany of sound, with two of the greats of early bebop, and had to go to NYC, where he played as a young man on 52nd street, with Bird, and became the musician he was meant by the gods to be.
       Sonny Rollins was at his peak between 1956 and 1966.  He took two years off, playing as he strolled into the night from the Williamsburg Bridge, NYC.  He would trill at length, bark out phrases, slurs and distorted his line, harps on a couple of braying figures, and showed off a gloriously beating tone.  He would occasionally belch his horn, sounding like a lost mule.  He is the only survivor from the gods of jazz, and still plays at 85 years young.  He was recently interviewed on PBS, and asked if the great sounds of the legendary musicians were dead.  He answered, "No, they are still here, their sound is still here."  What a statement on the vision of immortality of the giants.  He said, "When I leave town, my sound will still be here."  He also played with Charlie Bird Parker, Davis and Coltrane in NYC.  Can you imagine the rush to the soul, hearing Rollins' horn from the Bridge, mixed with the night sounds of NYC.  Hopefully that music is still echoing in the Universe somewhere, maybe above Europa.  "All the bells that ever rang, still ringing in the dying rays of light," William Faulkner, novelist. 
       Birdman saw Thelonious Monk in 1962 at the Five Spot, NYC.   His eccentric dancing and walking around like a crazed Beat poet will never be forgotten.  He left a lot of space in his music, yet could be most effective when paired with busy-sounding saxophonists such as John Coltrane.  Opposites attract.  Birdman later on saw Monk play at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco.  These experiences were unique, most people today never saw these cool cats from the heyday of Bebop and Cool Jazz.  It was if Birdman had seen Bach play in person, in a previous life, in the old days of Europe.  After Monk finished at the club he spun around in a rhythmic, weird dance, and exclaimed, "All ways know, always know, always night."
       John Coltrane's briefer stay on the planet earth, showered people and the planet with sheets of sound.  He played with explosive improvisations, expressive energy, and once mesmerized an audience with his saxophone, playing "My Favorite Things" for 45 minutes, non stop, in a club.  Coltrane could blow seven notes squeezed into the space of a beat or two.  He played at the Five Spot Cafe,  East Village NYC, for 7 months with Monk.  Monk didn't mind Coltrane playing so many notes, as long as his improvisations developed out of or illuminated the source material.  He left town to play the big saxophone in the sky, at a young age.   John Coltrane was a beat poet, whose sheets of sound echoed around Greenwich Village for 6 years, playing with Monk and Miles Davis.  He favored cascading waterfalls of notes.  He created a musical revolution.  The major outgrowth of his free jazz tended to represent an outgrowth of the bohemians, and angry young men of the 50's, and the Beat poets and writers. 
       Jazz critic Frank Kofsky took this view further, asserting that the free jazz movement represented nothing less than a vote of "no confidence" in Western Civilization and the American Dream.  Kofsky wrote in John Coltrane for vice president in his ballot of 1964.  Coltrane studied music at a school for years in Philadelphia and also studied philosophy.  He was a quiet, serious musician who lived music 24 hours a day, according to his mother.
       If any single sound signifies jazz it is Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, with a Harmon mute.  Kind of Blue is the most famous and most analyzed jazz album in history.  It is listened to over and over again by students of jazz, and people who do not even listen to much jazz. It sold over 62 million albums and CD's, a record in the history of music.  His "Sketches of Spain" still echoes in the soul of most aficionados of jazz.  As Rollins said recently, his music is still here, even though Miles is gone, his music is here forever. 
       What is the future of jazz?  Nobody knows.  It had a breath of fresh air in the 70's at the Keystone Korner Club in North Beach San Francisco.  Today jazz is played at a few surviving clubs in NYC, Chicago, and New Orleans, and at festivals around the US, most notably the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival held each spring in the Big Easy.  It may take a young musician, sent by the Gods, with extraordinary feeling and talent, to walk the Williamsburg Bridge at night, and blow his horn amidst the sounds of the City. 
       Jazz sounds are still beaming and echoing out into the Universe. 
      

