WEEKLY READING ... on Corruption and Crime (7-9-13)

Around the world a majority of people feel corruption and bribery have gotten worse, and think governments can't fix it (CBS News).

HERE'S HOW IT'S HAPPENING ...

Scamming our seniors ... How seniors get bilked out of $2.9 billion per year (AARP).

Scamming investors (and an update on this post) ... How private equity-investment firms may be scamming you by outsourcing the management of your account (Fortune).

Scamming the poor ... The battle over payroll cards versus payroll deposits & checks (NY Times/DealB%k).

Scamming the middle class with rising fees (NY Times).

Scamming the state ... £13 trillion (or about $21 trillion) hidden from the taxman by the global elite (The Guardian).

Scamming the state, II ... The GAO finds that U.S. companies only pay 1/3 of the corporate tax rate (Truthout).

Scamming the state, III ... Global trade reduces tax revenue (Washington Post / Princeton University).

Scamming students ... with rising tuition and fewer state subsidies, then charging students more interest than the Federal Reserve is charging banks for interest on the loans (CBS / Mark Martinez).

Scamming labor ... by using the government to go after labor rights and unions (NY Times).

Scamming the Federal Reserve, the middle-class, and the state ... rather than loaning money out the banks are sitting on 81.5% of the trillions Bernanke's Federal Reserve gave them (Ritholtz Blog).

Scamming the old fashion way ... bribery, lying, cheating (Think Progress).

The result ... Inequality and concentrated wealth. £6.3 trillion in assets are owned globally by 92,000 people, or about 0.001% of the world's population (The Guardian).

Here's how growing inequality is happening, in less than 3 minutes ...

- Mark