# Why isn't Wall Street in jail?



## Chris

Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.

"Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."

I put down my notebook. "Just that?"

"That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."

Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.

Why Isn&#039;t Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics


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## BolshevikHunter

Because they own the Attorney General, who controls The Department of Justice. They also own The President, who appointed the Attorney General. Just as they own most of The Senate, Who confirmed The Attorney General. who by the way, is also a member of the cabinet. ~BH


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## Mad Scientist

I'm thinkin' there aren't jails big enough to put the Wall Street buildings *into*.


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## Toro

I printed this article out, put it at the bottom of the pile and will read it in a month or so.

I am sympathetic towards critics of Wall Street, having seen Wall Street up and close.  However, Matt Taibbi, the author of this piece, is a dumbass with seemingly little understanding of financial history.  His hack piece on Goldman was awful.


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## whitehall

I think lefties dream about a day when they can "put people in jail" at will. If the left had their way they would close down every source of information they deem to be subversive and they would jail every slimy capitalist they could get their hands on. Elections would be "monitored" by the new black panther party and the stodgy old Constitution would be replaced with a more flexible document. Think I'm exaggerating? Look at some of the left wing posts.


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## miller

Toro said:


> I printed this article out, put it at the bottom of the pile and will read it in a month or so.
> 
> I am sympathetic towards critics of Wall Street, having seen Wall Street up and close.  However, Matt Taibbi, the author of this piece, is a dumbass with seemingly little understanding of financial history.  His hack piece on Goldman was awful.



I just explained it here
Screwed Again: INVISIBLE BANK FRAUD

You are in a trance with the entire country.


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## miller

whitehall said:


> I think lefties dream about a day when they can "put people in jail" at will. If the left had their way they would close down every source of information they deem to be subversive and they would jail every slimy capitalist they could get their hands on. Elections would be "monitored" by the new black panther party and the stodgy old Constitution would be replaced with a more flexible document. Think I'm exaggerating? Look at some of the left wing posts.



I love putting crooks in prison.  I must be a lefty.  I used to have a wicked fast ball and a gun from the outfield.  Gee I'm a lefty.


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## miller

Madoff was kept out of prison by the SEC until the stock market crashed and it blew up.

Wake up you dip shits.


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## California Girl

How, precisely, does one jail a street?


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## JWBooth

Other than refusing to patch the potholes, how does one punish pavement?


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## editec

_Gee!_ Why didn't the servants put their masters in prison?

Let me think about that for a while, okay?

That's a tough one.


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## Wry Catcher

California Girl said:


> How, precisely, does one jail a street?



In the universe of glib comments, this has to be in the top ten of stupid.  Not funny, not original, not provocative - there ought to be a fine for such crap.


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## Wry Catcher

JWBooth said:


> Other than refusing to patch the potholes, how does one punish pavement?



Competition for the top stupid comment (don't worry CG, no chance you'll be knocked out of the top ten)


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## driveby

Chris said:


> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics




Why isn't Obama in jail for knowingly signing unconstitutional legislation into law?


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## Old Rocks

driveby said:


> Chris said:
> 
> 
> 
> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Why isn't Obama in jail for knowingly signing unconstitutional legislation into law?
Click to expand...


Fortunetly for Driveby there are no criminal penelties for stupidity.


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## driveby

Old Rocks said:


> driveby said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chris said:
> 
> 
> 
> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Why isn't Obama in jail for knowingly signing unconstitutional legislation into law?
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Fortunetly for Driveby there are no criminal penelties for stupidity.
Click to expand...


My statement is no less ridiulous than the OP or any other posts from you and your gay lover, chrissy. I'm not shocked you're too stupid to pick up on that.......


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## Wry Catcher

driveby said:


> Old Rocks said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> driveby said:
> 
> 
> 
> Why isn't Obama in jail for knowingly signing unconstitutional legislation into law?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Fortunetly for Driveby there are no criminal penelties for stupidity.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> My statement is no less ridiulous than the OP or any other posts from you and your gay lover, chrissy. I'm not shocked you're too stupid to pick up on that.......
Click to expand...


Posting bigoted ad hominems is not a smart practice; it is uber-stupid.


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## uscitizen

Chris said:


> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics



Because we have a government by the corporations and for the corporations.


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## iamwhatiseem

Too big too jail.


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## miller

editec said:


> _Gee!_ Why didn't the servants put their masters in prison?
> 
> Let me think about that for a while, okay?
> 
> That's a tough one.



We're the dumb ass masters who elect the servants who we know keep robbing us and the servants are a CRIME FAMILY.

That's because all of you are in a trance.  The brainwash propaganda works.  Our servants in the CIA figured out how to do that.  Keep denying it you dumb ass.


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## miller

uscitizen said:


> Chris said:
> 
> 
> 
> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Because we have a government by the corporations and for the corporations.
Click to expand...


Corporations don't vote, we vote.  The vote has the power, not the money.  Stay in your trance so you keep voting exactly the way the propaganda tells you to vote for the Democrat Republican CRIME FAMILY.


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## iamwhatiseem

iamwhatiseem said:


> Too big too jail.



Aw c'mon...I thought this was funny...


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## JimH52

These people are elephant dung, pure and simple...


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## konkon

Some may think they have a licence to steal.


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## miller

Bribes you idiot!!


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## Dot Com

uscitizen said:


> Chris said:
> 
> 
> 
> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Because we have a government by the corporations and for the corporations.
Click to expand...


BINGO. It's a revolving door. All you have to do is look at the people appointed to Treasury as an example. All Wall St cronies. Add to that the floodgates opened by the Citizens United case.


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## riofebdinan12

Thank you for the post


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## BolshevikHunter

These international banking criminals will rape this nation dry until there is nothing left to rape. Then, They will start a World War that we can't possibly win, pack up their bags & bank accounts (or wait, there in Sweden) their families and move on to the next Nation of victims. Then the stupid sheople will ask why, or how did this happen? As SOME helplessly watch their own families, friends and strangers become animals in the face of starvation, mass gang rapes and killings. Bet it, because it's coming to a theater near you sooner than later.  ~BH


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## Dot Com

Just heard this on the radio:

Hedge fund insider-trading trial to start | Marketplace From American Public Media


> Eric Breslin, a partner with law firm Duane Morris, says tight industry ties can often present a problem for hedge funds, because they're less regulated.
> 
> ERIC BRESLIN: What is the line between really good and foresighted analysis and trading on inside information? The line can be very, very narrow. You can make one two-minute telephone call and make yourself a tremendous amount of money. Hard to pass up.
> 
> Rajaratnam beat the market almost every year since 1992. Returns like that, says Chris Whalen, are too good to be honest.
> 
> WHALEN: An honest manager is going to be wrong as many times as they're right.
> 
> At the heart of the government's case are hundreds of wiretaps. That's a technique usually used in mob cases. So perhaps the government sees Rajaratnam less as Mark McGwire and more as John Gotti.
> 
> In New York, I'm Heidi Moore for Marketplace.
> 
> RYSSDAL: Jury selection for the Rajuratnam case begins tomorrow. We got a hold of the juror questionnaire, which includes this question: How honest do you think Wall Street executives are?


