In Monday's FT Gideon Rachman wrote an 'analysis' of Sunday's Italian Referendum 'No' vote; which followed the earlier election, also on Sunday, of the Green candidate as President of Austria. The article was called 'Italy's threat to Europe's future'.
The 'intention' within the article was apparent in the first line - the same narrative the FT has pursued for the past year - to discredit the validity of the concerns of millions of people who have had enough of the way that the establishment operates, and the results it delivers for the people it purports to serve. My reply was uncharacteristically brief - sometimes it's best to cut a long story short:
'Europe’s fightback against populism was going well for a couple of hours' - Gideon Rachman
Look on the bright side Mr Rachman - that's two hours longer than the FT's fightback against the demise of intelligent analysis, which hasn't started yet.
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Shortly afterwards, in a news piece entitled 'US auditing watchdog fines Deloitte a record $8m' ...
...Kara Scannell revealed that:
'The US auditing watchdog has fined Deloitte’s Brazilian arm a record $8m for falsifying audit reports, altering documents and providing false testimony during an investigation that unearthed what it described as its “most serious” finding of misconduct'
She concludes the piece with the consequences for the individuals concerned:
‘All but one of the former partners and auditors have been banned from working for companies and broker dealers that fall under the PCAOB’s oversight. One of those partners has been barred permanently while others face bans ranging from one year to five years’ – Kara Scannell
So here we have a 'big four' auditor falsifying accounts...if this was a doctor deliberately making his patients sick or a fireman starting fires, I think there would be something rather more consequential than a fine and a lifetime ban. Yet again the collusive relationship between government, regulators and big finance proves that the concept of the rule of law, equally applied to all, is a farce.
And yet many of the so-called 'elites' are still in shock and denial of any culpability for what they refer to as a 'populist' backlash...they'll still be clueless when the pitchforks arrive.