Why The $5.7 Billion Dollar Fine On Big Banks Is Actually A JokeBy Carey Wedler The New York Timespainted the fines as a win because, while banks have entered guilty pleas before, they have always been from subsidiaries of the parent companies. This time, the parent companies themselves pleaded guilty. While symbolically, the move appears to reprimand evil bankers, the reality is that such fines are minuscule compared to the profits banks reap. $5.7 billion dollars is nothing compared to the $40.24 billion net income that banks earned in the second quarter of 2014 alone. It was the second highest profit total in the last 23 years, surpassed only by 2013. Further, the fines are nothing compared to the trillions of dollars in bailouts that banks received at the outset of the financial crisis. What is more unsettling about the DOJ tap on the wrist is that while major banks must pay $5.7 billion, in the first quarter of 2015 customers were charged $2.5 billion in overdraft fees. Three major banks (JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America) took $1.1 billion of this total. Some 600 others raked in the rest. Still, the earnings made up only 6% of bank profits for the major three involved. Overdraft fees for a single year could easily cover the $5.7 billion charged to the banks today. This discredits the alleged effectiveness of fining financial institutions for these transgressions. Though it is predictable that a government bought and paid for by bankers refuses to seriously address the stranglehold of their power over the economy and government, it is outrageous that the DOJ is attempting to portray such meager fines as a win for the people. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, touted her success: Over and over, the state fines banks hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars for transgressions and policies that hurt a majority of citizens. Over and over, banks still commit crimes, proving fines are not a deterrent. Banks still enjoy record profits and the transfer of wealth from poor to rich continues to destroy the economy. The banking lobby influences the regulations written for their industry. The fines they pay amount to a meager cut of profit for the government that enables them. As the vice president of Barclays bank said in 2010 of the crimes the bank had just pleaded guilty to, If you aint cheating, you aint trying. Todays illusory victory only validates the criminal bankers policies. Carey Wedler writes for TheAntiMedia.org. where this article first appeared. Tune in! The Anti-Media radio show airs Monday through Friday @ 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. 