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The Financial Crisis: Why Have No High-Level Executives Been Prosecuted?
New York Review of Books ^ | January 9, 2013 | By Jed S. Rakoff

Posted on 01/09/2014 8:35:15 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee

Five years have passed since the onset of what is sometimes called the Great Recession. While the economy has slowly improved, there are still millions of Americans leading lives of quiet desperation: without jobs, without resources, without hope.

Who was to blame? Was it simply a result of negligence, of the kind of inordinate risk-taking commonly called a “bubble,” of an imprudent but innocent failure to maintain adequate reserves for a rainy day? Or was it the result, at least in part, of fraudulent practices, of dubious mortgages portrayed as sound risks and packaged into ever more esoteric financial instruments, the fundamental weaknesses of which were intentionally obscured?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------snip---------------------------------------------------

Without multiplying examples further, my point is that the Department of Justice has never taken the position that all the top executives involved in the events leading up to the financial crisis were innocent; rather it has offered one or another excuse for not criminally prosecuting them—excuses that, on inspection, appear unconvincing. So, you might ask, what’s really going on here? I don’t claim to have any inside information about the real reasons why no such prosecutions have been brought, but I take the liberty of offering some speculations.

(Excerpt) Read more at nybooks.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: affordablehousing; barneyfrank; chrisdodd; chuckschumer; cra; craandrewcuomo; cracarter; craclinton; cracracra; cracuomo; cradodd; cradoj; crafrank; crahud; craobama; fannie; fanniemae; freddie; freddiemac; wallstreet; wallstreetcrime
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Jed Saul Rakoff is a U.S. District Judge on senior status for the Southern District of New York. Article is wordy but at some point below he blames then-HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo for helping to create the mortgage crisis. One explanation for the lack of prosecution of CEO's may be that the government meddling in the financial markets was a huge factor in the collapse.
1 posted on 01/09/2014 8:35:15 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Why? Because all the Wall Street executives bought off the politicians.


2 posted on 01/09/2014 8:39:04 PM PST by Bryan24 (When in doubt, move to the right..........)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Why have no high-level gov’t officials been prosecuted? The gov’t caused the recession - not the private sector. At the top of the list of people who should have been prosecuted are Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.


3 posted on 01/09/2014 8:40:50 PM PST by vbmoneyspender
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To: Bryan24

Wrong.
The politicians caused the problems in the first place.


4 posted on 01/09/2014 8:43:16 PM PST by Kansas58
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To: Brad from Tennessee

John Corzine!


5 posted on 01/09/2014 8:43:30 PM PST by Lurkina.n.Learnin (This is not just stupid, we're talking Democrat stupid here.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Maybe because none of them broke any laws.


6 posted on 01/09/2014 8:43:39 PM PST by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: vbmoneyspender
At the top of the list of people who should have been prosecuted are Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.

Amen to that!

The current Justice Department and the MSM know that it would only take a slight scratching of the surface to reveal the festering mess of Liberal Congressional meddling in the housing market.

7 posted on 01/09/2014 8:59:36 PM PST by BwanaNdege
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Donating big money to the right Democrats can pay off BIG.
The Corruptocrats are fast taking us to third-world status.


8 posted on 01/09/2014 9:00:43 PM PST by tcrlaf (Well, it is what the Sheeple voted for....)
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To: Bryan24

That’s tiddlywinks…they bought off Hollywood and the media.


9 posted on 01/09/2014 9:02:36 PM PST by Mamzelle
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To: tcrlaf

And you’re fooling ypurself if you really believe that it was just the Democrats or even mostly Democrats.


10 posted on 01/09/2014 9:04:43 PM PST by Benito Cereno
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To: BwanaNdege; vbmoneyspender

“At the top of the list of people who should have been prosecuted are Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.”

And let’s not forget Jimmy Carter for the Community Reinvestment Act and BJ Clinton for doubling down on it.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-cra-debate-a-users-guide-2009-6


11 posted on 01/09/2014 9:05:36 PM PST by aquila48
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Save


12 posted on 01/09/2014 9:15:39 PM PST by Eagles6 (Valley Forge Redux)
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To: Bryan24

I think it is more than the politicians concluded a corrupt bargain with the pols. It all took place on September 15, 2008. when Bush’s treasury sec brokered the deal. Obama and McCain were both part of it. Because Obama was “reasonable,” he won the election because he was younger and prettier than the old flyboy.


13 posted on 01/09/2014 9:20:07 PM PST by RobbyS (quotes)
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To: BenLurkin; All

I don’t know why people blame Wall Street executives for the loan crisis when it’s not the Wall Street execs that made students take out loans for school, or forced people to buy houses and cars and lifestyles that they couldn’t afford. Wall Street profited off of a lot of results that came from those loans, but it’s not the fault of the executives that people lost control of themselves.


14 posted on 01/09/2014 9:52:32 PM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
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To: vbmoneyspender

As far as I’m concerned, it was the politicians that voted for these bailouts and corporate welfare.


15 posted on 01/09/2014 9:53:39 PM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
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To: BwanaNdege

A lot of people ended up speculating in housing, which triggered a huge amount of instability.


16 posted on 01/09/2014 9:54:36 PM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
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To: CorporateStepsister

I’m not certain what you mean about “speculating in housing”.

Are you talking about the reselling of mortgages to Europe?


17 posted on 01/09/2014 10:28:50 PM PST by eyedigress ((zOld storm chaser from the west)/ ?s)
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To: BwanaNdege

I kinda agree. All that the AG had to do was send off a dozen prosecution teams, and it would have hauled in fifty banking and finance officials by this point for at least a year in prison.

I’m guessing that almost everyone had evidence in hand of not just elected officials taking bribes....but also judges...and probably even links to several Presidents (Clinton, Bush, and Obama). If you notice....even state prosecutors have avoided any action, and it even goes down to local city prosecution teams that have just plain dropped the ball on this.


18 posted on 01/09/2014 10:48:58 PM PST by pepsionice
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To: pepsionice

I think over 1,100 people went to Jail in Savings and Loan scandal under Reagan


19 posted on 01/09/2014 11:20:21 PM PST by scooby321
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Why isn’t Barney Frank in jail?


20 posted on 01/10/2014 12:02:53 AM PST by Washi (Stop Obama's War On Jobs)
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