Well... We Knew This Was Coming... 'That Foot On Your Neck' - FDL

[WillyT]

That Foot On Your Neck
By: masaccio - FDL
Thursday April 14, 2011 12:48 pm

<snip>

Most of the time, you can ignore that foot on your neck. You can pretend that electoral politics work and that we are a nation of law, not of rich people. You can revel when your tribe puts someone in office, and pretend that the person you voted for is working in your interests.

Not today. Today it is confirmed: there will be no prosecutions, there will be no accountability for the rich financiers and their clients who caused the Great Crash of 2008, profited mightily, fought off regulation, and escaped with their personal fortunes and their reputations intact, all as part of the great muddle-through plan of the Obama administration.

Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story report in the New York Times that in mid-October, 2008, in the middle of the collapse, Timothy Geithner met with Andrew Cuomo:

According to three people briefed at the time about the meeting, Mr. Geithner expressed concern about the fragility of the financial system.

His worry, according to these people, sprang from a desire to calm markets, a goal that could be complicated by a hard-charging attorney general.

At the time, Geithner was President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Cuomo was the Attorney General of New York. Cuomo ran noisy investigations but did not prosecute anyone. Now Geithner is Treasury Secretary and Cuomo is Governor of New York. Both of them have been rewarded for their attention to the needs and concerns of the financial markets.

Morgenson and Story report that the efforts of the FBI to ramp up to investigate the fraud and abuse were crushed by the Department of Justice, then headed by Michael Mukasey, shades of Alberto Gonzalez, can’t remember requests to beef up that operation. They report an unpublished policy of the SEC adopted in 2009 calling for caution in issuing hefty fines against banks that had gotten huge bailouts. I wonder how grateful the banks and their rich shareholders are for that thoughtfulness?

<snip>

Link: http://my.firedoglake.com/masaccio/2011/04/14/that-foot-on-your-neck/

NYT piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/business/14prosecute.html?_r=3&hp=&pagewanted=print

:wtf:

:banghead:

:mad:

[Octafish]

1. The largest transfer of wealth in human history.

It's what they said after Reaganomics and the Savings & Loan bailouts, too.

Big Time crooks got away then, too.

[chill_wind]

2. K & R. n/t

[WillyT]

3. Morning Kick...

:kick:

[WillyT]

4. Last Kick From Me...

:kick: