ThirstyFish

On day 3 of Occupy National Gathering, protestors marched through the streets of Philadelphia demanding corporate accountability. William Penn watched over them, standing atop Philadelphia City Hall. It seems like corporations became unaccountable when the gentlemen's agreement not to erect buildings exceeding the height of the William Penn statue was broken in 1987 with the construction of One Liberty Place. Today more than half a dozen skyscrapers stand taller than City Hall, housing corporations like Comcast, Cigna, AIG, Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase, Citizens Bank, Verizon and Independence Blue Cross...

Corporate scandals are a plenty these days. Just last week, the supposedly venerable British bank, Barclays, was caught manipulating interests rates almost daily between 2005 and 2009 and was fined $450 million by British authorities. U.S. banks such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are also under investigation. Earlier this week, GlaxoSmithKline, the world's second largest drug company, pled guilty to unlawfully marketing three popular prescription drugs by manipulating and misrepresenting journal articles, and settled for $3 billion. As hefty as these fines might seem, they are nothing but a slap on the wrist for these corporations. No one ever goes to jail; banks and other corporations continue to operate with impunity. We need to figure out a way to break the regulatory capture and establish true corporate accountability.

More Occupy photos.

Song of the Day: Welcome to the Machine - Pink Floyd (1975)