We’re almost relaxed, as a nation, as we’re told that civil liberty after civil liberty is eliminated, made irrelevant, etc. So I wasn’t surprised at the collective shrug that occured as we learned that we’re being surveilled in our financial transactions as well as our emails and phone calls. But here’s an interesting take on that former matter, from some people who have been looking into money matters far longer than I:

Bankers, Blum explained, “have fended off every conceivable rule that would really be effective. Why are we pandering to them if we say we are in such a desperate situation?”

The political influence of bankers tops all other sectors, I learned as a young reporter. Regardless of party or ideology, politicians seek their friendship. So the United States has created a truly bizarre banking code that legalizes—and keeps secret—vast flows of ill-gotten gains. For what purpose? Terrorist financing, yes, but that business is dwarfed by the drug trade profits, insider looting of corporations, offshore tax evasion, securities fraud, plain-vanilla fraud and other uses.

The American dollar is lingua fria for illegal commerce and Congress protects the sanctity of its privacy, even allows it the criminal proceeds to flow freely through government-chartered and regulated financial institutions. This shady business is not an inconsequential profit center for banks (a bit like pornography for Microsoft).

The monitoring system described by the Times seems unexceptional to Blum. Indeed, his complaint is that it’s so narrowly focused that it mostly harvests empty information. “Meanwhile, the biggest purveyor of terrorist money, as everyone knows, are accounts in Saudi Arabia,” Blum observes. “Nobody will deal with it because the Saudis own half of America.” An exaggeration, but you get his point.

Blum knows the offshore outposts where US corporations and wealthy Americans dodge taxes or US regulatory laws. Congress could shut them tomorrow if it chose. Instead, it keeps elaborating new loopholes that enable the invention of exotic new tax shelters for tainted fortunes. The latest to flourish, he says, are shell corporations— freely chartered by states.

“The GAO says this device is being used for money laundering by everyone else in the world,” Blum says. “Congress ought to start there.” He is not holding his breath.

My point is, individual privacy deserves vigorous defense against the government. But who is the victim when the government itself shields the criminals and their bankerly accomplices from exposure?.

You all probably know what I think about econ, finance, and the true purpose of “international banking.” But it’s nice to know that when you get right down to it, it’s probably the case that very few of us are financially significant enough to have cause to worry about people looking into our financial records. Real money is the wealth of nations and pseudostates, and I suspect the authors are correct to suggest our focus on money matters should be elsewhere.