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## BolshevikHunter

Dot Com said:


> Just heard this on the radio:
> 
> Hedge fund insider-trading trial to start | Marketplace From American Public Media
> 
> 
> 
> Eric Breslin, a partner with law firm Duane Morris, says tight industry ties can often present a problem for hedge funds, because they're less regulated.
> 
> ERIC BRESLIN: What is the line between really good and foresighted analysis and trading on inside information? The line can be very, very narrow. You can make one two-minute telephone call and make yourself a tremendous amount of money. Hard to pass up.
> 
> Rajaratnam beat the market almost every year since 1992. Returns like that, says Chris Whalen, are too good to be honest.
> 
> WHALEN: An honest manager is going to be wrong as many times as they're right.
> 
> At the heart of the government's case are hundreds of wiretaps. That's a technique usually used in mob cases. So perhaps the government sees Rajaratnam less as Mark McGwire and more as John Gotti.
> 
> In New York, I'm Heidi Moore for Marketplace.
> 
> RYSSDAL: Jury selection for the Rajuratnam case begins tomorrow. We got a hold of the juror questionnaire, which includes this question: How honest do you think Wall Street executives are?
Click to expand...


So basically, To be appointed to a Jury, one must lie about their personal feelings about these international Gangsters? = Exactly.

Anyway,  I would lie on the questionaire just in order to get onto the Jury so I could participate in sending one of these bottomfeeding rapists of America to the big house. Which is really just a Country Club with guards, for assholes. It would not suprise me if they start building Golf courses on the remaining lland of alot of these Federal Prisons. ~BH


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## Cuyo

BolshevikHunter said:


> Because they own the Attorney General, who controls The Department of Justice. They also own The President, who appointed the Attorney General. Just as they own most of The Senate, Who confirmed The Attorney General. who by the way, is also a member of the cabinet. ~BH



Boy I tell ya - When you're right, you're right.


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## Dot Com

Until there is some SERIOUS and ALL ENCOMPASSING Reform to campaign finance, they'll only prosecute a case here and there to serve as window-dressing to keep the masses entertained


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## BolshevikHunter

Cuyo said:


> BolshevikHunter said:
> 
> 
> 
> Because they own the Attorney General, who controls The Department of Justice. They also own The President, who appointed the Attorney General. Just as they own most of The Senate, Who confirmed The Attorney General. who by the way, is also a member of the cabinet. ~BH
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Boy I tell ya - When you're right, you're right.
Click to expand...


Yeah, And this is one of those times where being right isn't a good thing my friend.  ~BH


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## waltky

Goldman Sachs implicated...

*Huge insider trading case trial begins*
_3/8/2011 - Judge asks jurors if they can be impartial about a one-time billionaire_


> The criminal trial of hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, at the center of the biggest U.S. insider trading probe in decades, began on Tuesday with the judge asking potential jurors whether they could be fair in deciding the case of a wealthy financial executive.  About 150 potential jurors were told by Manhattan federal court Judge Richard Holwell that Lloyd Blankfein and David Viniar -- the Goldman Sachs Group Inc chief executive and chief financial officer -- were on a list of people who might testify or be mentioned during the trial.
> 
> Onetime billionaire Rajaratnam, 53, whose Galleon Group hedge funds managed $7 billion at their peak, is in a courtroom showdown with prosecutors that will feature wiretap evidence and the testimony of former friends and associates, some of whom once had top positions in corporate America.  Goldman's shares are among 35 stocks cited in the charges. Rajaratnam is accused of obtaining inside information about the bank from a friend who sat on the company's board. Goldman is not accused of wrongdoing.
> 
> Opening statements in the trial will start once the 12-member jury is in place, likely Wednesday or Thursday. The trial is expected to last up to two months.  "We're gonna hear a lot of evidence with a lot of big dollars attached to it," the judge said, asking potential jurors whether they can be fair and impartial.
> 
> The list he read to the jury includes the names of 102 people and 50 companies. Many of the companies' shares are technology stocks that prosecutors accuse Rajaratnam of either illegally gathering confidential information about or trading in between 2003 and March 2009.  The government says Rajaratnam made $45 million in illegal profit. He could face a 20-year prison sentence if convicted on the most serious charge of securities fraud. A jury questionnaire makes it clear that the case does not have anything to do with the country's financial problems.
> 
> MORE



See also:

*Hedge fund guru Icahn to return clients' money*
_3/8/2011 - Elder statesman of investors says he's ending fund 'on a high note'_


> Billionaire hedge fund manager Carl Icahn said he plans to return all of his clients' money, becoming the latest in a string of investors who no longer want to manage money for outsiders.  "After careful consideration of all relevant factors, we have determined to return all fee-paying capital to investors," the 75-year-old stock picker wrote in an investor letter. A copy of the letter was released in a regulatory filing Tuesday morning.
> 
> Icahn, known for picking winners and pushing for change at prominent corporations, has reigned as an elder statesman in the hedge fund industry for years, and news of his pulling back came as something of a shock.  Since its launch in 2004, Icahn Capital has delivered gross returns of 106.9 percent, Icahn said in the letter. He pointed to last year's gains and this year's positive returns: In the first two months of 2011, the fund return 8.7 percent.  "Obviously, based on the past two years and two months, we are ending on what I consider to be a high note," he wrote.
> 
> Investors will receive their money in cash in April. Icahn did not detail exactly how many billions he will be returning.  His decision suggests he has become weary of navigating volatile markets at a time when investors are becoming more demanding.  Only last week, in an interview with Reuters, he gave no indication he wanted to cut back. "I enjoy doing it," he said. "It's sort of like a chess game. I find it fascinating ... What else would I do?"
> 
> Source


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## jasonmorston

the society views wealth as the surpreme goal. to them wall street are heroes not criminals. very Atlantis i belive. hope the solution is the same. today bill gross of PIMCO the worlds largest bond fund dumped his US treasuries the dollar is headed the way of the russian currency (ironicaly the same name as a vodka)


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## jasonmorston

it is pretty sad. you would think with 300 million people somebody fix this. i miss Robspierre. alive today he would doubtlessly televise the mass banker beheadings! must-see TV! btw BANK OF AMERICA GOT 3.5 BILLION FROM THE FED IN 2009 THAT'S YOUR MONEY WASTED ON THE PARASITES


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## Chris

jasonmorston said:


> it is pretty sad. you would think with 300 million people somebody fix this. i miss Robspierre. alive today he would doubtlessly televise the mass banker beheadings! must-see TV! btw BANK OF AMERICA GOT 3.5 BILLION FROM THE FED IN 2009 THAT'S YOUR MONEY WASTED ON THE PARASITES



There is a way to fight back.

Take your money out of these banks.

I moved my money to RBC.

They weren't involved in any of the shenanigans.


