To Deter Crime, Get Tough on Wall Street

The Creeping Fascism of American Politics

FOCUS: States Unite Against Citizens United

Cut It Out: An Open Letter to Black Bloc Anarchists

Dimon's Deja Vu Debacle

This Is What Tyranny Looks Like

David Sirota begins: "Often, the most provocative ideas arise after swigs of whiskey. This is especially true when a Rolling Stone reporter is around - and, as I recently learned, it's all but guaranteed when that Rolling Stoner is Matt Taibbi, aka the heir to the magazine's gonzo throne."

File photo, Wall Street Bull, 06/15/09. (photo: File unspecified)

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-15 # Eric Boehner 2010-11-19 23:59

This is not good. Leave Wall Street alone. They have not done anything wrong. There is no proof. Madoff was an isolated case. Repeal the financial reform law. Let the market be an independent market. We also don't need the Securities and Exchange Commission. If you are stupid enough to go in to the stock market and you get creamed well then you deserve it.

+9 # B. 2010-11-20 11:08

Quoting

This is not good. Leave Wall Street alone. They have not done anything wrong. There is no proof. Madoff was an isolated case. Repeal the financial reform law. Let the market be an independent market. We also don't need the Securities and Exchange Commission. If you are stupid enough to go in to the stock market and you get creamed well then you deserve it.

Mr. Boehner, I hope your'e comment was satire at it's best, if not "what planet are you from ?"

0 # Mark 2010-11-21 11:03

Quoting

This is not good. Leave Wall Street alone. They have not done anything wrong. There is no proof. Madoff was an isolated case. Repeal the financial reform law. Let the market be an independent market. We also don't need the Securities and Exchange Commission. If you are stupid enough to go in to the stock market and you get creamed well then you deserve it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH A... No

+3 # Sharon Kayne 2010-11-22 12:07

You don't have to "go into" the stock market to get "creamed" by it. The Great Recession screwed over all sorts of people who had nothing to do with creating the bubble -- they just got caught in the massive unemployment that followed the burst. But the guys who created it got (and have stayed) rich and went unpunished. What heppens on Wall Street doesn't stay on Wall Street -- it impacts the whole nation.

0 # Phronemophile 2010-11-28 00:04

Quoting

This is not good. Leave Wall Street alone. They have not done anything wrong. There is no proof. Madoff was an isolated case. Repeal the financial reform law. Let the market be an independent market. We also don't need the Securities and Exchange Commission. If you are stupid enough to go in to the stock market and you get creamed well then you deserve it.

Hello, Eric. I hope you and cousin John had a pleasant Thanksgiving reunion.

+8 # Thomas Sawyer 2010-11-20 05:10

Simply changing some of the rules would go a long way. Make insurance payments for more than one financial exposure uncollectable----there goes the derivative game. Set a minimum holding period for all stack ownership of 20 hours, and there goes Flash Trading, and Day Trading, neither one of which contributes to the real function of a stock market.

+7 # AML 2010-11-20 06:34

I'm thinking that yes, this pattern will not change any time soon. The one simple magic wand thing I would do is require all white collar criminals, whether they serve time or not, to wear orange prison jumpsuits for any public speaking engagement, whether impromptu or arranged.

I thought up this fantasy when Oliver North went on to his public speaking career.

+7 # Antonia Myss 2010-11-20 06:51

What?! Corporations were given protection and rights under the Constitution but none of the responsibilitie s?! That in and of itself appears criminal. Can you even imagine that a Person (as distinguished from a corporation which exists solely to make money) were to commit acts leading to the death of many (mass murder) would not be tried, convicted and get the death penalty? Damned right CEOs should get the death penalty for the crimes they condone on behalf of the corporations they lead!

+3 # brianf 2010-11-20 08:07

Equality is still a distant dream....

+5 # Edie K. 2010-11-20 14:02

We don't need to send financial wrong-doers to prison - Just confiscate their assets and apply a lifetime 100% tax on all their earnings over minimum wage.

+4 # LARS 2010-11-20 15:10

When the Russian economy collapsed after the fall of the USSR, basically the Russian "Mafia" and cruel opportunistic creep Wall Street types took over, and impoverished the Russian people to the point people were begging in the street and there was no fuel. When Putin came to power, he went after those crooks, threw them into REAL prisons like real criminals, seized their ill-gotten gains and compensated the victims. The Russian economy stabilized and recovered, the lives of ordinary people became comfortable and secure. Putin had the intelligence and guts to treat them like criminals, rather than coddling them as we do in US and EU. Obama would have been a hero if he'd taken the crooks on, but he lacks the guts or maybe is too beholden to them. Obama is lucky if the Repubs will let him serve out his single term, and they will impeach him on any technicality, and hand us over to the wolves without even HOPE in our hearts that they will not utterly destroy us - whereas Putin had two, and may be able to run again after Medvedev's term. Putin is a well loved President because he stands up for his people.

+2 # Charles Elliott 2010-11-20 16:10

Why not a non-profit coalition that would make a citizens arrest of these crooks and present indictments to Grabd Juries? Obviously the ensconsed officials are not interested in doing there jobs...

+2 # SOF 2010-11-21 09:40

It's corporate law. That's why power incorporates -so no human is responsible or guilty by law for their excesses and crimes. We were hoodwinked long ago. Now is the first time enough people are getting wise to their scam. So, now is the time to challenge and change corporate laws.

+2 # Hors-D-whores 2010-11-21 14:29

For years I was ambivalent about my belief of the death penalty.
A couple of years ago I became convincingly not for it, when I realized that the people that deserved to get it were not, if they had enough influence and money to get out of whatever they were accused of. (I do believe that if charged with a crime people should be in jail without parole.)

What I'm trying to say is, that people that robbed the public whose money they were entrusted with, caused much hardships, maybe even death and they don't get punished. Not only should they have to be stripped of all their money, but spend time in jail.
People that start wars for their own enrichment, where young soldiers and multitudes of people die, they don't get punished.

Justice has become a mockery.

0 # Hank 2010-11-22 07:40

Allow Mr. Holder and the Justice Department to investigate Wall Street. If a bunch of those who profited illegally were sent to prison for 10 years or more, the other "traders" might clean up their acts.

0 # AML 2010-11-23 12:22

Quoting

Allow Mr. Holder and the Justice Department to investigate Wall Street. If a bunch of those who profited illegally were sent to prison for 10 years or more, the other "traders" might clean up their acts.

Allow????? Do you really think Holder would act on that? He hasn't gone after Bush/Cheney, and wouldn't go after those responsible for the travesty that has been taking place the last decade.

It would be tough to do so anyway, since alot of the profit-taking was and is still legal. We need reform.

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