The Justice Department’s latest settlement with felonious big banks was announced last week, but the repercussions were limited to a few headlines and some scattered protestations. That’s not enough. We need to understand that our financial system is not merely corrupt in practice. It is corrupt by design – and the problem is growing. Let’s connect the dots, using news items from the past few weeks: The Latest Sweetheart Deal Four of the world’s biggest banks pleaded guilty to felony charges this week, agreeing to pay roughly $5.6 billion in fines for fixing the price of currencies on the foreign exchange market.