LIFE, THE BIG VANISH, THE BIG DISAPPEARANCE, COMETS PASSING

Enrico Fermi, the renowned physicist exclaimed "Where is everybody?" He was referring to the fact that no life has been detected in the Universe after hundreds of years and thousands of people searching.  On this planet many people have an epiphany when they notice that, like comets, events, eras, people, friends, money, movie legends, presidents, athletes on the radar screen, dogs, bank robbers, seasons, gorgeous women, time itself, is in a constant mode of things and people drifting over the horizon, or vanish like a large flash of light, an arcane event.  To many this is disconcerting, they weep over the end of fall or miss an old friend.  To some like George Carlin, the comedian, things passing is great and a giant joke, like when an annoying, crazy uncle leaves.  To others like Joey who cried out in the western movie Shane, across a mountain valley, to Allen Ladd as he rode away for good on his horse, "Shane, come back, come back Shane."  That had to be one of the saddest moments in the boys life, and a very sad and touching scene in western movie history.  The scene gripped the audience to the core of emotion, even when watched to this day, years later; the tears of a young boy in the West and the final farewell of a cowboy he loved.  If you believe like the American Indians, who thought that nature and life was a circle, and all things and people return, there remains hope, and even in passing you go to the Happy Hunting Grounds.  In New Orleans when a jazz musician passes, they shouted at his musical, loud funeral, "He left town."  The past 4 years millions of people who sparkled in their communities like a comet, have left town to greener pastures, on a new, long, dusty trail.  The American Dream itself may have vanished.  It has been a major exodus especially from ski towns that saw the end of their Gold Rush years.  Does John Steinbecks "Grapes of Wrath" come to mind?  "...all the bells that ever rang still ringing in the long dying rays of light."  William Faulkner.  The Khazars, a warrior tribe in the Caucasus, said their prayers by weeping.  Their sadness over a life that vanishes is expressed in prayer.  Then, suddenly they vanished, as a tribe, wiped out by other warrior tribal nations, with almost no archeological sign of their existence, by the Black Sea.  "Ships that pass in the night, and speak to each other in passing, only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness; so on the ocean of life we pass and speak, then darkness again and a silence."  Longfellow   "Hast thou never seen the comet's flaming flight?  The illustrious stranger passing, terror sheds on gazing nations from his fiery train of length enormous ; takes his ample round through depths of ether; coasts unnumbered  worlds of more than solar glory; doubles wide, Heavens mighty cape; and then revisits earth from the long  travel of a thousand years."  Edward Young "Night Thoughts"

CITIGROUP-FEDERAL JUDGE JED RAKOFF-SEC ENABLING-REAL PUNISHMENT?-RISK OF ANOTHER FINANCIAL MELTDOWN-FRAUD AGAINST INVESTORS

      The Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress' incompetence has put the nation again at risk of another financial meltdown.  No-admit/no-deny settlements are no real deterrent to future bad behavior.  The banks love this policy since by not admitting fraud, they cannot be sued by thousands of investors, who have lost millions of dollars.  The same old story, when Wachovia and Wells Fargo paid a slap-on the wrist fine for holding cartel money, repeatedly, and the question remains, where is the cash from drug money being laundered today?  The best guess from the US Treasury Department, is that it is going to European banks, who desperately need the money. 
      The new case that may be litigated in July of 2012, developed when Citigroup allegedly defrauded investors when it had not adequately disclosed to investors its role and interest in creating and selling-and betting against-a mortgage-backed investment that was intended to fail.  When the investment tanked, the bank made $160 million, according to the SEC, while investors lost $700 million.
      Judge Rakoff said that his understanding of the matter indicated that a tougher charge of knowing or intentional fraud was indicated.
      SEC chairman Mary Schapiro is pressing for larger penalties, and is asking Congress to pass laws that would allow the SEC to impose fines up to nine times greater than the maximum currently allowed by U.S. law.
      If the proposed new law would have been applied in the Citigroup case, the maximum penalty would jump to $1.44 billion from $160 million.
      Many Republicans and some Democrats are resisting the new proposed law, giving the SEC more powers.  The main question is whether the larger fines would deter illegal behavior.  The admission of wrongdoing would be an investment banks worst nightmare, opening them up to monstrous litigation and law suits from individuals and parties who had lost a large amount of money.  The lobbyists are already driving up to Congress getting ready for this dramatic change in the law.
      A new law that makes fraud on the American people by banks, a major crime, with monstrous penalties, may save the nation from another bank meltdown, and the disastrous Category V Hurricane, that has made the lives of a great number of people on the verge of a collapse, and permanent poverty.  Teddy Roosevelt warned the nation in a 1903 speech, that prosperity in America could only be sustained by the conduct of the larger banks with the following requirements:  a legitimate business practice, fair and honest dealings with the public, no wild speculation, and a disciplined adherence to established conservative rules.  Maybe Federal District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who has the courage to tackle this deal between the SEC and Citigroup bank, maybe he read the history books that detailed the Roosevelt presidency.
      The policy of small fines for banks, no individual liability of bankers, and extraordinary fraud from 2000 to 2011, would be eliminated by Judge Rakoff's successful ruling and victory in July of 2012.  If he loses, and Congress doesn't have the courage to act on stiffer laws, the recession may never end.
     

