SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | When Bernard Madoff, the admitted swindler of 65 billion-plus dollars, a world record in fraud, walked into court wearing a bullet-proof flack jacket last week, a lot of investors must have kicked themselves for letting the opportunity pass to plug the bum. He was not previously wearing this protection.

Almost at the same time, President Obama was outraged that the bankrupt insurance giant, AIG, is awarding its top brass with over $160 million in bonuses -- bonuses taken out of the bailout billions coming from the US government to keep that company alive. That's tax payers' money, and those taxes are being paid by ordinary citizens and corporations, many suffering from AIG 's unprincipled dealing in the shadow marketplace.

So far, the AIG officials have given the president and American taxpayers the finger in response. When do they start wearing flack jackets?

Without endorsing violence or vigilantism, shouldn't we wonder how patient will investors and taxpayers continue to be in Canada, the USA, and the rest of the world?

Given that Americans fly into murderous rages over traffic or bad school grades, how soon before they go after the shysters in the investment field who have brought the American economy to a stand still and who are now conducting the world's biggest raid ever on any national treasury -- the bailouts.

Where are the outraged taxpayers and investors? Where are the red-neck militias? When will the Libertarians and the anti-big-government mouthpieces stop talking -- screaming, really -- and take retribution into their own hands? This speculation is not idle. Certainly the police must be worried that some crackpot or distraught investor will take a shot at one of these white-collar thugs.

Taking Madoff to court, or Obama chastising the AIG scammers, won't satisfy everyone. We watch as two Gatineau gas-station robbers get seven years for stealing fifty bucks, but the white collar criminals get suspended sentences or slaps for stealing millions. Conrad Black is reported to have a personal servant in prison, and plenty of room and assistance in writing his newspaper columns and opinion pieces. Mr. Black says prison isn't as bad as he thought it would be.

Do the small-time criminals with the book thrown at them for their petty crimes also say prison isn't so bad?

If the US is able to capture any pirates working Somalia's coasts, will they get suspended sentences, or tenures in upholstered prisons?

The difference between these two systems of justice, we're told, is that the small-time crooks used a weapon in their crimes, while the big studs on Wall Street used fancy bookkeeping in theirs. Can we believe this excuse for letting the big shots go nearly free?

This global meltdown may be telling us a lot more than the media is letting on. Not only do the rich keep getting richer, even in economic collapse, they also have their own justice system.

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Copyright © 2009 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/03.09