The big banks have committed massive crimes [7] and manipulated virtually every market [8].
The failure to prosecute fraud is preventing a sustainable economic recovery [9].
As such, prosecuting Wall Street fraud is arguably an issue of national security.
The government is collecting everything [10] … and spying on just about everything we do [11].
We are passionately opposed to mass surveillance [12]. But – if the government is doing so – why can’t it gather info on the crimes of the big banks … so we can prosecute them?
You might assume that spying is only used to stop terrorism.
But the government has – in fact – often invoked national security powers in regards to the financial system. For example, Business Week reported [13]on May 23, 2006:
President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations.
Reuters noted [14] in 2010:
U.S. securities regulators originally treated the New York Federal Reserve’s bid to keep secret many of the details of the American International Group bailout like a request to protect matters of national security, according to emails obtained by Reuters.
This is especially true given that some of the biggest banks have been caught actively [15] assisting terrorists [16].
Unfortunately, spying is being used to crush dissent [17] … and specifically to protect the banks and target those who are trying to hold the banks accountable [18].