JON CORZINE-CASINO CAPITALIST-DEBT AND GAMBLING ADDICT-LOSE OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY-JUDAS DUCK AT GOLDMAN SACHS AND MF GLOBAL-TELLURIDE LAND INVESTOR-BUY HIGH, SELL LOW

      Jon Corzine is the essence of what is wrong in America, the immoral culture on Wall Street, the Street of Shame.  He represents the hubris in national politics, addiction to credit and debt.  Corzine represents the cowboy gambler in finance, who bet the firm on one slot on the roulette disk, and the ball in the largest Casino in the world, Wall Street, the ball fell in the wrong hole, $6.2 Billion in one miserable hole, a black hole.
      His father on his small farm where Jon grew up in Illinois abhorred debt, survived the great depression, as a hard working farmer, a legitimate businessman.  His son built a career on debt.
      As CEO of Goldman Sachs, Jon Corzine lost about $150 million on trades, then unwound the loss by brokering other deals.  One of his colleagues at Goldman (Noguchi) said Corzine managed Goldman through 1994 when massive losses and defections threatened its existence.  He backed a risky bailout of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management.  He was ousted from Goldman by a coup, and the firm was rescued from his cowboy capitalism.  Corzine was not rational, he was not systematic, nor a quantitative analyst and trader.  He winged it with other peoples money, dangerous to the firm, and to the public who invested in the firm.
      Dan Neidich worked at Goldman Sachs for 26 years.  He says, "What motivates Corzine is neither money nor ego.  Mr. Corzine's real problem is he is addicted to gambling.  The whole industry has proven to be unethical."
      Where is the $1.2 Billion that is missing from MF Global?  Suspicious wire transfers before the bankruptcy filing? Yes, is the money in Switzerland, in Latvian banks?  200 FBI agents do not know yet.  Several hundred FBI agents and hundreds of government investigators are looking for it.
      To make a $6.2 Billion long bet on euro zone sovereign debt, you would need ego and hubris, as well as lust for the greenback, right out of a Mark Twain novel.  Neidich's statement sounds like pure cronyism, to protect Corzine, without knowing any of the facts of MF Global's bankruptcy meltdown.
      Corzine spent several hundred million$ to get elected to the US Senate, as well as governor of New Jersey.  His biggest bonehead move as governor, besides being a "yes man" to lobbyists from the world of finance, was allowing his state trooper driver to hit 90 mph, on a public highway, endangering the citizens of New Jersey, and he failed to wear a seat belt.  He was the top cop of New Jersey and should have arrested himself as well as the trooper for violating state law.  He could have saved himself from horrific injuries and the troopers well being and reputation.  Are you above the law if you are the governor?
      If Jon Corzine had listened to Kyle Bass from Hayman Capital, in Dallas Texas, he could have avoided his dumb bet.  Bass' hedge fund made a massive wager against the subprime mortgage bond market.  His wager paid off large.  He said at the time, "The financial crisis wasn't over.  It was simply being smothered by the full faith and credit of rich western governments."  That is exactly where Corzine was wrong.  He thought the western governments would not let European central banks and governments fail, so he bet long on euro zone sovereign debt.  The debt went the opposite direction.  Had he ever heard of diversification?  He was a small town banker a long time ago, and didn't pay attention to that common advice. 
