Wildin’ on Wall Street

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Taken from a Feb. 23 audio column. Go to www.prisonradio.org to hear Abu-Jamal’s political recordings.

For years now, banks, investment houses and brokerage firms have engaged in a feverish dance of hustling from homeowners; using devices like ARM’s (adjustable rate mortgages); offering loans at low or no interest which balloon into traps; forcing foreclosures that insured new properties could be sold, with the hustle being hustled anew.

You know what these hustlers think of the economy that they’ve brought to the brink of disaster? You needn’t look far, for cable systems were ablast with the video of a “reporter” on the trading floor of the stock exchange going full tilt over the alleged misdirection of monies going to homeowners struggling to make their mortgages.

It looked like a pig fighting for more slop in his trough, upset that he couldn’t get it all. They were angry that the other pigs of Wall Street couldn’t get more, while standing amidst the economic wreckage.

The nation’s economy is falling not only because of the epic greed on Wall Street—the long Iraq debacle, with its “lost” billions, certainly didn’t help—but also these princes of capital certainly played a pivotal role.

And the irony isn’t that they want more. It’s that these pigs will probably get it, for if capital is anything, it is hopelessly amoral. Its only interest is gain.

If any people in America know this, it’s African Americans, whose grandparents were capitalist-owned chattel like horses or swine.

Except for a tiny band of radicals called abolitionists, many of whom were driven by deep religious fervor, few in American life considered slavery wrong. Many considered it as natural as grass growing on the lawn in spring.

The reason the economy is still stuck in idle isn’t because of a lack of stimulus. It’s the tremendous distrust on both sides. Bankers are afraid to lend lest they won’t be repaid; lenders are afraid they’ll be trapped and tricked by slick language hidden in loan agreements. Meanwhile, the house of capital crumbles from within and without.