Guest Post: Too Big To Jail Is Here To Stay
Submitted by John Aziz of Azizonomics blog,
Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General who claimed that prosecuting banks for crimes poses a risk to the financial sector and so corrupt bankers are “too big to jail” has lost his job:
MARTIN SMITH: You gave a speech before the New York Bar Association. And in that speech, you made a reference to losing sleep at night, worrying about what a lawsuit might result in at a large financial institution.
LANNY BREUER: Right.
MARTIN SMITH: Is that really the job of a prosecutor, to worry about anything other than simply pursuing justice?
LANNY BREUER: Well, I think I am pursuing justice. And I think the entire responsibility of the department is to pursue justice. But in any given case, I think I and prosecutors around the country, being responsible, should speak to regulators, should speak to experts, because if I bring a case against institution A, and as a result of bringing that case, there’s some huge economic effect — if it creates a ripple effect so that suddenly, counterparties and other financial institutions or other companies that had nothing to do with this are affected badly — it’s a factor we need to know and understand.
But the man who put him there, and who is ultimately responsible for the policy — the Attorney General himself — is here to stay.
Attorney General Eric Holder expressed similar views in the context of discussing why more severe charges weren’t brought against Zurich-based UBS AG last year for manipulating the London interbank offered rate. And Neil Barofsky, a onetime senior prosecutor and former inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program that administered the bank bailouts, provided a scathing assessment of Justice Department policy.
The Justice Department likes to quote Thomas Jefferson: “The most sacred of the duties of government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens,” a line that appears in its latest budget documents.
This sentiment is hardly consistent with saying that some companies have characteristics that put them above the law. Jefferson himself was very worried about the concentrated power of financiers — he would have seen today’s problems much more clearly than do Holder and Breuer.
Fundamentally, Obama’s continued support for Holder illustrates that Obama is still committed to the policy of holding financiers to a lesser standard of justice than other citizens.
The continued failure to implement even the Volcker rule — let alone a Glass-Steagall-style separation between retail and investment banking — illustrates that Obama is committed to letting bailed-out banks continue to operate in the risky manner that led to the crisis. So does the total failure to ensure a level playing field for retail investors in a market now totally dominated by algorithms.
The big banks continue to ride roughshod over the American people with the complicity of the political class. Too Big to Jail is an affront to the Constitution, an affront to the Bill of Rights, an affront to those like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Lysander Spooner, Frederick Douglas and all those who at various times crusaded to make equality before the law a reality in America.
The only sensible way forward is that lawbreakers on Wall Street must be prosecuted in the same way as other lawbreakers. That means that Eric Holder and all others associated with Too Big To Jail must lose their jobs.
But I doubt that will happen any time soon.
(24 votes)
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I see the Gun Grabber in Chief is in Minnesota today making his case for reasonable unreasonableness.
Unfortunately he is and it's creeping me out because that means he way too close to me. There is a ton of anti-gun legislation coming up in the legislature here. Maybe I should contact my state rep? Oh wait, I can't because I don't have one! Thanks a lot Steve!
http://politicsinminnesota.com/2013/01/rep-steve-gottwalt-resigns-from-house-of-representatives/
They have all the economic data...they know how bad it is...they know the endgame...that's why he's backing the bankers and that's why they want our guns.
Kyle Bass said it best when he stated that, "The governments job is not to tell us the truth, but rather its job is to instill confidence." We're in a jetliner running on one engine and losing altitude fast, but the government ordered us to lower our window shades and they are telling us things are fine and we're slowly gaining altitude...until we crash and burn.
Sorry to say, but I think you've hit the nail squarely.
+100
They are also telling the passengers:
"stick your arms out at and start flapping" and
"the people that built this crashing inferno are your friends and if you only do what they say again, this time everything will work out fine" and
"the more you spend the more you save" and
"your vacation destination in hell is just a mouse click away"
OT but why no post about Herbalife yet? They dropped 4% today: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-04/herbalife-drops-after-report-of...
Time to declare Ackman winner or ..?
HLF is back in the green.
Aw, poo.
Oh well..The Icahn is strong in this one I guess.
Should have known better than to take anything bloomberg writes serious. Upvote for you!
This post is a joke right? It's against the law to break the law in America isn't it? after all, the cops always let me off w/ a warning. Fuck em!
Don't question the Government - look at S&P reward for downgrade.
Holder has more important things on his plate besides worrying about prosecuting some corrupt bankers....He has to develope a plan to disarm the citizenry to protect the corrupt bankers.
Rule of law? HAHAHA!!!
"Barry Get your Gun".
Is DC even part of America? Maybe we need to invade.
Now we know what the people of nazi germany felt when the rule of law was abandoned for fascism... who would have thunk it?? this is going to get REALLY violent.
It's already violent, it's just that the wrong people are being targeted, like poor defenseless schoolchildren. My valuation puts 1 child's life above the lives of all the crooks discussed here daily.
I's very simply:
YOU DON'T BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU!
so why should the government go after banks
Agreed. Election REFORM is where we need to start if change is to come without violence.
The last election was totally rigged. The NWO also made double and triple sure by knocking out Ron Paul and then Santorum to get us Romney in case the election theft somehow failed.
The Democrats and Democrat voeter plus the RINOs like Rove are the same team.