      Jim Rogers a successful commodities investor said after the MF Global bankruptcy filing, "My how the mighty are fallen, it is inconceivable to me he would do this after Refco.  He has referred to himself as a recidivist banker." 
      Many power brokers in Washington and Wall Street, said he was vying for Secretary of the Treasury.  Vice President Joe Biden called Corzine once a week for advice during the US meltdown crisis.  God help us!! No wonder were still in this permanent Category V financial hurricane.
      Jon Corzine also speculated millions in Telluride Ski Area real estate.  According to LandMan, he paid $53,000 per acre on approximately 500 acres at West Meadows, across from the ski area entrance to the Mountain Village.  This was documented at the San Miguel County courthouse records.  Joe Zoline, the original developer of the ski area, had paid $225 per acre for the same land.  That's a 235 bagger.  Corzine alienated the public in Telluride by spending 3 years to get the land subdivided.  He marred one of the most pristine views of the Wilson Range, in the region.  The land was pastureland, not a tree in sight, lousy for development.  He should have created a conservation easement on the land, and planted thousands of native trees, and downzoned to one home per five hundred acres, hidden from view.  He had paid too much, a foolish offer, for the land, and made the Zoline family very wealthy.  Then he paid way too much for 2200 acres on Specie Mesa, built a road to the ranch at a cost of over $2million, and  listed the ranch for $42million.  He never sold one acre on Specie Mesa.  The ranch according to LandMan was never worth more than $7 million, if that.  It had marginal access, no access to the pristine National Forest land on Little Cone mountain, and should also have been turned into a conservation easement, which would have allowed huge tax benefits, and kept the mesa pristine like the last of the real cowboys, Clyde Duroy, envisioned in his late 80's. 
      Corzine's clients at MF Global lost hundreds of millions of their money, several thousand investors.  His friend who hired him at MF Global immediately lost $50 million with the bankruptcy filing.  "What happened to MF Global on Corzine's watch was not just incompetence.  It was spectacular recklessness", Henry Blodget writes.  He writes that it was like running a 747 jet filled with people straight at the side of a mountain and hoping that, just before you smash into it, the prevailing winds will shift and enable you to pull up.  Corzine knew the mountain was there.
      Jon Corzine will have an honored place, a statue as The Judas Duck of the Century, at the lake in North Platte Nebraska, along with the other jerks.  He may end up working at the laundry at Sing Sing prison in New York state.  Why aren't there other Judas Ducks from the Street of Shame, working in the laundry?  The jury is out on this mess caused by a Judas Duck financial nitwit, Jon Corzine. 

