Courtesy of Pam Martens
The design of the Boeing 737 Max and the Wall Street banking system are both dangerously flawed. The 737 Max has been grounded for almost 10 months following two airline crashes that killed 346 people. The Wall Street banking system, which crashed in 2008 and spread its wreckage into the lives of millions of Americans with job losses, home foreclosures, and trillions of dollars in lost savings is still being allowed to operate on a wing and a prayer.
In the case of the Boeing 737 Max, Congress did not know beforehand that dangerous problems existed. In the case of the Wall Street banking system, Congress has had repeated warnings since 2012 of systemic dangers that it has simply chosen to ignore under heavy Wall Street lobbying pressure and the allure of tens of millions of dollars in political campaign funding.
Yesterday, Boeing turned over a trove of internal emails, instant messages and documents describing the 737 Max that were eerily reminiscent of the well-documented culture on Wall Street. Among the internal comments were these:
“This airplane is designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys.”
“I’ll be shocked if the FAA passes this turd.”
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