James Corbett speaks freely concerning JP Morgan in Saturday's International Forecaster, the beginning of the fall?

"JP Morgan, the erstwhile august central bank to Wall Street, aggressively trades bonds, stocks via its ETF desk, forex, commodities, derivatives, mortgages and almost anything a hedge fund trades. This is an egregious bastardization of commercial banking.

As we have asserted for years, big banks have become gigantic hedge funds due to the need to generate profits that can cover crappy paper losses. And derivatives are the best means to craft earnings because the value is uncertain for most derivatives. When the five big banks hold something like $700 trillion of notional value in derivatives, what else does one need to know about what the big banks are doing?

As we have been averring for the past few years, the Fed keeps providing funny money and encouraging speculation so the big banks, with all their advantages over the non-elites, can generate profits and stay afloat. ‘Tis why so many abuses of the financial system has been ignored by regulators and solons."

Exactly! And don't forget what they do to the gold and silver markets plus its pm stocks with the blessings from the Treasury and Fed. Who's fooling who?