I’m on record lamenting that law enforcement officials were no more interested in stopping illegal gambling on Wall Street than Captain Renault was in stopping it in Casablanca. Which is why I greeted this damning admission with indignant indifference:
A trial attorney from the Securities and Exchange Commission said his bosses were too ‘tentative and fearful’ to bring many Wall Street leaders to heel after the 2008 credit crisis….
(Bloomberg, April 8, 2014)
Well, except that his bosses were all gung-ho for bringing “token” prosecutions:
Am I the only one who wonders why prosecutors labeled this Sri-Lankan American – who looks blacker than any African American I know – as literally ‘the face’ for all of the white-collar crooks on Wall Street whose shenanigans caused the global financial crisis of 2008?
Meanwhile, everybody knows that rank criminality and dishonesty among (predominantly white) casino croupiers masquerading as investment bankers – much of it having to do with misrepresenting their exposure to sub-prime mortgages – caused this crisis. And the whole world is still reeling from, and paying for, it.
Yet not a single banker has been arrested.
(“Raj Rajaratnam: a Wall Street Crook Goes to Prison…Finally,” The iPINIONS Journal, October 13, 2011)
Frankly, I can muster no more outrage for the Mafia Dons who manage Wall Street firms like gambling syndicates; or for the craven cops who fear/protect them.
Related commentaries:
Raj…