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## PersianKnight

Close down the IMF, the IMF is controlled by the US, sorry for misleading you I mean Israel. South America no longer takes loans from the IMF or got scammed by Wall Street to purchased mortgage back securities. Every country that bought MBS is in a depression


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## Liberty

idiots. the markets don't control government...GOVERNMENT CONTROLS THE MARKET.

Banks gave bad loans because the government strong armed them into doing it. The bubble burst. Banks were the scapegoat.

Banks decide not to give out bad loans. People blame them for being greedy, government propagates.

You idiots are being played. Government is the problem, not the banks and not the free marketers.


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## Sallow

Toro said:


> I printed this article out, put it at the bottom of the pile and will read it in a month or so.
> 
> I am sympathetic towards critics of Wall Street, having seen Wall Street up and close.  However, Matt Taibbi, the author of this piece, is a dumbass with seemingly little understanding of financial history.  His hack piece on Goldman was awful.



I've seen it up close and personal too..heck..it's wear I work. It's not pretty. What happened at Lehman was very similar to what happened at Enron.


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## Sallow

Liberty said:


> idiots. the markets don't control government...GOVERNMENT CONTROLS THE MARKET.
> 
> Banks gave bad loans because the government strong armed them into doing it. The bubble burst. Banks were the scapegoat.
> 
> Banks decide not to give out bad loans. People blame them for being greedy, government propagates.
> 
> You idiots are being played. Government is the problem, not the banks and not the free marketers.


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## Liberty

Sallow said:


> Liberty said:
> 
> 
> 
> idiots. the markets don't control government...GOVERNMENT CONTROLS THE MARKET.
> 
> Banks gave bad loans because the government strong armed them into doing it. The bubble burst. Banks were the scapegoat.
> 
> Banks decide not to give out bad loans. People blame them for being greedy, government propagates.
> 
> You idiots are being played. Government is the problem, not the banks and not the free marketers.
Click to expand...


http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=1014330724

http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/07/loan-modification-plans-fail-banks-not-to-blame/

http://www.thedailybell.com/1216/Blame-Central-Banking-Not-Banks.html

http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/economics/global/greedy-bankers-52028.aspx

The only bank that has any legitimate blame is the central bank, the federal reserve. To blame privately owned institutions is a very big mistake.


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## Trajan

Chris said:


> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics



because, like it or not, and I don't as I to took my share of lumps, what they do was legal by and large. Was it morally corrupt, yes, I would probably agree with that, depending on the circumstance.

However, what they created and how they created it like it or not was inside the rules, oh yes there were and are I am sure discovered and undiscovered violations but?

The SEC as has been written apparently didn't do their jobs, either correctly or due to political pressure which is probably one in the same. But they are always playing catch up, when Walls t. creates a new vehicle for sale or a method to hedge, we are playing catch up, at the end of the day if someone is selling what they think is a basket of shit, yet they have a buyer, is it really governments job to stop the transaction? 

You cannot really define or that is regulate risk in every context. 

Caveat emptor.


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## Sallow

BolshevikHunter said:


> Cuyo said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> BolshevikHunter said:
> 
> 
> 
> Because they own the Attorney General, who controls The Department of Justice. They also own The President, who appointed the Attorney General. Just as they own most of The Senate, Who confirmed The Attorney General. who by the way, is also a member of the cabinet. ~BH
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Boy I tell ya - When you're right, you're right.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Yeah, And this is one of those times where being right isn't a good thing my friend.  ~BH
Click to expand...


Absofuckinglutely.


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## Sallow

Trajan said:


> Chris said:
> 
> 
> 
> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth &#8212; and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> because, like it or not, and I don't as I to took my share of lumps, what they do was legal by and large. Was it morally corrupt, yes, I would probably agree with that, depending on the circumstance.
> 
> However, what they created and how they created it like it or not was inside the rules, oh yes there were and are I am sure discovered and undiscovered violations but?
> 
> The SEC as has been written apparently didn't do their jobs, either correctly or due to political pressure which is probably one in the same. But they are always playing catch up, when Walls t. creates a new vehicle for sale or a method to hedge, we are playing catch up, at the end of the day if someone is selling what they think is a basket of shit, yet they have a buyer, is it really governments job to stop the transaction?
> 
> You cannot really define or that is regulate risk in every context.
> 
> Caveat emptor.
Click to expand...


SEC's been underfunded and undermanned for years. And Congress is talking about MORE cuts!

And I always find it interesting when people defend "Morally corrupt" behavior..because it isn't illegal..yet. Initally the Ponzi scheme was "legal". And it was only after rigorous investigation that it was finally brought down and punished.

Is it the government's job to stop these transactions? Sure. It's in the Constitution. If I am selling you something that isn't what I represent it to be..that's fraud.


----------



## Trajan

Sallow said:


> Trajan said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chris said:
> 
> 
> 
> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth &#8212; and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> because, like it or not, and I don't as I to took my share of lumps, what they do was legal by and large. Was it morally corrupt, yes, I would probably agree with that, depending on the circumstance.
> 
> However, what they created and how they created it like it or not was inside the rules, oh yes there were and are I am sure discovered and undiscovered violations but?
> 
> The SEC as has been written apparently didn't do their jobs, either correctly or due to political pressure which is probably one in the same. But they are always playing catch up, when Walls t. creates a new vehicle for sale or a method to hedge, we are playing catch up, at the end of the day if someone is selling what they think is a basket of shit, yet they have a buyer, is it really governments job to stop the transaction?
> 
> You cannot really define or that is regulate risk in every context.
> 
> Caveat emptor.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> SEC's been underfunded and undermanned for years. And Congress is talking about MORE cuts!
> 
> And I always find it interesting when people defend "Morally corrupt" behavior..because it isn't illegal..yet. Initally the Ponzi scheme was "legal". And it was only after rigorous investigation that it was finally brought down and punished.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> so whats so interesting about it? stating the truth doesn't equate to approval or a defense other than the fact that is wasn't illegal.
> 
> Ponzi? yes you're right but playing with semantics,  because as I clearly said, it was 'legal' because it got going before laws were put on the books to stop it as we play catch up.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Is it the government's job to stop these transactions? Sure. It's in the Constitution. If I am selling you something that isn't what I represent it to be..that's fraud.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> your statement is problematic. Everyone who sells an asset or vehicle like that sells it because thy have to by contract, they have to do to hardship or, they will do better off without for the cash in hand now, to buy something else etc.... the buyer thinks they can or will turn it around, has a value they alone see, the seller thinking that they are holding a loser and looking for a buyer and finding one doesn't mean they broke the law, its means THEY think its going no where while someone else does, IF there is information hidden from the buyer that they are entitled to, that's  not what I was referring to, we both know thats illegal.
Click to expand...


----------



## Herbie Hancock

a better question may be why isn't chris dodd, barney frank and all the executives at fannie and freddie that created the toxic assets in the first place.


----------



## Sallow

Herbie Hancock said:


> a better question may be why isn't chris dodd, barney frank and all the executives at fannie and freddie that created the toxic assets in the first place.



