Okay, Goldman Sachs, You Got Away With It This Time!

Below is a video and some of Yves' commentary regarding an interview she participated in for PBS. Here you see all the reasons why there are no prosecutions for the criminal financial activity that took place and helped bring down the financial system. We hear that there are no prosecutions because of the difficult, complex and diffused responsibility of financial activity. There are a lack of resources and willingness especially with the SEC case against Goldman's Abacus case where the SEC had four attorneys and the defense had dozens.

Then the revolving door between the SEC and law firms' defense lawyers are cited as a reason for lack of action. Banks that finance politicians' campaigns are another reason. It is noted that the DoJ is absent from criminal prosecutions. Regulators have conflicts of interest. Fannie and Freddie had lawyers paid for by the taxpayers. There is even the excuse that the Goldman Sachs civil fraud suit looked good but was not an adequate settlement where GS had billions and were fined a mere millions. There were apparently not enough facts to bring a criminal case (even though there was no investigation into finding those same missing facts!)

Was the civil case a way to play to the crowd? Or did it send a message? (One might think the wrong message was sent: you can keep taking risks because you will be bailed out.) It seemed that some of those interviewed thought that prosecutions wouldn't stop the fraudulent actions but regulations would. Then, of course , there is the statute of limitations to bringing fraud cases.

The conclusion is that the financial system has systemic problems that market discipline can't take care of and that Dodd-Frank will not prevent.

Only Yves Smith presented a means to prosecute the financial criminals. It seems that everyone else has decided that there is no need to focus on criminal behavior in this present financial crisis. One wonders how the United States will able to undo all the damage that has been done worldwide because of the accounting frauds in their top banks.

We Speak on PBS Newshour About Why No Bank Executives Have Gone to Jail
By Yves Smith - naked capitalism

The cynic in me has to note that PBS Newshour decided to cover the issue of why no banksters have gone to jail on what has to be one of their lowest traffic days of the year. And I have a sneaking suspicion I got the call to go on the show because it was not exactly easy to find people willing to be taped late in the afternoon on the day before Thanksgiving (they did have to go to the trouble not only of arranging for a studio in Alabama, but also finding a makeup person, since I’m not in the habit of taking my TV warpaint with me when I travel).

I hope you like this segment. PBS prefers a format which keeps the guests from interacting directly. On the one hand, they do allow each speaker to make fairly long, uninterrupted comments, which is refreshing (at least on American TV). But on the other hand, the lack of back and forth can allow speakers to talk past each other and also tends to reduce the vigor and incisiveness of the remarks.

The comments are worth reading also
You can see the comments and video here