What, exactly, are crimes of the powerful?

You watch the news.

You read it, too.

From these activities, what is your sense of the term "crimes of the powerful?"

Here are the top two stories this morning from CNN.com: 

Ex-IMF chief expected to plead not guilty

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is scheduled to be arraigned today on sexual assault charges stemming from an alleged attack on a New York hotel maid in May. FULL STORY

Source: Jail time a no-go for Edwards

The insistence that former presidential candidate John Edwards serve jail time over allegations he broke campaign finance laws caused a collapse in plea negotiations, a source says. FULL STORY

From these stories, one might get the sense that "crimes of the powerful" are acts of sexual misconduct (because Straus-Kahn allegedly raped a maid and Edwards had an affair and had a baby out of wedlock) or just minor misuses of campaign money.

But in fact, the powerful are the most dangerous people on the Earth.

Their crimes kill and hurt more people than all street crimes combined, and their actions cost us more in property losses than all street crimes combined, as well.

This is one of the main points of the book, and yet, there is little to no news media coverage of it. Even though our country still reels from the economic collapse caused by the massive and widespread fraud of the powerful in the financial industries of America.

The data, with full explanation, can also be seen in my book, Greed is Good.