DAVID RAMSEY, JUDAS DUCK OF THE CREDIT ADVISOR WORLD, HORATIO FROM SHAKESPEARE, CRITIC OF THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT

      David Ramsey has helped thousands of people get out of debt through beans and rice and a long, disciplined struggle to pay off credit cards.  His advice worked well before the massive meltdown of the banking system, and the Category V Hurricane, that came out of nowhere like a Black Swan event in late 2007, and is still blowing at 200 m p h in every county in America.  Now his advice is outdated.  Almost nothing from the old school of debt gurus is working any more.  Ramsey's advice could be a path to despair, credit ruin, and IRS tax on charged off debt. 
      "In Heaven and Earth Horatio, there is more than is in your philosophy", William Shakespeare.
      In his latest harsh critique of the Occupy Movement, Ramsey has revealed a lot of his flawed thinking.  He calls the demonstrators on Wall Street, and around the nation,  "whiners, thieves," and tells them "to grow up." He says Wall Street is "just a street , a road and an office building." 
The demonstrators, 95% of them, are not thieves, are not whiners, and understand Wall Street as a symbol of theft and corruption since Jay Gould invented the stock printing press.  According to $Bill, Wall Street has always been rigged by manipulators and thieves.  He mailed Birdman a book called "The Den of Thieves", after the Black Monday event of October 1987.  He lost $20 million in 24 hours on American Express stock, and put his remaining blood money into Treasury Notes for the rest of his life.  Wall Street is not just a street, it has become a symbol over the years, and attained a worse status since the Meltdown of greed and corruption.  Ramsey is naive regarding who the real thieves are.  Investment bankers as detailed in Yves Smith's book, "Econned", looted $millions from their firms, and aided in the 401K, stock and real estate meltdown.  Ramsey needs to read several books including Barry Ritholtz's book "Bailout Nation".  Ritholz details the 22 culprits starting with Alan Greenspan, who sunk the US economy into a deep hole.  He also has some positive solutions in his last chapter that could work, and they are not 'beans and rice" and "quit whining". 
      In his critique of the Occupy Movement, Ramsey completely misses the entire phenomenon of the past 4 years.  The resort real estate industry has vanished, not stalled, construction work is down 80%, the values of real estate in every county in America has dropped 36% to 80%, stocks have collapsed.  Estimates vary from 10 trillion to 20 trillion in value that has been lost during this catastrophe, which started with the sub-prime, toxic loan meltdown. 
      Ramsey says "the capitalistic system works just fine."  This is an outrageous statement.  The capitalistic system works well when the participants are legitimate entrepreneurs, honest, follow the rules, stay away from speculation, and casino type bets.  Wall Street firms created a casino capitalism.  Where were you the past 4 years, sleeping on the radio? 
David if the government takes your money or property, that is called communism.  That same fear of communism led us to the Vietnam war, another Judas Duck disaster.  Your chances of being held up by a gun are one in 200,000.  Nassim Taleb in his book "The Black Swan", describes gurus  and financial advisors, who give the wrong advice out of hubris and incompetence,  as possibly more harmful to society than terrorists.  Your chances of getting struck by a terrorist act in the U.S. is one in 200 million.  Getting bad advice from financial gurus is one in two.  Like lawyers, Ramsey is only right half the time. 
      Ramsey says, "my problems are not McDonalds's fault.  My problems are my fault."  This is true until a Black Swan event caused by a massive theft of Americans 401K's, stocks and collapse of real estate values, whacks them like they were hit in the face by a baseball bat.  "Get a job," Ramsey says. How ridiculous that statement is when 20 million Americans are unemployed.  Many good people have been looking for work for 3 years.  He says "Invent a weed whacker, another Facebook".  When the wolves are howling at the door, angel investors who finance those ideas are nowhere to be seen.
      The largest Judas Duck idea that Ramsey holds, is his anti-Bankruptcy advice.  His students could file chapter 7, get all the protections a Federal Judge offers them, and still legally pay down their debt, if that is their moral goal, with a zero percent interest rate.  There would be no phone calls, no lawsuits, no taxes on the debt, and credit scores can go up, as opposed to a failed Ramsey approach.  Ramsey uses fear mongering to compare chapter 7 with a death in the family.  It is the exact opposite.  It is the wing to freedom, a fresh start.  When the only job available after looking for 2 years, is a part time job at $7.36 per hour, the means test for chapter 7 is within reach.  Mark Twain filed chapter 7.  He knew life would be easier on the other side of hell.  Ramsey is telling young people to tough it out and suffer for years to pay off banks.  Banks are a contract, not a moral obligation.  Ramsey should send his tithe to Goldman Sachs, since he worries about the banks bottom line.  One to two years, and the credit returns for seniors and young people who file chapter 7.  Many retirement attorneys who have a clue, are endorsing bankruptcy as part of retirement planning.  David, grow up, get a real job, and please do not keep attempting to get statue status on the Mount Rushmore of Judas Ducks in North Platte Nebraska, along with Alan Greenspan.  I have a new book idea for you: "How to survive debt free through Chapter 7, during the endless Category V Hurricane."

  

SOLUTION TO THE MEXICAN BORDER WAR, LAUGHING GAS, WASHINGTON DC AGENTS HAVE NO ANSWER TO THE CARNAGE, JUDAS DUCK DEA AND JUDAS GOOSE TREASURY DEPARTMENT, JUDAS DUCKS OF THE CENTURY, THE US ATF

