February 13, 2012
Bankster Gangs
Julie Gervais March 11 2011
1. What does it mean when you get more than anybodys wildest dream
For moving other peoples milk around and skimming off the cream
What does it say when day by day so many cant afford to pay
For basic needs but your portfolios way better than ok
Why do you think the world wont ever mind about your outsized gains
When people left behind have one thing in abundance
And its pain
(refrain)
You know its just beyond obscene
And thats the thing, its crazy high
The amount that gets awarded
To Mr. Hedge Fund Guy
And to the others on the Street
Who got the whole damn country beat
With their fancy pants financial schemes
Theyve pulled the plug on peoples dreams
2. Even only thirty years ago, it wasnt quite this out of whack
Because the money that they made was more like pot but now its crack
Back then bankers they did their thing, they got paid well but not like kings
Then changes happened far and wide that opened up a great divide
Two sides, one is investor class, the other is the have-nots
Plus dudes in stripes who make the spreads that go to pay for fancy yachts
It used to be that banking was for growth and building things
Now its mostly speculating and proprietary trading
Arbitrage and leverage and the forex carnival
Booms and busts and bubbles they make money on it all
Collecting handsome fees regardless if the country stands or falls
(refrain)
3. It started with deregulation and a boom in LBOs
Derivatives made bulls and bears the stars on finance TV shows
Securitization privatization and those hostile corporate raiders
In the eighties we made pagan gods of guys who really are just bond traders
Swaps and options get your junk bonds, try some shorts and puts and calls
Greed is good but in casinos its the house that wins it all
You see the more they move the money round the less it goes to pay
To build a factory in our own backyard the Grand Old USA
And the crisis they created is opaque and tough to figure
But what you can be sure of is that Wall Street pulled the trigger
It wasnt cops or firemen or the ones who teach the kids
That made the bets that broke the budgets put the country on the skids
(refrain)
4. So what went down is that the Wall Street folk made up a whole new bunch
Of ways to take an ever bigger share of other peoples lunch
Some stuff was barely understood and yeah it brought a bit of trouble
Like when they started cooking up a bigfat dotcom bubble
The discount brokers and the frenzied speculation
Made casino gambling fools out of many in the nation
So excited we forgot to take a look under the hood
Try to figure out if any of that junk was any good
Now quants and robots trading jillions faster than you even blink
Asset-backed securities exploding made a bit of a stink
Too big to fail we gotta bail
Em out in time for bonus season
Credit default swaps and CDOs
Equal a different kind of treason
(refrain)
5. Theyll try to tell you its productive allocation of capital
But look around and see its a game in which they grab it all
Instead of building schools and factories, high-speed trains and rockets
The money faucet flows into the Wall Street Wizards pockets
The governments a puppet financiers pull all the strings
Its why we now cant even pay for just the standard basic things
Because the policies they push for only fatten up their take
Youre short on bread dont even ask theyll probably tell you to eat cake
Its like they break it and we buy it then they tell us share the pain
But all its added up to is another Wall Street gain.
(refrain)
6. What do you say to people left out of the market revolution
When do you stop the taking start creating some kind of solution
What kind of fair is it when people at the way top of the ladder
Take a bigger slice of pie but watch the bottom just get sadder
What kind of life is it when others suffer for your big advantage
Who are you anyway and how in hell do you ever even manage
To look into the mirror without ever asking why
Is it ok to look away from those who struggle to get by