Neoliberalism has had its day. So what happens next?

> The banks were bailed out; hardly any bankers on either side of the Atlantic were prosecuted for their crimes; and the price of their behaviour was duly paid by the taxpayer.

Banks paid back everything borrowed to them:

> "Barack Obama says banks paid back all the federal bailout money". Not all of the banks who received TARP money have repaid the loans. In fact, 400-plus banks are still on the government’s red list -- more than have completed the payments -- and, according to the GAO, some may never pay the money back. But, the fact remains, due to interest, dividends and other revenue streams, the government has received more money back ($266.7 billion, according to the Treasury) than it handed out to banks under the bailout law ($245.2 billion). We rate this claim Mostly True. [0]

Furthermore:

> U.S. banks have crossed a significant post-financial crisis milestone, tallying more $200 billion in fines paid out regarding questionable behavior. [1]

How did neoliberalism survive post-financial crisis? Politicians discovered that they can just hit up banks for tens of billions of dollars in fees and use the proceeds in any way they want:

> Yet some of the biggest chunks of money stayed with the entity that levied the fines in the first place. Of $109.96 billion of federal fines related to the housing crisis since 2010, roughly $50 billion ended up with the U.S. government with little disclosure of what happened next, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

Yes, bailouts are bad, but let's not pretend like politicians are not complicit in promoting this type of crony capitalism.

[0] http://www.politifact.com/new-hampshire/statements/2012/oct/...

[1] http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/30/misbehaving-banks-have-now-pa...

[2] http://www.wsj.com/articles/big-banks-paid-110-billionin-mor...