Why was no one prosecuted for contributing to the financial crisis?
Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 1 month ago to Business
Excerpt:
The FCIC was set up to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. The commission didn’t have either the authority or the resources to do a criminal investigation. But as the documents show, a number of matters—involving Goldman Sachs, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Fannie Mae—were referred to the Attorney General. No criminal prosecutions arose from any of those. (In Citigroup’s case, the SEC settled with the company and two executives in the fall of 2010 for a paltry sum. The Commission drily noted, “The SEC’s civil settlement ignores the executives running the company and Board members responsible for overseeing it. Indeed, by naming only the CFO and the head of investor relations, the SEC appears to pin blame on those who speak a company’s line, rather than those responsible for writing it.”)
The FCIC was set up to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. The commission didn’t have either the authority or the resources to do a criminal investigation. But as the documents show, a number of matters—involving Goldman Sachs, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Fannie Mae—were referred to the Attorney General. No criminal prosecutions arose from any of those. (In Citigroup’s case, the SEC settled with the company and two executives in the fall of 2010 for a paltry sum. The Commission drily noted, “The SEC’s civil settlement ignores the executives running the company and Board members responsible for overseeing it. Indeed, by naming only the CFO and the head of investor relations, the SEC appears to pin blame on those who speak a company’s line, rather than those responsible for writing it.”)
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I also would not hold the financial industries blameless for Frank-Dodd. They were silent fans of that deregulation which allowed them to legally buy and sell their own derivative products. Frank-Dodd just made it legal to risk their depositors' moneys in speculation while creating a mechanism to encourage them to take risks by signing on the taxpayers as a guarantor in the (inevitable) event that the speculation incurred losses.
There was plenty of blame to go around and not nearly enough responsibility.
1. Fines benefit no one and encourage the looters.
2. Fines against a banking cartel that can print fiat from nothing with little restriction, enforcement, or transparency is not punishment.
Individuals who are at fault through actions (even legal but unethiclal) must be punished in a way they feel the pain of their prey.
To paraphrase Valentine in Trading Places, "it occurs to me that the best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people."
Ideally, this should also include restitution to those harmed and be done voluntarily by the companies who caused the harm. (That last part will not happen by the utterly corrupt unethical bankster cartel.)
They have three fine candidates for the left this go round. Clinton, Trump, and Sanders.
There are (1) corporate giants allegedly "too big to fail" and (2) a more than equal elite too special to jail.
I'm quaint enough to add that #1 has nothing to do with our Constitutional government, where ever that faded off to.
#2 was created by the cronyism kinda things that created #1..
Chief among them Senator Thomas Dodd and Representative Barney Franck with the approval of Representative Nancy Pelosi and others from what is supposed to be both sides of the aisle but isn't any more. They were the chief architechts and supporters of the subprimes under the theory that everyone deserves a home and the government would back the mortgages through F. Mac and Fannie Mae. While the whole thing was blowing up in their faces the FM and FM Directors or whatever were drawing huge bonus money. Later on when it crashed the congress and the Pres decided to change the rules for banks involved as how to evaluate properties with sub sub sub prime former credit rating buyers which sunk a lot of the little banks who bought into that sort of thing.
Instead of being prosecuted they made a movie and the main political perpetrators were cast as hero's Statists = Corporatists etc etc. came out on top.
The whole thing stunk like rotten fish added to a manure pile.
serve notice that if you defraud American citizens, you will pay for the rest of your life...