So, one of my classes this semester deals with Congress and the legislative process. And to make that concept more exciting and entertaining to us young people, my professor has us do "Congressional simulations." We're on our first one right now, so no word yet if this is a good idea or a complete fucking disaster. Anyway, part of this whole experience is that we have to introduce a bill of some sort. Calling what she asks of us a "bill" is a bit of a stretch, since it's just basically an idea we have that we want to see become "law", so to speak. And in doing this, I feel as if I have struck upon an almost stupidly brilliant idea.
In recent Congressional testimony, Attorney General Eric Holder has admitted that the D.O.J. takes into account the potential economic fallout of any hypothetical prosecutions it will take against the "Too Big To Fail" banks. This was idea was most explicit in the failure to prosecute HSBC, which the D.O.J. had first hand proof of the bank willingly laundering the money of Sinaloa drug cartels and helping countries like Iran and Syria bypass their financial sanctions. The reason that none of the assholes responsible are in jail is because it was determined that prosecuting HSBC for their crimes would have likely caused them to lose their banking license and thrown the whole financial industry into turmoil and chaos.
So my idea to deal with this horseshit is this: a bill that would grant the FDIC power to assume stewardship of any institution that may could be at risk of failing if prosecuted by the SEC or the D.O.J. Basically, if the bank is "Too Big To Fail" and prosecuting that bank for its criminal activity will cause it to fail; then the FDIC would have the authority to assume control of the bank and protect its employees from any fines imposed as the result of a successful prosecution and also show the financial markets that abiding by the Rule of Law won't jeopardize the economy.
Granted, in any halfway decent world this bill wouldn't even need to exist. But we don't live in a halfway decent world, we live in a world that is in most aspects, complete shit. It is patently fucking absurd for a prosecutor to weigh the economic impact of prosecuting an institution as corrupt as HSBC, or Bank of America, or Citigroup, or Wells Fargo, or Goldman Sachs or any other financial institution that got absurdly fucking rich through blatantly criminal behavior. The job of any prosecutor is to bring the law down on those who break it; cleaning up the damage this may cause is the job of other public officials. And no, I don't believe that when Holder or Lanny Breuer defer prosecutions because they are concerned for the economic well being of the average American worker and are just trying to do them harm. The real reason that Wall Street banks are never prosecuted is because of their vital political connections to those in power; Wall Street was Obama's biggest donor in 2008 and both Holder and Breuer come from a corporate defense firm with lots of Wall Street ties. Does my bill idea solve this problem? Fuck no. And truth be told, it isn't meant to.
The purpose I had for this bill was to remove at least a portion of the bullshit cover people like Holder and Breuer (and undoubtedly, Mary Jo White when she is confirmed to lead the SEC) use to not punish Wall ST. firms for their criminal activity. At its most delusionally optimistic, if this bill actually existed and stood any chance of passing Congress (not to mention gaining Obama's signature), than it would force the D.O.J. and the SEC of their asses to do their fucking job for once in and put those most responsible for criminal acts in jail. At worst, it would expose the D.O.J. and SEC for being useless political hacks whose only concern is to protect the industry they came from and will return to once their public careers are no longer tenable. But that is me being optimistic; a condition I usually consider a synonym for delusional. But I feel that a person has to do the best they can with what is in front of them. And if the best I can I can think of is an idea that would remove a bullshit excuse from our top enforcers repertoire, than that is what I'm willing to pursue
By all means, give a better idea and I will fight for it..
In recent Congressional testimony, Attorney General Eric Holder has admitted that the D.O.J. takes into account the potential economic fallout of any hypothetical prosecutions it will take against the "Too Big To Fail" banks. This was idea was most explicit in the failure to prosecute HSBC, which the D.O.J. had first hand proof of the bank willingly laundering the money of Sinaloa drug cartels and helping countries like Iran and Syria bypass their financial sanctions. The reason that none of the assholes responsible are in jail is because it was determined that prosecuting HSBC for their crimes would have likely caused them to lose their banking license and thrown the whole financial industry into turmoil and chaos.
So my idea to deal with this horseshit is this: a bill that would grant the FDIC power to assume stewardship of any institution that may could be at risk of failing if prosecuted by the SEC or the D.O.J. Basically, if the bank is "Too Big To Fail" and prosecuting that bank for its criminal activity will cause it to fail; then the FDIC would have the authority to assume control of the bank and protect its employees from any fines imposed as the result of a successful prosecution and also show the financial markets that abiding by the Rule of Law won't jeopardize the economy.
Granted, in any halfway decent world this bill wouldn't even need to exist. But we don't live in a halfway decent world, we live in a world that is in most aspects, complete shit. It is patently fucking absurd for a prosecutor to weigh the economic impact of prosecuting an institution as corrupt as HSBC, or Bank of America, or Citigroup, or Wells Fargo, or Goldman Sachs or any other financial institution that got absurdly fucking rich through blatantly criminal behavior. The job of any prosecutor is to bring the law down on those who break it; cleaning up the damage this may cause is the job of other public officials. And no, I don't believe that when Holder or Lanny Breuer defer prosecutions because they are concerned for the economic well being of the average American worker and are just trying to do them harm. The real reason that Wall Street banks are never prosecuted is because of their vital political connections to those in power; Wall Street was Obama's biggest donor in 2008 and both Holder and Breuer come from a corporate defense firm with lots of Wall Street ties. Does my bill idea solve this problem? Fuck no. And truth be told, it isn't meant to.
The purpose I had for this bill was to remove at least a portion of the bullshit cover people like Holder and Breuer (and undoubtedly, Mary Jo White when she is confirmed to lead the SEC) use to not punish Wall ST. firms for their criminal activity. At its most delusionally optimistic, if this bill actually existed and stood any chance of passing Congress (not to mention gaining Obama's signature), than it would force the D.O.J. and the SEC of their asses to do their fucking job for once in and put those most responsible for criminal acts in jail. At worst, it would expose the D.O.J. and SEC for being useless political hacks whose only concern is to protect the industry they came from and will return to once their public careers are no longer tenable. But that is me being optimistic; a condition I usually consider a synonym for delusional. But I feel that a person has to do the best they can with what is in front of them. And if the best I can I can think of is an idea that would remove a bullshit excuse from our top enforcers repertoire, than that is what I'm willing to pursue
By all means, give a better idea and I will fight for it..