Those "Toxic Assets" were the invention of John Thane.


----------



## Sallow

Trajan said:


> so whats so interesting about it? stating the truth doesn't equate to approval or a defense other than the fact that is wasn't illegal.
> 
> Ponzi? yes you're right but playing with semantics,  because as I clearly said, it was 'legal' because it got going before laws were put on the books to stop it as we play catch up.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Is it the government's job to stop these transactions? Sure. It's in the Constitution. If I am selling you something that isn't what I represent it to be..that's fraud.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> your statement is problematic. Everyone who sells an asset or vehicle like that sells it because thy have to by contract, they have to do to hardship or, they will do better off without for the cash in hand now, to buy something else etc.... the buyer thinks they can or will turn it around, has a value they alone see, the seller thinking that they are holding a loser and looking for a buyer and finding one doesn't mean they broke the law, its means THEY think its going no where while someone else does, IF there is information hidden from the buyer that they are entitled to, that's  not what I was referring to, we both know thats illegal.
Click to expand...


Again - Wasn't illegal yet. Remember - Deregulation allowed for financial companies to start offering loans and unlicensed agents to make them. So predatory lenders were able to get these loans in volume. The financial companies bundled these loans into derivatives and took out insurance against them collapsing. Then sold them. Technically there were no laws that covered this sort of behavior. So "Technically" it was legal. At least the way everyone "understood" the law. Personally I think a rigorous investigation would shake out a vast amount of fraud. But there is no will to do it..given the weak recovery...because it might very well usher in another collapse.


----------



## Herbie Hancock

Sallow said:


> Herbie Hancock said:
> 
> 
> 
> a better question may be why isn't chris dodd, barney frank and all the executives at fannie and freddie that created the toxic assets in the first place.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Those "Toxic Assets" were the invention of John Thane.
Click to expand...


I am not saying who created the method by which these were sold.  I am stating who is responsible that they were there in the first place.  Here are the offenders in order of their guilt.  1) individuals (don't buy a house you can't afford) 2) government (thinking everyone has a "right" to a house 3) people that were forced to get rid of the toxic assets they they were forced to lend to people that couldn't afford the loans


----------



## impalero

Trajan said:


> Chris said:
> 
> 
> 
> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> because, like it or not, and I don't as I to took my share of lumps,* what they do was legal by and large.* Was it morally corrupt, yes, I would probably agree with that, depending on the circumstance.
Click to expand...


Everything is made legal when you have 5 financial lobbyists to every congressman. 
There is no such thing as illegal when your the one with the power buying off politicians to call the shots. Like repealing the Glass Steagal Act.




> However, what they created and how they created it like it or not was inside the rules, oh yes there were and are I am sure discovered and undiscovered violations but?
> 
> The SEC as has been written apparently didn't do their jobs, either correctly or due to political pressure which is probably one in the same. But they are always playing catch up, when Walls t. creates a new vehicle for sale or a method to hedge, we are playing catch up, at the end of the day if someone is selling what they think is a basket of shit, yet they have a buyer, is it really governments job to stop the transaction?
> 
> You cannot really define or that is regulate risk in every context.
> 
> Caveat emptor.




Looks like all Wall Street is, is a clever way to shuffle money around, creating exotic instruments so that the public does not see it all laid out on the table like playing blackjack. 

I will celebrate the day when this crooked institution falls. Fortunately, nothing is forever as history shows, and Wall Street and well as this corrupt government will fall and many around the world will celebrate the day that happens.


----------



## Sallow

Herbie Hancock said:


> Sallow said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Herbie Hancock said:
> 
> 
> 
> a better question may be why isn't chris dodd, barney frank and all the executives at fannie and freddie that created the toxic assets in the first place.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Those "Toxic Assets" were the invention of John Thane.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> I am not saying who created the method by which these were sold.  I am stating who is responsible that they were there in the first place.  Here are the offenders in order of their guilt.  1) individuals (don't buy a house you can't afford) 2) government (thinking everyone has a "right" to a house 3) people that were forced to get rid of the toxic assets they they were forced to lend to people that couldn't afford the loans
Click to expand...


This post overlooks a few things.

1. Placing the blame entirely on the indivduals that took the loans is naive, at best. Deregulation allowed for all sorts of behavior that didn't go on, historically. Lenders were shirking their due diligence and in some cases, misrepresenting the client's ability to repay the loan. Additionally they were misrepresenting the payment plan to the client. Also the economy in generally and falling real estate values exacerbated the situation that the regulations were meant to prevent.

2. Government doesn't think everyone has the "right" to own a house..but it thinks people should own houses. That's as old a concept in this country that pre-dates the founding. And it's a good thing. People with ownership in something are far more likely to care about their communities. People buying homes fuels the economy in multiple ways.

3. No one was "forced" to lend anyone anything. What was "forced" was the elimination of "red zones". That's another good thing. It's done wonders in New York City with formely blighted areas.


----------



## Avatar4321

Wall Street isn't in jail because there isn't a prison big enough to hold all that pavement, let alone the buildings.


----------



## The T

Why aren't Social Statists in Jail for wrecking Liberty of the individual and making the dependent on others via Gubmint FIAT, and a matter of LAW?


----------



## Mr. Jones

I think there should be a team of vigilantes who have an _alternative method for punishing the guilty_, like in the movie the Star Chamber.
The Star Chamber (1983) - IMDb


----------



## waltky

Fed goin' after big banks for mortgage crisis...

*Fed says it will fine banks for foreclosure mess*
_April 13, 2011 - Regulators charged the biggest U.S. banks with "unsafe and unsound practices" on foreclosures, and ordered a sweeping overhaul of their mortgage operations._


> The move is the strongest federal response so far to the bankers' massive, greed-driven internal control failures during the crisis of the past half-decade. It comes after a months-long federal review of the banks' handling of mortgage paperwork and foreclosure actions.  But in a telling omission, the regulators didn't say how big the fines they will assess might be -- making it impossible to judge whether the action amounts to more than a slap on the wrist.    Federal banking watchdogs filed enforcement actions alleging mortgage-related wrongdoing at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and 10 others. The banks consented to the orders without, as usual, accepting or denying responsibility.
> 
> The authorities didn't announce fines, but the Federal Reserve said it believes "monetary sanctions in these cases are appropriate." The Fed didn't say when it  might announce the penalties.  The regulators didn't mince words about the banks' wrongdoing. The enforcement actions are meant "to address a pattern of misconduct and negligence related to deficient practices in residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing," the Fed said. "These deficiencies represent significant and pervasive compliance failures and unsafe and unsound practices at these institutions."  The FDIC went even further, suggesting further probes of the banks are in order:
> 
> The findings of the interagency review clearly show that the largest mortgage servicers had significant deficiencies in numerous aspects of their foreclosure processing. These deficiencies included the filing of inaccurate affidavits and other documentation in foreclosure proceedings (so-called "robo-signing"), inadequate oversight of attorneys and other third parties involved in the foreclosure process, inadequate staffing and training of employees, and the failure to effectively coordinate the loan modification and foreclosure process to ensure effective communications to borrowers seeking to avoid foreclosures.
> 
> The interagency review was limited to the management of foreclosure practices and procedures, and was not, by its nature, a full scope review of the loan modification or other loss-mitigation efforts of these servicers. A thorough regulatory review of loss mitigation efforts is needed to ensure processes are sufficiently robust to prevent wrongful foreclosure actions and to ensure servicers have identified the extent to which individual homeowners have been harmed.
> 
> MORE


----------



## Herbie Hancock

What makes you think crooks like them are going to jail when you can't even get Dodd and Rangel in jail.  Shit we have a treasury secretary that doesn't even pay his taxes.  Remember socialism is not for the socialist.