Constitutional Amendment (assuming the Republic is still standing) that states there has to be seperation of corporation and state or something to that effect would be a good start and something the states could do to bypass these bastards. Problem is the fabian socialist (these people are not liberals, just faux-liberals masquerading as left wing democrats) strongholds like in New York, Chicago, California etc. are going to be an impediment.
Cut the whole cancer out at once and have a portion of tax revenue go towards elections and salaries. No special interest monies period from any groups. If they are going to be on the take only allow them to be on the take to the populace they are elected to serve.
Corporations are not people regardless of what the courts say. They are nothing more than groups of individuals, just like government or anything else. They are groupings of not an actual person.
The unions need to be politically neutered, too. Usually, the union leadership supports positions/candidates/legislation that are opposed by their members. The large unions should be broken up - anti-trust style. Any more, the unions are just a Democrat funding mechanism, with representation of their members being a distant second priority.
Eric [dick] Holder has decimated the rule of law and shattered any semblance of criminal justice in the USA. Like banks and fraud money, confidence is gone, gone, gone.
Whoever wrote if the faggot-bankers don't have to follow the law, why should anyone else has it absolutely right. Anarchy ensues to the welcome applause of everyone with a conscience.
Breuer and Holder are the laughing stock of "justice."
Eric better stay away from Skittles and iced tea.
Befehl ist Befehl, bitchez. Trials will be in a empty Detroit car factory. Executions right behind the Eccles building.
In colonial era South (and North) Carolina, when the government would not contain rampant criminal activity in the back woods, the people assembled and nominated some from their number to bring evil-doers to justice. They were called Regulators. Later when the Regulators realized the power they controlled, they became a law to themselves, persecuting the lawful but socially undesirable ... the poor and no-accounts. Another group needed to be formed to rein in the Regulators, this group was called the Moderators. Should we form a new Regulator group? The Government Regulators?
Eric Place Holder is a useless seat warmer. Like a Chicago City Hall Ghost pay roller.
Only shows up in public meetings.
The President is behind this of course and behind the President was the Weasel Geithner, bankster mole in Treasury.
lets face it, if you follow the rules and pay your bills on time you are a fucking fool.....i've had few friends try and get mortgage relief as they are underwater big time but there's a problem......they are still making their payments every month so there's no help for them only those who stopped paying can get relief......what a fucked up country.
Banks have so much on that guy, from Oklahoma City to Sandy Hook that he doesn't dare do anything that the the banksters don't tell him to do.
That means that Eric Holder and all others associated with Too Big To Jail must lose their jobs.
- John Aziz
Losing ones command however transitory over an epic whoopsie of this nature can not be punishment enough for acts of state treason, especially those acts committed during times of armed conflict. There aren't any statute of limitations issues with section 2380 et al of 18 USC to be concerned with.
ECB president Mario Draghi gave voice to the sentiment of major central banks that black money must be protected at 100% (plus reasonable carry of course) or else while OECD justice systems insist that prosecuting said treason will destroy world finance reflect the rule our rulers. So world finance and their subservient systems of government MUST give shelter and aid to these channels rendering OECD governing systems fatally compromised by their webs of treason against society and its rule of law.
These dynamics have been elevated to the status of imminent clear and present danger to the national security of the United States by the president and his administration of government. The same holds true in the EU, UK, Japan, China, Russia .. heck, everywhere.
Welcome to the worldwide mafia state in action John
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/opinion/krugman-friends-of-fraud.html?...
What a tool.
I'll see your Krugman and raise.
http://watchdog.org/65786/study-warns-dodd-frank-could-trigger-financial...
By creating new agencies like the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and expanding the role of existing entities like the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve and others, Peirce said Dodd-Frank puts the nation’s financial health in the hands of regulators while providing little clarity for the rules they enforce.
Among the book’s key criticisms is the law’s underlying philosophy, that some companies are so large and interconnected throughout the economy that their default would result in disastrous market contagion. The authors contend that Dodd-Frank responds with the sort of regulatory overreach that guarantees government protection for companies that, like insurance giant AIG, are considered too-big-to-fail.
While some regulations have expanded, others have vague constraints, such as the Volcker Rule. Named for Fed chairman Paul Volcker, the rule was designed to keep banks from investing customer assets in risky speculation. But the rule brought more questions about how banks can legally invest, setting up a potential chill in the securities market.
While Dodd-Frank is responsible for much new financial regulation, Peirce said the law provides no oversight for the housing industry that was at the center of the financial crisis. Nor does it clarify government’s role in the home mortgage business.
“Big components like housing finance reform, that issue was totally not addressed by Dodd-Frank,” she said. “That was a huge part of the problem in the crisis, the government’s involvement in (backing mortgages). It made the government more likely to step in and save entities because the government itself was so deeply entrenched.”
The bigger problem: the natural risks of the marketplace have been replaced by Dodd-Frank’s confidence in the wisdom of regulators.
Yeah I wonder why that is? /sarc
Which company(s) board of directors are Dodd and Frank sitting on now hmm?
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/barney-frank/49/515/462
http://www.mpaa.org/about/ceo
"Too big to jail" is probably similar to the thoughts the Sun King and his Consort were having around 1788 in France.
Strange that the best sniper in the world has now suddenly been killed (targeted?).
Fuck I hate EH. He looks like the type who should be bitch-slapped by his boy friend.
Turtle Holder
Holder is the J. Edgar Hoover of our time.
it only takes 3 to form a criminal conspiracy; holder, benanke, geitner