Let me give credit, up front, to a splendid idea from the actors Greg Wise and Emma Thompson that clarified my own outrage at a simple reality: the bankers destroyed the economy with their greed and incompetence, the Obama Administration lets each bank CEO off the hook with a negotiated deal for a fine that the institution, not the banker pays, and with no jail time for a single high-ranking Wall Streeter and WE PAY FOR THIS.

That's right: each one of us, with our taxes, pays for this sleazy deal with the financial elite.

So, first, what did Wise and Thompson just declare:

Greg Wise, the actor married to Emma Thompson, has announced that he and his wife will refuse to pay tax until those involved in the HSBC tax avoidance scandal go to prison.Wise spoke of his anger at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the bank after details of 100,000 accounts held by HSBC’s Swiss arm revealed how the bank had helped some customers dodge taxes.

“I have actively loved paying tax, because I am a profound f**ing socialist and I believe we are all in it together. But I am disgusted with the HMRC. I am disgusted with HSBC. And I’m not paying a penny more until those evil b**ds got to prison,” he told The Evening Standard.

Speaking of the opinions of his Oscar-winning wife, he said: “Em’s on board. She agrees. We’re going to get a load of us together. A movement. They can’t send everyone to prison. But we’ll go to prison if necessary. I mean it, it’s going to be like 1948 all over again.”

What Wise didn't do--no criticism intended and it's possible he simply wasn't quoted extensively enough--was connect the fines to taxes everyone of us pay.I've made this point numerous times: the fines are either paid for in higher fees to customers AND/OR by every taxpayer because the fines are deductible.

Take this:

At the Justice Department, senior officials like to congratulate themselves on the headline-making, big bucks settlements they have imposed upon banks and lenders for their part in causing the 2008 mortgage meltdown that sparked the biggest American financial crisis since the Great Depression.But wait a moment. Those settlement figures are not quite what they seem. Buried deep in the announcements of the astronomical sums that Wall Street banks are being forced to pay is a dirty secret: A big chunk of the hundreds of billions of dollars banks have paid in settlements to various federal agencies and regulators since 2010 is deductible from the taxes banks and lenders pay.

When is a fine not a fine? When it can be put against your tax bill.

Because settlements can be deducted from tax liabilities, for nearly every dollar a bank or lender has pledged to pay in cash or pony up in other ways—such as through buying back soured mortgage-backed securities, extending cheaper loans or forgiving failed loans held by struggling homeowners—up to 35 cents will find its way back into bank coffers, a reflection of the 35 percent federal corporate tax rate.

Deep in the legalese weeds of the settlement documents lies buried treasure. Big banks such as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase will receive deductions against the corporate tax that will amount to between half and nearly three-quarters of their multibillion-dollar settlements, at least. Meanwhile, midsized banks and nonbank lenders generally get to deduct the whole shebang. [emphasis added]

And the greedy fucks at Bank of America (I wrote about their cushy deal here):
Bank of America will pay roughly $4 billion less to the government after-tax than the $16.65 billion it agreed to in a settlement over soured mortgage securities, because parts of the settlement will be tax deductible, the bank said Thursday.[emphasis added]And:

That means that up to $11.63 billion of the settlement would be deductible, depending on how much the bank incurs in costs associated with the consumer relief. With a corporate tax rate of 35%, that suggests savings of $4.07 billion. Bank of America said last month that it expects an effective tax rate of about 31% for the second half of 2014, absent any unusual items, and that would suggest savings of about $3.6 billion.[emphasis added]

J.P. Morgan's get-out-of-jail deal (I wrote about that sweetheart kiss to Jamie Dimon here):

The majority of the $13 billion settlement JPMorgan struck with the government Tuesday is likely to be tax deductible, reducing the bank's financial hit.Here's why: Many of the costs associated with corporate legal cases are treated as deductible under the tax code, in much the same way that a company's wages or equipment expenses are.

That means JPMorgan will be able to reduce its tax bill because of many of the settlement payments that it must make. [emphasis added]

Understand why YOU and every regular person essentially pays for this: every tax dollar the banks can deduct from these settlements is a tax dollar not given to the Treasury, which means someone else has to pay for the services we need as a decent society. That means YOU pay for their get-out-of-jail deals.And you've already paid enough. The crashed economy, the obliteration of trillions of dollars in wealth, the loss of millions of jobs around the world, of pensions that can never be recovered in full...all for their greed and power.

And they have not paid a price. The opposite: Dimon and his band of miscreants throughout Wall Street still rake in a king's ransom in salary, bonuses and first-class benefits.

Of course, this is tough one: how does one resist the taxman? But, Wise has a point: if tens of thousands of people refused to pay their taxes until bankers went to jail...

At least, the point can be made.