Not one official in the US Government has come up with any solution to the carnage on the US/Mexico border from San Diego to Matamoros.  The war on drugs is being run by Judas Duck agents, they are wasting billions of tax dollars, are making the war worse, and the US Treasury Department, also run by Judas Ducks, has no clue how to stop the laundering of the drug money. The Judas Duck ATF has no clue how to shut down the gun stores on the lengthy border, thousands of them, nor how to stop the amazing amount of guns and high powered weaponry crossing the border south to Mexico to be used in the daily slaughter.  You would think all of these officials were born next to the lake in North Platte Nebraska, where the descendants of the original Judas Geese still frolic.
          Birdman came up with an amazing solution to the border problem: LAUGHING GAS.  With the cooperation of the Mexican government, the US Special Forces teams could fly thousands of planes, twice a day, along the border and drop reams of laughing gas.  The Mexicans were always known for their outrageous sense of humor, joy of life, and somehow have lost it.  The air plane designers could duplicate the plane used in the James Bond movie, when it flew over Fort Knox and put all the guards to sleep, to facilitate a large Gold heist.  Twice a day the entire border would be engulfed with hilarious laughter.  The Green Berets could drop tiny parachutes with DVD's and old VCR's of George Carlin comedy shows, translated into the Mexican language.  The kids would love the parachutes, and the drug thugs would be so bent over with constant laughter, they would forget about murdering someone.  Also, around 50,000 special ops guys could take over 100 miles deep into Mexico, along the border from San Diego to Matamoros, and round up the laughing drug guys, and offer them a choice: hand over all your weapons now, stop the drug trade and executions, or join Jesus Morano in the Elysian Fields.  Wouldn't this make a great movie?  Dan Aykroyd could star as the commander of the Ops Forces.  What a Solution, what a Movie!!! It would be far better than what is there now. 

AMEXICA,LAUNDERED DRUG MONEY TO LARGE AMERICAN BANKS, BORDER SOLUTION ALONG AMEXICA

Ed Vulliamy's book "AMEXICA" details the border carnage, and exposes to the American public, the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S. history, a sum equal to one-third of Mexico's gross domestic product.  Wachovia bank, which was later purchased by Wells Fargo bank, admitted in court, that it didn't do enough to spot illicit funds in handling $378.4 billion for Mexican currency exchange houses, from 2004-2007.  Wells Fargo and Company, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering, by narcotics traffickers.  Wachovia had struck an agreement with Federal prosecutors, a slap on the wrist, which included a small fine compared to their yearly profit, with a pledge to discontinue the practice. Wells Fargo bank, after buying Wachovia, paid $160 million in fines, less than 2% of its $12.3 billion profit in 2009.  "Wachovia's blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations," said Jeffrey
Sloman, the federal prosecutor who handled the case.
         Western Union was also given a huge fine with a promise to discontinue this practice.  The Federal government has held this "wink and a nod" policy of "no prosecution" or jail time for CEO's of large banks, for many years, largely due to their concern that if they prosecuted the large banks, there could be a run on the banks, and cause a panic.  This is part of the U.S. government's irrational fear of large banks being "Too Big To Fail."  Even with the profit from the laundered drug money, and subsequent buy-out by Wells Fargo bank, Wachovia has vanished from the international money scene.  They were not given TARP money, allegedy due to their Bank Secrecy Act violations. 
          Ed Vulliamy in his book "AMEXICA" documents this cabal between the Federal government of the U.S. and the large banks, and the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years.  It has been a largely undocumented role.  Large criminal enterprises cannot function without money movement and placement of funds.  The major media outlets in the U.S. have basically ignored the border war, which has taken over 30,000 lives.  Michael Crichton was wrong on this border disaster.  In his book "State of Fear", he claims that the media chases down every disaster that happens, to put its readers in a state of fear to catch their attention, to watch an advertisement and sell a product.  For some unknown reason the U.S. media has stayed away from the long border war and its carnage.  How can they ignore a war that is close to taking as many lives as the Vietnam war?
           One solution would be to fine banks up to $5 billion, when it is proved that they have violated the Bank Secrecy Act, and 10 to 20 years jail time for the Act violators.  This would seriously dent their profit and discourage the practice.  The DEA has thousands of agents presently working on the problem. 
            Ed Vulliamy writes way too much detail of the carnage from his long trip along the border from San Diego to Matamoros, but his main theme of the cabal created to operate the cartels is valid.  One scene of carnage on the Bridge of Nightmares is enough.  Does anyone in the Federal government have a solution to this mass carnage?  Read my next Blog.