Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? - Opinions on the article?

Mmmm Beefy:

I don't see this guy mentioning Fannie and Freddy, the implicitly backed government agencies that might have cost taxpayers a penny or two with the financial crisis

Someone didn't read the article... "In 2003, Freddie Mac coughed up $125 million after it was caught misreporting its earnings by $5 billion; nobody went to jail. In 2006, Fannie Mae was fined $400 million, but executives who had overseen phony accounting techniques to jack up their bonuses faced no criminal charges." (top of page 4).

TheKing:

Anyone that writes off the article without reading it is a moron. Take off your horse blinders and use your brain for something other than updating comps.

But anyone that writes off the title of the article without reading the article is not a moron. They are the opposite.

phalanxOhTen:

I'm with TheKing on this one. I was expecting the same bullshit article about Wall Street bonuses being too high causing banksters to steal from the middle class, but this article is actually really good.

As someone on Wall Street who does things the right way (i.e., no insider trading or other scamming), you should be more outraged at lack of enforcement on the scammers than anyone else. The people on Wall Street who cheat cut into your profits/bonus, give your job a bad name, and eventually bring on more regulation that is only going to make your job harder/less profitable while they keep cheating.

I'm not saying Lloyd Blankfein should go to jail (as far as I can tell, he didn't do anything criminally illegal), but harsh punishments and strict enforcement of the rules benefit everyone, especially those of us on Wall Street.

+1

persimmon:

I hope more of you read this. I don't work on Wall Street, but I know a lot of you do.

I was hoping to hear some honest self-reflection about the role of Wall Street and bankers in society, its seemingly supra-legal status, and how one might be able to turn a blind eye to this gross injustice and continue on with her work. A child whose parents jumped the border when he was but a few months old is not an American, and if he gets caught picking weeds at a dollar an hour when he's 12, he could be deported, but lawbreaking crooks on Wall Street go unpunished.

Do you think this is a problem? If so, what is the solution?

I think this is a huge problem. Unfortunately, I am not sure how you reform the system to ensure the SEC and USAO actually do their jobs. Someone smart needs to come up with something, though.

This is why I have such a problem with people that just rail on unions and workers, but really stay quiet when we discuss people getting away with fraud and other illegal activities. The poor are the poor and they get some assistance. The rich get richer and get away with many things. (By rich I mean the mega rich, not some guy making $1-10M per year). Who gets screwed? The middle and upper-middle classes, unfortunately.

Ben Shalom Bernanke:

I want to clarify my stance on the article. Obviously, Taibbi's bread and butter is anti-Wall Street type articles. There's a certain tone to his articles. Still, after reading the article, he has points that I can agree with. The "SRO's" are not getting anything done in terms of "regulating". Look at the SEC and all of their porn fetishes, it's a wonder they had time to do anything.

By the way, not to high-jack the thread, but I read Harry Markopolos reports on Madoff that he sent to the SEC years ago. After reading how much in-depth research he had on Madoff, it's absolutely AMAZING that they didn't bring him in that day. That's another situation where politics trumped common sense.

I always hear people dismiss him because of "a certain tone to his articles," and honestly, that's a bunch of horse shit. He tells it like it is and doesn't feel the need to sugar coat it when he calls guys like Dick Fuld / Frank Cassano massive assholes. The fact is that the mainstream media rolled over and ignored the real issues that came out of the financial crisis - Taibbi is one of the only people out there investigating and writing about things like the rocket-docket courts and the cozy relationship between Wall Street and the regulators.