NEP’s Bill Black appears on The Real News Network and demolishes the notion that we can’t prosecute banksters with the laws we now have in place. You can view here with transcript.
Listen to Our Podcast- Randy Wray on Krugman and the Frustration of the Heterodox April 28, 2014
- Fred Lee Talks About his Contributions to Heterodox Economics April 18, 2014
- Feb. 27 Podcast with Randy Wray February 27, 2014
- Bill Black and Randy Wray October 21, 2013
- Political Theatre and the Government Shutdown October 2, 2013
- Randy Wray: The Taper, the Debt Ceiling and the Prospects for Growth September 23, 2013
- Stephanie Kelton Talks with Warren Mosler September 4, 2013
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“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.” – Lincoln
What leaders (“grass roots” and elected) can do in a democratic society is to contribute clarity, focus, and persistence that can penetrate the fog diversionary propaganda and habitual thinking. Within my father’s lifetime (he is dead now but was born in 1919) it was illegal for women to vote; and now we contemplate potential President Warren. Unthinkable in the not so distant past, a non-Caucasian man was president for two terms. What Obama the individual did not do was to wade very deeply into hazardous socioeconomic problems. Too Big to Fail became even bigger.
The notion that we should ignore the past to build the future is nonsense. It precludes the possibility of learning from our mistakes. If a large airplane crashes, we are going to want to examine every scrap to avoid repeating that history. It is crazy considering the impact on innocent people, to have an economy crash and then patch it back together without keen investigation and, where necessary, redesign.
Holder anguished over the thought that “if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy”. Perhaps, but how do you expect to manage and deter future misguided or criminally negligent and corrupt activity if you are the top cop and you don’t? Holder’s approach reads like rationalization for remaining a hostage.
“You would just see a wave, if you used a simple negligence standard of conservative judges who didn’t think it was fair to make it that easy to prosecute folks. They would give people probation. Prosecutors wouldn’t want to go through a huge fight just to get probation and such.”
Organized financial criminals that is. The Supreme Court upheld “third strike” life imprisonment for a black man who shoplifted some videos for his kids. Shoplifting is indeed a crime as is defrauding millions from countless victims, yet the courts are often far more lenient on organized crime. Eric Holder again: “But it remains true that, at some institutions that engaged in inappropriate conduct before, and may yet again, the buck still stops nowhere. Responsibility remains so diffuse, and top executives so insulated, that any misconduct could again be considered more a symptom of the institution’s culture than a result of the willful actions of any single individual. ” Nothing to see here. Ethereal crime with flesh and blood victims. Perhaps an exorcist…? Of course Trump’s AG is just a guard dog for the President. This is a sorry state of affairs for rule of law.
Our prisons are way too full by global standards and I am more concerned with recognition that a crime is a crime than filling cells. Nevertheless, willful, consistent predatory behavior cannot be tolerated, and if anything the depredations of high SES criminals is less forgivable given their expanded access to other options.