----------



## waltky

Obama gonna make `em make it right...

*Gov't Orders 14 Lenders to Reimburse Homeowners*
_Wednesday, April 13, 2011 Washington (AP) - The federal government on Wednesday ordered 16 of the nation's largest mortgage lenders and servicers to reimburse homeowners who were improperly foreclosed upon._


> Government regulators also directed the financial firms to hire auditors to determine how many homeowners could have avoided foreclosure in 2009 and 2010.  Citibank, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, the nation's four largest banks, were among the financial firms cited in the joint report by the Federal Reserve, Office of Thrift Supervision and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,  The Fed said it believed financial penalties were "appropriate" and that it planned to levy fines in the future. All three regulators said they would review the foreclosure audits.
> 
> In the four years since the housing bust, about 5 million homes have been foreclosed upon. About 2.4 million primary mortgages were in foreclosure at the end of last year. Another 2 million were 90 days or more past due, putting them at serious risk of foreclosure.  Critics, including Democratic lawmakers in Congress, say the order is too lenient on the lenders. House Democrats introduced legislation Wednesday that would require lenders to perform a series of steps, including an appeals process, before starting foreclosures.
> 
> "I want to know what abuses (the government agencies) identified, which banks committed them and how their proposed consent agreement is going to fix these problems," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Government and Oversight Committee. "Based on what I have read ... I am not encouraged at all."  The other lenders and service providers cited by the agencies include: Ally Financial Inc., Aurora Bank, EverBank, HSBC, MetLife Bank, OneWest Bank, PNC, Sovereign Bank, SunTrust Banks, U.S. Bank, Lender Processing Services and MERSCORP.
> 
> MORE


----------



## impalero

What we have right now in this country, is the same thing Russia had with the Oligarch's.

If your politically connected, you can fill your pockets at everyone else's expense.

If you exist at the upper echelons, you can go through the revolving door between the public and private sector and while in office, abolish laws that get in your way and create new ways to ward off competition. When in the private sector, reap the benefits and fill your coffers with all the money you want.


We need a foreign power to come and liberate us from the cockroaches infesting our government. 

Obama is nothing more than a carbon copy of Bush, sucking wall street and mega corp's woodies and a war monger continuing the game for the military industrial complex.

If you have connections, you don't need a lick of financial sense nor required to put on your bootstraps, especiall for c***nts like this.

The Real Housewives of Wall Street | Rolling Stone Politics

*The Real Housewives of Wall Street*



> Christy is the wife of John Mack, the chairman of Morgan Stanley. Susan is the widow of Peter Karches, a close friend of the Macks who served as president of Morgan Stanley's investment-banking division. Neither woman appears to have any serious history in business, apart from a few philanthropic experiences. Yet the Federal Reserve handed them both low-interest loans of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars through a complicated bailout program that virtually guaranteed them millions in risk-free income.


----------



## waltky

Granny says dey oughta take all their money away from `em an' give it to the poor...

*The Real Culprits of the Financial Crisis*
_April 14, 2011   Some three years after the collapse of the financial industry, a bipartisan report from the Senates Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has determined that banks, regulators and credit agencies all share the blame for the subprime mortgage crisis that facilitated this collapse and eventually led the country into a recession._


> Washington Mutual Bank is singled out in the report for shady lending practices, while other financial institutions like Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank are criticized for dubious investment tactics. Major credit rating agencies like Moodys and S&P are faulted for their failure to appropriately assess the risk posed by a number of investments and the governments Office of Thrift Supervision, charged with the all-important task of regulating savings banks, is bashed for failing to do its job.  Using emails, memos and other internal documents, this report tells the inside story of an economic assault that cost millions of Americans their jobs and homes, while wiping out investors, good businesses, and markets, said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who chairs the subcommittee and who co-sponsored the report along with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).  High risk lending, regulatory failures, inflated credit ratings, and Wall Street firms engaging in massive conflicts of interest, contaminated the U.S. financial system with toxic mortgages and undermined public trust in U.S. markets.
> 
> The story of the collapse, as told in the report, essentially begins several years before the recession when Washington Mutual decided in 2005 to initiate a high-risk mortgage-lending strategy, underwriting loans to middle and lower class Americans who were traditionally turned down. Within one year, many of those loans began to default; within two years the bank suffered major financial losses from this strategy and by 2008, the company faced a liquidity crisis and was seized by government regulators and eventually sold off to Chase.  The banks strategy had several impacts on the market. For starters, it led to a surge in demand for housing as more consumers were able to secure mortgage loans, causing a housing boom that of course ended up going bust when millions of Americans fell behind on their payments. Washington Mutual also proved to be the largest bank failure in history, which unsettled the markets, and before it collapsed, the bank began selling off some of its risky loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, contributing to their downfall as well.
> 
> While Washington Mutual may have helped kick-start the subprime mortgage crisis, other financial institutions played off of it to market investments, only to make the inevitable collapse that much worse.  Goldman, which was grilled very publicly by Congress last year for its role in the meltdown, once again comes off as the leading culprit in this saga. The investment bank bundled these mortgages into larger investment packages and sold them to clients for a nice profit. But when Goldman realized the mortgage market was a taking a turn for the worse, it deliberately bet against the market even while continuing to push these mortgage-backed securities to its clients.
> 
> MORE


----------



## Intense

Chris said:


> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics



*Why isn't Wall Street in jail? *

Who would be left to run the Government?


----------



## The T

Intense said:


> Chris said:
> 
> 
> 
> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *Why isn't Wall Street in jail? *
> 
> Who would be left to run the Government?
Click to expand...

 
What aren't or leaders Past and Present IN JAIL for what they've done?


----------



## uscitizen

How can one put their owners in jail?


----------



## Mr. Jones

America is a failed state with a dual justice system....

Washington's Blog


----------



## LA RAM FAN

Chris said:


> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics



Yeah Wall Street is why america is in a mess.There is a really great book out that everybody here should read that nails how evil wall street is called WALL STREET KILLED KENNEDY.who of course was the last president we had for the people instead of for the corporations.


