Comments for Genuine Counterfeits at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 3 out of 3 comments http://www.cepr.net Tue, 21 May 2013 10:25:30 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/genuine-counterfeits#comment-15246 It is rather amazing that there appears to be no lack of resources to investigate crimes that threaten the monopoly profits of our oligarchs but not enough resources to investigate the fraud produced by "counterfeit" mortgages that were bundled into securities and sold to investors all over the world. How are the costs of these investigations and prosecutions tracked so that we know how much we are spending, in addition to the monopoly profits themselves, on insuring that the monopolists are able to extract every nickel they've "earned"? Why are we using taxpayer $'s to insure monopoly profits that benefit a tiny fraction of the population while increasing the costs and reducing the choices of the overwhelming majority of taxpayers that are picking up the tab? Perhaps these costs should be tracked and billed back to the monopolists, with the same margins as their monopolies produce, as "protection" is part of the cost of having a monopoly. Most municipalities that provide "police" protection for private parties bill the costs of those services to the private party. Why is this any different? With the Grover Norquists of the world blackmailing our representatives and forcing them to choose between doing what's right for their constituents or losing their seats, generating new revenue has become impossible and we're now dealing with a zero sum game; money being used to maximize monopoly profits for oligarchs reduces available resources needed to address more pressing priorities i.e. education, infrastructure investment, health care, and scientific research. We can no longer afford to extend this form of welfare to our oligarchs and corporations as the truly needy are the ones that end up paying the price under this zero sum system. - Perplexed Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:08:14 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/genuine-counterfeits#comment-15233 Did anyone catch this? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/02/over-two-dozen-arrested-i_n_1317017.html I know I am absolutely [i]thrilled[/i] that the government spent two years and god knows how much taxpayer money going after this ring. But, you know, when all else fails link it to the GWOT. Perhaps next time the president can just authorize drone strikes on the counterfeiters. - Kat Fri, 09 Mar 2012 02:57:52 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/genuine-counterfeits#comment-15231 It's also worth noting that cases where media copies are [i]sold[/i] can be legitimately described as "pirated" copies. If it's downloaded from the internet without remuneration (as is almost always the case), it's simply been shared. Since sharing is something we encourage from our kindergarteners, the interested parties abuse metaphors to imply a more sinister criminality. - S.P.A.D. Fri, 09 Mar 2012 02:18:57 +0100