Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?

Rolling Stone ^ | February 16, 2011 | Matt Taibbi

[Chunga85]

Financial crooks brought down the world's economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them.

Here's how regulation of Wall Street is supposed to work. To begin with, there's a semigigantic list of public and quasi-public agencies ostensibly keeping their eyes on the economy, a dense alphabet soup of banking, insurance, S&L, securities and commodities regulators like the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as well as supposedly "self-regulating organizations" like the New York Stock Exchange. All of these outfits, by law, can at least begin the process of catching and investigating financial criminals, though none of them has prosecutorial power.

The major federal agency on the Wall Street beat is the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC watches for violations like insider trading, and also deals with so-called "disclosure violations" — i.e., making sure that all the financial information that publicly traded companies are required to make public actually jibes with reality. But the SEC doesn't have prosecutorial power either, so in practice, when it looks like someone needs to go to jail, they refer the case to the Justice Department. And since the vast majority of crimes in the financial services industry take place in Lower Manhattan, cases referred by the SEC often end up in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Thus, the two top cops on Wall Street are generally considered to be that U.S. attorney — a job that has been held by thunderous prosecutorial personae like Robert Morgenthau and Rudy Giuliani — and the SEC's director of enforcement.

[Chunga85]

Click through to read about the looting of America....

[snowrip]

The crooks were in the government.

[Wolfie]

Because the perpetrators are rich, powerful, and politically connected to both Parties. Next.

[Chunga85]

A lot of people belong behind bars ping.

[OB1kNOb]

....because those with the gold, make the rules.........

[Jolla]

SEC investigator, now that is a good job, my uncle-in-law was a tax man in Bordeaux investigating vineyards, that man has a wine cave you would not believe.

[King Moonracer]

Crony capitalism.

[Notary Sojac]

When Rolling Stone is more on the ball about what our economy needs than National Review, American Spectator, Human Events etc. you know we have a major problem....

[wideawake]

Ridiculous.

If financiers belong in jail, then Greenspan should be serving in a SuperMax next to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad.

[FromLori]

Here’s an answer for Taiibi

Barack’s Wall Street Problem is Now America’s

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/09/21/baracks-wall-street-problem-is-now-americas/

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Donates Serious Cash to Democrats

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/07/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-donat.html

President Obama’s Favorite Banker

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2009/07/president-obamas-favorite-banker.html

[Huck]

Taibbi's financial mess reporting has been interesting, but his political stuff is so unfairly biased that I have trouble figuring out when to believe him and when not to. Maybe I'm just falling for his crap when it fits my own biases?

I also think he's become a parody of himself already, for financial reasons. He made a splash with his first few pieces on the meltdown. That created some hype for him and demand for more. And so now he has a FINANCIAL reason to pump more out, whether it's reliable information or not.

In short, I can't trust the guy.

[wideawake]

When Rolling Stone is more on the ball about what our economy needs than National Review, American Spectator, Human Events etc. you know we have a major problem....

Or it might mean that Notary Sojac's knowledge of trading markets is not as all-encompassing as he thinks it is.

[dragnet2]

Jail to way too good for these criminals.

[Bitsy]

If financiers belong in jail, then Greenspan should be serving in a SuperMax next to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad
And how about Pelosi, Reid and.....

[mulligan]

Why aren’t those in Congress in jail? They have ruined America for their own gain and to hell with American’s.

[de.rm]

..all the others, they roll up like shark teeth.

[PhilosopherStone1000]

But, but, but... we need more regulators! We need regulators to regulate the regulators. And then more regulators to regulate the regulators who are regulating the regulators!

After all, people in “public service” are never, ever, greedy, slimy, opportunistic, lying, weasly sleezebags who don’t mind lining their own pockets at the expense of the masses.

[Chunga85]

Best Quote:

$nip>

So there you have it. Illegal immigrants: 393,000. Lying moms: one. Bankers: zero. The math makes sense only because the politics are so obvious. You want to win elections, you bang on the jailable class. You build prisons and fill them with people for selling dime bags and stealing CD players. But for stealing a billion dollars? For fraud that puts a million people into foreclosure? Pass. It's not a crime. Prison is too harsh. Get them to say they're sorry, and move on. Oh, wait — let's not even make them say they're sorry. That's too mean; let's just give them a piece of paper with a government stamp on it, officially clearing them of the need to apologize, and make them pay a fine instead. But don't make them pay it out of their own pockets, and don't ask them to give back the money they stole. In fact, let them profit from their collective crimes, to the tune of a record $135 billion in pay and benefits last year. What's next? Taxpayer-funded massages for every Wall Street executive guilty of fraud?

$nip>

[PGalt]

Note for later read. Thanks for posting. (back to work)

[meyer]

Is “Rolling Stone” a respectable news source now?

I’m not going to give these idiots the satisfaction of a click on their leftist web site. Fact is, if you are in a retirement plan. If you own stock. If you have a 401K or other self-directed savings plan, they you ARE “Wall Street”.

The only problem with Wall Street is the problems that arise when the occasional bigshot gains favor with a politician. Like GE and Obama. Or Enron and Clinton. Or the UAW and the DNC. Once an individual gets connected with a politician, cronyism takes hold and THAT is when things go sour.

In the real world, without government intervention and distortion, entities that screw up FAIL and go bankrupt. Their assets are sold off to competitors to help pay off their obligations. Successful entities enjoy the fruit of their labor, and their investors are rewarded. That is how 99% of “Wall Street” works.