But remember, they're the privileged class and the only group worth saving. Poor and hungry children? Go to the back of the line and take what you get. Middle class unemployment? Bah! Let's all worship at the alter of the global banking system. Send everything you have and let them maintain their exclusive lifestyle because dammit, they deserve it. Respectable folks, you know.
This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said.
Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said.