----------



## LA RAM FAN

miller said:


> Toro said:
> 
> 
> 
> I printed this article out, put it at the bottom of the pile and will read it in a month or so.
> 
> I am sympathetic towards critics of Wall Street, having seen Wall Street up and close.  However, Matt Taibbi, the author of this piece, is a dumbass with seemingly little understanding of financial history.  His hack piece on Goldman was awful.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I just explained it here
> Screwed Again: INVISIBLE BANK FRAUD
> 
> You are in a trance with the entire country.
Click to expand...


 He sure is.thats an understatement.


----------



## LA RAM FAN

BolshevikHunter said:


> These international banking criminals will rape this nation dry until there is nothing left to rape. Then, They will start a World War that we can't possibly win, pack up their bags & bank accounts (or wait, there in Sweden) their families and move on to the next Nation of victims. Then the stupid sheople will ask why, or how did this happen? As SOME helplessly watch their own families, friends and strangers become animals in the face of starvation, mass gang rapes and killings. Bet it, because it's coming to a theater near you sooner than later.  ~BH



exactly.well said.


----------



## waltky

Check out the documentary...

*Why no Wall St. bigwig has been prosecuted*
_5/15/2011 - They took risks, some of them extreme, but (so far) that isn't a crime_


> "Forgive me," began Charles Ferguson, the director of Inside Job, while accepting his 2011 Oscar for Best Documentary. "I must start by pointing out that three years after a horrific financial crisis caused by massive fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong." The audience erupted in applause.  Ferguson is not the first to express outrage over the lack of criminal cases to spring from the financial crisis, and his speech triggered a wave of similarly prosecutorial sentiments. Since that February night, financial journalists, bloggers, and who knows how many dinner party guests have debated the trillion-dollar question: When will a Wall Street executive be sent to jail?
> 
> There are those who have implied that prosecutors are either too cozy with Wall Street or too incompetent to bring cases to court. Thus, in a measured piece that assessed the guilt of various financial executives, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera lamented that "Wall Street bigwigs whose firms took unconscionable risks  aren't even on Justice's radar screen." A news story in the Times about a mortgage executive who was convicted of criminal fraud observed, "The Justice Dept. has yet to bring charges against an executive who ran a major Wall Street firm leading up to the disaster." In the same dispassionate tone, National Public Radio's All Things Considered chimed in, "Some of the most publicly reviled figures in the mortgage mess won't face any public accounting." New York magazine saw fit to print the estimable opinion of Bernie Madoff, who observed that the dearth of criminal convictions is "unbelievable." Rolling Stone, which has been beating this drum the longest and with the heaviest hand, reductively asked, "Why isn't Wall Street in jail?"
> 
> Taken from the top, these sentiments imply that the financial crisis was caused by fraud; that people who take big risks should be subject to a criminal investigation; that executives of large financial firms should be criminal suspects after a crash; that public revulsion indicates likely culpability; that it is inconceivable (to Madoff, anyway) that people could lose so much money absent a conspiracy; and that Wall Street bears collective guilt for which a large part of it should be incarcerated.
> 
> These assumptions do violence to our system of justice and hinder our understanding of the crisis. The claim that it was "caused by financial fraud" is debatable, but the weight of the evidence is strongly against it. The financial crisis was accompanied by fraud, on the part of mortgage applicants as well as banks. It was caused, more nearly, by a speculative bubble in mortgages, in which bankers, applicants, investors, and regulators were all blind to risk. More broadly, the crash was the result of a tendency in our financial culture, especially after a period of buoyancy, to push leverage and risk-taking to the extreme.
> 
> More Why no Wall St. bigwig has been prosecuted - Business - US business - msnbc.com


----------



## The T

uscitizen said:


> How can one put their owners in jail?


 
Easy. Just arrest them for failing the public TRUST they ran on. Let the COURT sort it out.


----------



## sparky

<pop>





1. A belief that ultimate powers resides in the people is ________________.

A) Popular Vote

B) Political Culture

C) Popular sovereignty

D) Majority Rule




2. A consistent pattern of beliefs about political values and the role of government is __________.

A) Political Ideology

B) Liberalism

C) Conservatism

D) Political Culture




3. ____________ is an ideology that cherishes individual liberty and insists on minimal government, promoting a free market economy, a noninterventionist foreign policy, and an absence of regulation in moral, economic, and social life.

A) Monopoly

B) Libertarianism

C) Liberalism 

D) Socialism




4.________ is the right to vote.

A) The American Dream

B) Popular sovereignty

C) Natural rights

D) Suffrage




5) Democratic and civic habits of discussion, compromise, and respect for differences, which grow out of participation in voluntary organizations is______________.

A) Social capital


B)  Democratic consensus 


C) Capitalism 


D) None of the above




*True or False: *



6) Antitrust legislation allows monopolies to dominate industry and trade.___


7) Natural rights are also called human rights. ____


8) Governance according to the expressed preferences of the majority is called majority rule._____

9) A monopoly is the domination of an industry by a single company that fixes prices and discourages competition. ___ 

10)  Socialism an ideology that the government can and should achieve justice and equality  of opportunity. ____ 



*Fill in the blank:*




11) The widespread agreement on fundamental principles of democratic governance and the values that undergird them is called a ________________. 

12)  A belief that limited government ensures order, competitive markets, and personal opportunity is called __________.

13)  People who believe in true freedom are people who are in favor for _____________.

14) The right to vote is called ______.


15)  An economic system characterized by private property, competitive markets, economic markets, economic incentives, and limited government involvement in the production, distributions, and pricing of goods and services is _______. 

answers>(no peeking)>http://apgovernment2010.yolasite.com/ch4.php


----------



## editec

miller said:


> editec said:
> 
> 
> 
> _Gee!_ Why didn't the servants put their masters in prison?
> 
> Let me think about that for a while, okay?
> 
> That's a tough one.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> We're the dumb ass masters who elect the servants who we know keep robbing us and the servants are a CRIME FAMILY.
> 
> That's because all of you are in a trance. The brainwash propaganda works. Our servants in the CIA figured out how to do that. Keep denying it you dumb ass.
Click to expand...

 

You honestly think the American people can _vote out_ this unholy alliance of corporation power and government?

_Seriously?_

Do you _truly think_ that an uncorruptable man is every going to get on enough State ballots to become POTUS?

And assuming that such a miracle happened, do you think that honest POTUS would not have his Dallas moment, too?

This nation needs to elect *536 uncorruptable citizens* to have a chance of hope and change.


----------



## editec

Dot Com said:


> Until there is some SERIOUS and ALL ENCOMPASSING Reform to campaign finance, they'll only prosecute a case here and there to serve as window-dressing to keep the masses entertained


 
And that's never going to happen because the SCOTUS has  systematically empowered corporations such that they own every nexus of power and the media, too.

Our governments (note the plural there) are rotten through and through.

You want to know why?  Because we do EXACTLY the opposite of the following to find people who are DISHONEST enough to be on the team, that's why.



