MarketWatch: The nation tires of Wall Street 'justice': ALL CRIMES AND NO PUNISHMENT, RATHER PROMOTIONS/PAY RAISES FOR BANKSTERS AND ALLIED CONGRESS CRITTERS

Vatic Note:  Well, finally, a Wall Street MSM is speaking out about the reality of Wall Street, the shanky bankers and internationalist crime syndicates, and for some reason when they do it, it makes it real to some people.  Even though we have all seen the same thing going on year after year since 9-11 if not before and this is what we end up with a whole 10 years and trillions of dollars of our wealth later, along with the blood of thousands of our children.  Too damn little, just too damn late.  It would have been nice had Marketwatch said something back in 2003.  But heck, we should be grateful for what we get. Enjoy the read, its actually pretty good about the details of the crimes committed and lack of justice meted out. 

MarketWatch: The nation tires of Wall Street ‘justice’: ALL CRIMES AND NO PUNISHMENT, RATHER PROMOTIONS/PAY RAISES FOR BANKSTERS AND ALLIED CONGRESS CRITTERS

http://i.marketwatch.com/MW5/content/story/images/print-logo.gif
by David Weidner, Market Watch, Provided to Vatic Project by Anonymous, western USA
Oct. 19, 2010

The nation tires of Wall Street ‘justice’

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) – If you want to take the pulse of how many Americans
feel about justice meted out to Wall Street, take a look at the more than
200 comments posted to MarketWatch’s story on the settlement between
prosecutors and Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide
Financial.

http://ei.marketwatch.com/Multimedia/2010/10/18/Photos/ME/MW-AG870_mo…101018115416_ME.jpg
Reuters
Former Countrywide Financial Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo

“The average Joe Schmoe is paying the price financially while these CEOs get
a slap on the wrist and a big check to retire.”

“People are losing their homes and dignity and jobs. We are finding out more
and more every day that the money has been stolen from the average Joe and
distributed to the high level executives.”

“You steal from people and you walk free by giving part of your loot to the
police.”

“How are we supposed to believe that justice has been served? I’m not a
lawyer but surely, this appears to be a big let-down for the victims of
Countrywide’s bad practices.”

“When is Angelo going to get an orange jumpsuit to match his orange face?”
And those were the nicer, more civil comments. Read
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/countrywides-mozilo-settles-sec-char…
10-10-15 story and comments on Mozilo settlement.

The frustration many of us feel toward regulators and prosecutors is a
reaction to the pain many of us feel as we look at our depleted brokerage
accounts, job prospects and the sinking value of the homes we bought in the
bubble.

It seems the chiefs of the banks, ratings agencies, mortgage companies and
hedge funds must be culpable. Someone has to go to jail for such gross
neglect, incompetence or knowing disregard for the truth.

They haven’t, of course. Mozilo agreed to pay a $67.5 million fine that will
be shared with Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) shareholders. Goldman
Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) as an institution agreed to pay $550 million in
a settlement, which seemed steep until many realized it was less than 5% of
annual earnings, and, based on the company’s first quarter, 10.2 days of
market earnings.

There was a glimmer of hope from the bench this year when judges initially
rejected settlement pacts between regulators and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)
and Bank of America. But those deals gained acceptance without significant
penalties for individuals. See

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870364900457543764210927…tml?mod=mktw  related column on justice for Wall Street in WSJ.

Instead, Mozilo walked away after cashing out $406 million in Countrywide
stock, and Stanley O’Neal left Merrill Lynch & Co. in 2007 with $160 million
in cash, stock and options. Ken Lewis left Bank of America with a $53
million pension. Lloyd Blankfein still holds the top executive post at
Goldman. He made $9 million last year and was rated the best chief executive
officer on Wall Street. Read

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/08/18/lloyd-blankfein-the-best-loved-…-wall-street/
Deal Journal report on Blankfein.

It’s enough to make one wonder what it takes, short of a Bernie Madoff-level
Ponzi scheme, to run afoul of the law.

This black-is-white state of affairs is more than justice flipped on its
head. It’s creating an environment where there is no deterrent – in fact,
there’s incentive to push beyond the limits and reach for higher levels of
success.

That’s why the government needs to come down harder on those who were
ultimately responsible for their company’s actions. And the best way to do
this would be to name a special prosecutor in the Justice Department charged
with looking for those responsible for the catastrophe.

A chief executive who was paid hundreds of millions of dollars during the
decade should carry a greater level of responsibility than those on the
ground who actually pushed the buttons. For as much as it has been maligned,
Sarbanes-Oxley required CEOs to sign off on the veracity of their company’s
financial statements.

OK, let’s not kid ourselves. No special prosecutor is going to be named.
These cases, the legal experts tell us, are difficult to make. Look at
former Goldman mortgage bankers Daniel Sparks, Michael Swenson and Josh
Birnbaum. They were calling a Goldman investment product a “sh*t deal” in
emails, and not even they had to undergo anything rougher than a few hours
of Congressional questioning.

These cases may be difficult, but they’re not impossible. And given the
creation of a lawless marketplace where one economy-destroying decision can
be made on top of another for short-term personal gains, something has to be
done.

But nothing’s happening. Maybe its because of the money Wall Street lavishes
on Congress. Perhaps it’s the close ties between the industry and the
administration. It could be, as Nouriel Roubini said in the new documentary
“Inside Job,” investigators are “afraid” of what they will find.

A special prosecutor, in a bid to make a name for himself or herself, might be immune to such pressure. It’s our best hope for outing the scoundrels and creating an industry where greed finally takes a backseat to the law. If not, regulators can look back on a decade where the biggest crook they outed and put behind bars was Martha Stewart.

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