Not prosecuting those who caused the financial collapse in 2007-8 may also cause future financial crises as the destruction of the Rule of Law breeds distrust in the financial system. If the financial system is seen as exploitive then the economy will continue to falter. The bailing out of Goldman Sachs and other banks makes the economy seem riskier and banks less trustworthy.
Because bank fraud caused the financial crisis, then just asking Goldman (politely) to pay a small fine for its frauds (and never do that again!) confirms the public's perception that the banks are getting away with committing fraud. When wrong doers are punished with criminal prosecutions, then confidence can be restored.
The Lie that Prosecuting Bank Fraud Will Destabilize the Economy Is What is REALLY Destroying the Economy
By WashingtonsBlog
Failing to Prosecute White Collar Crime Guarantees a Weak and Unstable Economy … and Future Financial Crashes
The Departments of Justice and Treasury are pretending that criminally prosecuting criminal banksters will destabilize the economy.
The exact opposite is true.
Failing to prosecute criminal fraud has been destabilizing the economy since at least 2007 … and will cause huge crashes in the future.
After all, the main driver of economic growth is a strong rule of law.
Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says that we have to prosecute fraud or else the economy won’t recover:
The legal system is supposed to be the codification of our norms and beliefs, things that we need to make our system work. If the legal system is seen as exploitative, then confidence in our whole system starts eroding. And that’s really the problem that’s going on.
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I think we ought to go do what we did in the S&L [crisis] and actually put many of these guys in prison. Absolutely. These are not just white-collar crimes or little accidents. There were victims. That’s the point. There were victims all over the world.
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Read the whole article here
2 COMMENTS:
It doesn't surprise me because prosecutors themselves are held to no standard. They are free to break the law without any accountability as long as it's on the job, depriving people of their constitutional rights. Prosecuting petty criminals and low-level drug users does incredible damage to families but prosecutors never concern themselves with that. I've had others disagree but I think the only way to demand 14th amendment rights for our fellow man is by holding prosecutors to the same standards for everybody. Refuse to convict or convict only on reduced charges, those whose prosecutors didn't bother to consider "the bigger picture" as they did for wealthy, white-collar criminals.
Well, that is the problem we have in our country as I see it. Those in government - at all levels - as well as the judicial system is not held accountable nor do they operate within the same standards we, as ordinary citizens, are held to.
It is very interesting that we have a system of government that is supposed to provide checks and balances yet no such "checks and balances" ever seem to occur to the benefit of "us" in the U.S.
In other words, we elect officials, in some cases they appoint others who then go out and hire more. What these elected officials along with their appointees seem to forget is that "THEY WORK FOR US".
We have a system that I have called a "Democratic Dictatorship". We are allowed to vote for those we want to represent us, but when elected by us, they seem to feel free to govern according to what suits them best, their own interests and their own pockets. They do not govern based on what "we the people" - a long forgotten phrase - seem to want.
You can see it at the local levels from mayors and city commissions all the way up to our three branches of government at the federal level.
It is the old saying that holds true,
HE WHO HAS THE GOLD RULES!
And the gold (the money in this country) is in the hands of our bankers who hold themselves out to be above the law, above the constitution and above the rest of us in this country. They seem to think that America has become their own private playground where the only laws that matter are the ones they want to matter when they want them to matter.
Washington, "We have a problem".
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