> And then, I said, we must try them with enchantments that is the third sort of test --and see what will be their behaviour: like those who take colts amid noise and tumult to see if they are of a timid nature, so must we take our youth amid terrors of some kind, and again pass them into pleasures, and prove them more thoroughly than gold is proved in the furnace, *that **we may discover whether they are armed against all enchantments, and of **a noble bearing always, good guardians of themselves and of the music which **they have learned, and retaining under all circumstances a rhythmical and **harmonious nature, such as will be most serviceable to the individual and **to the State*. And he who at every age, as boy and youth and in mature life, has come out of the trial victorious and pure, shall be appointed a ruler and guardian of the State; he shall be honoured in life and death, and shall receive sepulture and other memorials of honour, the greatest that we have to give. But him who fails, we must reject. I am inclined to think that this is the sort of way in which our rulers and guardians should be chosen and appointed. I speak generally, and not with any pretension to exactness.


 
Plato; Book III _The Republic_


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## sparky

This nation needs to elect 536 uncorruptable citizens to have a chance of hope and change.

sorry but, i'm _Sparky_, not _St. Sparky_ Editec....


----------



## FRIKSHUN

You could write a 5000 page book just to answer your question..File a loan doc. with Bank of America and list checking account balance and cash on hand $(13,417,456,750,909.20)....


----------



## Publius1787

Chris said:


> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics



Because no crimes were commited that werent encouraged by U.S. law. See Community Reinvestment Act. Community Reinvestment Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------



## frazzledgear

Publius1787 said:


> Chris said:
> 
> 
> 
> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Because no crimes were commited that werent encouraged by U.S. law. See Community Reinvestment Act. Community Reinvestment Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click to expand...


You are right -our own government is at the core of it all and those in government most guilty didn't just encourage it with US law but are also guilty of PUSHING it -and are now the ones most loudly insisting Wall Street execs are "evil" and portraying them as enemies of the state.  If they are evil enemies of the state -what does that say about our own politicians who are the real root of the problem in the first place?  No one is in jail because the most guilty are the ones in government busiest pointing fingers anywhere else but at themselves.  It makes me sick listening to these politicians try to deny their own involvement in it all.  And NOW using it as justification for the demands to give government an even BIGGER role and as evidence that it requires giving government GREATER regulatory involvement in the private sector.   And saps who want to believe Wall Street just upped and did this without the ACTIVE participation, encouragement and even PRESSURE from our own government who actually encouraged it as part of their social engineering experiment -want to blindly give power hungry politicians ever more power so they can fuck things up even more.


----------



## Publius1787

frazzledgear said:


> Publius1787 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chris said:
> 
> 
> 
> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth &#8212; and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Because no crimes were commited that werent encouraged by U.S. law. See Community Reinvestment Act. Community Reinvestment Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> You are right -our own government is at the core of it all and those in government most guilty didn't just encourage it with US law but are also guilty of PUSHING it -and are now the ones most loudly insisting Wall Street execs are "evil" and portraying them as enemies of the state.  If they are evil enemies of the state -what does that say about our own politicians who are the real root of the problem in the first place?  No one is in jail because the most guilty are the ones in government busiest pointing fingers anywhere else but at themselves.  It makes me sick listening to these politicians try to deny their own involvement in it all.  And NOW using it as justification for the demands to give government an even BIGGER role and as evidence that it requires giving government GREATER regulatory involvement in the private sector.   And saps who want to believe Wall Street just upped and did this without the ACTIVE participation, encouragement and even PRESSURE from our own government who actually encouraged it as part of their social engineering experiment -want to blindly give power hungry politicians ever more power so they can fuck things up even more.
Click to expand...


Here it is. Enjoy.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs]YouTube - &#x202a;Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis&#x202c;&rlm;[/ame]


----------



## rdean

They're protected by Republicans.


----------



## Publius1787

rdean said:


> They're protected by Republicans.



Really? Name on guy that broke the law that is protected by republicans in regards to the financial crisis.


----------



## rdean

Publius1787 said:


> rdean said:
> 
> 
> 
> They're protected by Republicans.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Really? Name on guy that broke the law that is protected by republicans in regards to the financial crisis.
Click to expand...


Deregulated means "laws were revoked".  Republicans deregulated Wall Street.  Laws weren't broken because they were "removed".  It's not news.  It happened when they held both houses and the Presidency.

Why is the right is always so surprised at what their "masters" do?  Seriously.  They vote for those people, defend them, but haven't a clue what they are doing.  I find that mighty bizarre.


----------



## whitehall

Why aren't Rush Limbaugh and FOX media people in jail? Radicals probably wonder why. That pesky US Constitution keeps getting in the way of the liberal/socialist agenda.


----------



## rdean

whitehall said:


> Why aren't Rush Limbaugh and FOX media people in jail? Radicals probably wonder why. That pesky US Constitution keeps getting in the way of the liberal/socialist agenda.



I'm curious what you would call the "Fox" agenda.  Anti gay.  Anti woman's rights.  Since Obama became president, Republicans have offered 42 Amendments to the constitution (don't make me link that again) so they obviously want to change it.  The owner of Fox is Australian and the second largest stockholder is an Arabian Prince who thought the terrorists the brought down the WTC were "heroes".  And, they sued for the "right to lie" and won.

Why does the right wing think this network has the best interests of the country in mind?  Is the right that gullible?  They did believe Obama took a trip costing 200 million dollars a day and Acorn changed a national election, so I guess they are.


----------



## JiggsCasey

whitehall said:


> I think lefties dream about a day when they can "put people in jail" at will. If the left had their way they would close down every source of information they deem to be subversive and they would jail every slimy capitalist they could get their hands on. Elections would be "monitored" by the new black panther party and the stodgy old Constitution would be replaced with a more flexible document. Think I'm exaggerating? Look at some of the left wing posts.



LOL.... How do you dress yourself in the morning, scared little con?


----------



## snjmom

Publius1787 said:


> Chris said:
> 
> 
> 
> Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
> 
> "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
> 
> I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
> 
> "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
> 
> Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth  and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
> 
> Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Because no crimes were commited that werent encouraged by U.S. law. See Community Reinvestment Act. Community Reinvestment Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click to expand...







Wrong again.


----------



## FA_Q2

define "wall street"


----------



## Sallow

FA_Q2 said:


> define "wall street"



It's a street in Manhattan. 11 Wall Street is where the NYSE resides.

Take a trip..might be fun.


----------



## Sallow

Publius1787 said:


> frazzledgear said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Publius1787 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Because no crimes were commited that werent encouraged by U.S. law. See Community Reinvestment Act. Community Reinvestment Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You are right -our own government is at the core of it all and those in government most guilty didn't just encourage it with US law but are also guilty of PUSHING it -and are now the ones most loudly insisting Wall Street execs are "evil" and portraying them as enemies of the state.  If they are evil enemies of the state -what does that say about our own politicians who are the real root of the problem in the first place?  No one is in jail because the most guilty are the ones in government busiest pointing fingers anywhere else but at themselves.  It makes me sick listening to these politicians try to deny their own involvement in it all.  And NOW using it as justification for the demands to give government an even BIGGER role and as evidence that it requires giving government GREATER regulatory involvement in the private sector.   And saps who want to believe Wall Street just upped and did this without the ACTIVE participation, encouragement and even PRESSURE from our own government who actually encouraged it as part of their social engineering experiment -want to blindly give power hungry politicians ever more power so they can fuck things up even more.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Here it is. Enjoy.
Click to expand...


