There Oughta Be A Law!

[xthread]

In another venue, someone argued 'the people who caused the mortgage meltdown be in jail?!'

I don't know if any of you, dear readers, happen to hold that view, but, if you do, would you be so kind as to tell me, in general terms, who you think ought to be in jail, and in specific terms, what you think they should be in jail for?

Let me note two important things at the outset: remember that lying to people is usually only against the law if you're doing so to cheat them out of money (which is why Bernie Madoff is in jail), and it's unconstitutional to make laws that make something retroactively illegal.

Got your moral outrage ready? Go!

Comments

[xthread.livejournal.com]

I don't know if Mr. Mozilo's penalty really amounts to much. What was his net worth? What's left after the fine? If he's still more than middle-class, the fine wasn't nearly large enough.

Um, being permanently barred from employment is peanuts? Do you really mean that?

So Mozilo may have been made the fall guy, but there are folks at BofA, Wells Fargo, Citibank, etc who need to go through the same ringer.

BofA's mortgage trail is Countrywide's. And the reason that Mozilo went down was because he was the founder of Countrywide. Y'know, the people who brought us subprime mortgage securitization in the first place?

Maybe so, but I think they would find lots and lots of rotten bathwater. But even if they didn't, we have a choice: prosecute the banksters, or keep paying Danegeld. Whatever the damage, it's going to be cheaper to clean up the rot now than to keep sweeping it under the rug.

So, what's your test? How would you be able to tell if the banksters were being prosecuted?
(I'm going to assume that you don't actually mean 'I would be willing to entirely crash the US economy to root out any fraud in the financial system')