New Orleans As a voice in the wilderness, I’ve maintained that too much of banking is a criminal enterprise based on the billions of fines that big and small banks have paid in recent years for scams perpetrated against their customers. Nonetheless, there I was once again sitting in the waiting area to open up another commercial account with the bank where we have all of our accounts. It took me four tries with assistance from one of the bank staff to successfully submit the application. Questions about whether we were an association “like the Boy Scouts” was one trick question that seemed to be a disqualifier, as well as being nonprofit and more, despite having a dozen accounts, personal and commercial, with the bank. With her help, we finally got it processed, so perhaps we’ll have the privilege of putting money in this bank in three business days they say and having them charge us for the honor.
I was fascinated by some of the other red-flag questions, like whether I was going to make international transfers, was selling marijuana, and the like, all I checked “NO.” There was also one about whether we were going to use crypto currency. I checked NO, and the bank associate and I shared our deep feelings that we didn’t really and truly understand crypto, didn’t use it, and weren’t sure it wasn’t a scam, even though we knew it was popular and Gen Z and Millennials had almost universally put their toes into crypto speculation at some time or another.
It seemed eerie to see a Times’ column hours later about crypto by Thomas Edsell. Well, reading it, I guess I have to more honestly say, it was kind of about crypto, but maybe a lot about Trump and his family’s wheeling and dealing in crypto. He could have been sitting with us yesterday when he writes,
A growing number of economists and financial analysts argue that crypto is itself a fiction, lacking a backup system of gold, silver or perhaps most important a national government, ordinarily considered essential ingredients of a currency.
Add to that black hole is the fact that none of this is currently much regulated, so crypto has become the tool of choice for money laundering, porn pay, drug and arms deals, and god knows what else.
Edsell believes it is definitely unconstitutional and possibly illegal, so there’s that too of course, once he connects it all to Trump and his family who have made “at least $1.4 billion, and their investors, lost nearly $4 billion from purchases of Trump-linked crypto. These purchases have — let’s say — coincided with pardons, dropped investigations and favorable regulatory decisions.” He is sent to a journalist crypto expert named Molly White who has a more to say on this score,
White wrote, “the crypto industry was quite successful in politics in 2024, installing at least six new pro-crypto senators and more than a dozen representatives.” With Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress, White said, the key regulatory agencies are controlled by “loyalist, pro-crypto commissioners.”
This crypto piece is sprinkled with one damning opinion after another from economists and financial industry experts. One speaks of this as a “blatant and gargantuan conflict of interest.” Another says,
None of this is definitive proof of a crime, but any prosecutor worth his salt would initiate an investigation. Federal bribery law requires an agreed exchange of an official act for a thing of value, and nothing in the public record establishes one, yet.
When it comes to crypto and Trump, I guess for now we just have to hope that shoe doesn’t fall, while we can predict if and when there’s another administration, an investigation will inevitably be launched to sort out the scam from the scandal. Meanwhile, if you’re opening a bank account, when it comes to crypto, just say NO.