Freddie and Fannie had almost nothing to do with the economic crisis. Same with the CRA. In fact..this little witch hunt probably had a hand in excaserbating the situation over a million fold.


----------



## FA_Q2

Sallow said:


> FA_Q2 said:
> 
> 
> 
> define "wall street"
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It's a street in Manhattan. 11 Wall Street is where the NYSE resides.
> 
> Take a trip..might be fun.
Click to expand...


As the many people here have pointed out so far, you cannot jail a street.  So, again, I ask define Wall Street.  Define it as the subject in the OP.


----------



## Sallow

FA_Q2 said:


> Sallow said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> FA_Q2 said:
> 
> 
> 
> define "wall street"
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It's a street in Manhattan. 11 Wall Street is where the NYSE resides.
> 
> Take a trip..might be fun.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> As the many people here have pointed out so far, you cannot jail a street.  So, again, I ask define Wall Street.  Define it as the subject in the OP.
Click to expand...


You can jail John Thane.

A guy I use to work for.


----------



## Sallow

You could also probably jail this guy.

daniel sadek - Google Search

Daniel Sadek. Another author of the economic crash.


----------



## FA_Q2

Sallow said:


> You could also probably jail this guy.
> 
> daniel sadek - Google Search
> 
> Daniel Sadek. Another author of the economic crash.



You could but that is not what the OP said, was it?  No, people are going on this tirade that wall street needs punishment but the problem here is that it is just outrage that flows to the nearest target.  It reminds me of witch burning, the people dont care who needs to be punished and they just want some whooping.  It is bullshit.  There is no Wall Street that deserves jailing.  That would involve tons of people 90% of which are innocent.  But that does not stop the people here demanding why they are not in jail.  We need justice for those that committed illegal acts and that process is slow.  That is particularly true when most of these acts were legal in the first place.  No matter how bad they were, we are a nation of law and if there was no law broken no one should go to jail.  There are many people that did break laws and as some have pointed out, they are in the process of tracking them down and jailing those that rae guilty.  

Now, it there is a call for more inquiries and investigations I am all for it.  These calls to satiate bloodlust with all bankers is bullshit.


----------



## Sallow

FA_Q2 said:


> Sallow said:
> 
> 
> 
> You could also probably jail this guy.
> 
> daniel sadek - Google Search
> 
> Daniel Sadek. Another author of the economic crash.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You could but that is not what the OP said, was it?  No, people are going on this tirade that wall street needs punishment but the problem here is that it is just outrage that flows to the nearest target.  It reminds me of witch burning, the people dont care who needs to be punished and they just want some whooping.  It is bullshit.  There is no Wall Street that deserves jailing.  That would involve tons of people 90% of which are innocent.  But that does not stop the people here demanding why they are not in jail.  We need justice for those that committed illegal acts and that process is slow.  That is particularly true when most of these acts were legal in the first place.  No matter how bad they were, we are a nation of law and if there was no law broken no one should go to jail.  There are many people that did break laws and as some have pointed out, they are in the process of tracking them down and jailing those that rae guilty.
> 
> Now, it there is a call for more inquiries and investigations I am all for it.  These calls to satiate bloodlust with all bankers is bullshit.
Click to expand...


This post basically demonstrates you have little or no understanding of what on. I don't blame you, actually..it was a very complex scheme..and very hard to understand. I don't get a lot of it..and I work on wall street.

Nothing is probably going to happen. Why? Because it would be a disaster.


----------



## FA_Q2

Sallow said:


> FA_Q2 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sallow said:
> 
> 
> 
> You could also probably jail this guy.
> 
> daniel sadek - Google Search
> 
> Daniel Sadek. Another author of the economic crash.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You could but that is not what the OP said, was it?  No, people are going on this tirade that wall street needs punishment but the problem here is that it is just outrage that flows to the nearest target.  It reminds me of witch burning, the people don&#8217;t care who needs to be punished and they just want some whooping.  It is bullshit.  There is no Wall Street that deserves jailing.  That would involve tons of people 90% of which are innocent.  But that does not stop the people here demanding why they are not in jail.  We need justice for those that committed illegal acts and that process is slow.  That is particularly true when most of these acts were legal in the first place.  No matter how bad they were, we are a nation of law and if there was no law broken no one should go to jail.  There are many people that did break laws and as some have pointed out, they are in the process of tracking them down and jailing those that rae guilty.
> 
> Now, it there is a call for more inquiries and investigations I am all for it.  These calls to satiate bloodlust with all bankers is bullshit.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> This post basically demonstrates you have little or no understanding of what on. I don't blame you, actually..it was a very complex scheme..and very hard to understand. I don't get a lot of it..and I work on wall street.
> 
> Nothing is probably going to happen. Why? Because it would be a disaster.
Click to expand...


Really?  The fact that I don&#8217;t call for mass arresting of &#8216;Wall Street&#8221; means I have no understanding.  Perhaps you are just a moron.


----------



## Sallow

FA_Q2 said:


> Sallow said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> FA_Q2 said:
> 
> 
> 
> You could but that is not what the OP said, was it?  No, people are going on this tirade that wall street needs punishment but the problem here is that it is just outrage that flows to the nearest target.  It reminds me of witch burning, the people dont care who needs to be punished and they just want some whooping.  It is bullshit.  There is no Wall Street that deserves jailing.  That would involve tons of people 90% of which are innocent.  But that does not stop the people here demanding why they are not in jail.  We need justice for those that committed illegal acts and that process is slow.  That is particularly true when most of these acts were legal in the first place.  No matter how bad they were, we are a nation of law and if there was no law broken no one should go to jail.  There are many people that did break laws and as some have pointed out, they are in the process of tracking them down and jailing those that rae guilty.
> 
> Now, it there is a call for more inquiries and investigations I am all for it.  These calls to satiate bloodlust with all bankers is bullshit.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This post basically demonstrates you have little or no understanding of what on. I don't blame you, actually..it was a very complex scheme..and very hard to understand. I don't get a lot of it..and I work on wall street.
> 
> Nothing is probably going to happen. Why? Because it would be a disaster.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Really?  The fact that I dont call for mass arresting of Wall Street means I have no understanding.  Perhaps you are just a moron.
Click to expand...


Could be rabbit.

But I am not the one retorting with insults.

I answered your questions. At the very least you should thank me. It gives you a point where to start some research to come up with your own conclusions. I know..it's sort of tough..it brings in to question business ethics..a very thorny issue..considering Conservatives feel that greed should trump all.

Which basically shows you have no manners. I will take a moron over a person with no manners any day of the week.


----------

