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It’s good to know that the FBI, Justice Department, and Federal courts are all over the major crime cases that so dramatically affect millions of Americans. Like the seven-year prosecution and $6-million trial of baseball player Barry Bonds.
What a waste of time, tax dollars, and prosecutorial credibility. Meanwhile, not a single major player in Wall Street’s mugging of our economy has even been charged, much less imprisoned. People were robbed of hundreds of billions of dollars, and millions of jobs, homes, and businesses were lost – yet the banksters not only skated free, they’re now collecting billions in bonus payments for their work.
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A New York Times investigative report reveals that top Washington officials – Republicans and Democrats – rushed to the crime scene at the start of the financial crash. They rushed not to arrest anyone, but to stave off any serious investigations of the top Wall Streeters who’d obviously cooked their books, fraudulently awarded bonuses to themselves, cashed in on inside information, and lied to regulators. Barry Bonds might’ve been juiced up on steroids, but these guys were juiced up on hubris and greed, doing criminal damage to America.
Yet, the FBI has backed off, the Justice Department averted its eyes, and bank regulators failed to build criminal cases. Why? Because top politicos, from Bush to Obama, were convinced by their Wall Street confidants that prosecutions would make big investors jittery and endanger the markets.
A couple of weeks after Japan’s nuclear meltdown began, a photograph ran worldwide showing a trio of the nuclear plant’s top corporate executives. They were at the hospital bedside of a victim of radiation poisoning, bowing deeply in apology. That’s the picture of Wall Street executives that I want to see.
“Bonds trial wasted our time, money,” Austin American Statesman, April 17, 2011.
“Prosecutors weigh another Bonds trial,” Austin American Statesman, April 15, 2011.
“A Financial Crisis With Little Guilt.” The New York Times, April 14, 2011.
“Radioactive Iodine Exceeds Level for infants,” The New York Times, March 24, 2011.