Bernanke: Wall St execs should have gone to jail for crisis

[Ichingcarpenter]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says some Wall Street executives should have gone to jail for their roles in the financial crisis that gripped the country in 2008 and triggered the Great Recession.

Billions of dollars in fines have been levied against major banks and brokerage firms in the wake of the economic meltdown that was in large part triggered by reckless lending and shady securities dealings that blew up a housing bubble.

But in an interview with USA Today published Sunday, Bernanke said he thinks that in addition to the corporations, individuals should have been held more accountable.

"It would have been my preference to have more investigations of individual actions because obviously everything that went wrong or was illegal was done by some individual, not by an abstract firm," Bernanke said.

Asked if someone should have gone to jail, the former Fed chairman replied, "Yeah, I think so." He did not, however, name any individual he thought should have been prosecuted and noted that the Federal Reserve is not a law-enforcement agency.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/5e70358d602844a7ab5454643c71054a/bernanke-wall-st-execs-should-have-gone-jail-crisis

[still_one]

1. Then what stopped him from saying so at the time? What stopped Powell from saying the invasion of

Iraq was a mistake when he was Secretary of State?

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Many good democrats have stated this about the banksters except

for the third way dems and republicans.

If you want to make this about Iraq then we can go there too.

[spanone]

9. well, bernanke is selling his new book and looking for a headline.....and he got it....

it's all about the mighty buck

[Enthusiast]

3. Those mostly responsible for the deregulation should at have been publicly shamed—Phil Gramm.

[merrily]

4. Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers, et al. as well.

President's Working Group on Financial Markets, November 1999:

Lawrence Summers, Treasury
Alan Greenspan, Fed
Arthur Levitt, SEC
William J Rainer, CFTC

Also: Brooksley Born, CFTC Chair, 1996 - June 1, 1999

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000

President's Working Group on Financial Markets, November 1999:

Lawrence Summers, Treasury
Alan Greenspan, Fed
Arthur Levitt, SEC
William J Rainer, CFTC

Also: Brooksley Born, CFTC Chair, 1996 - June 1, 1999

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000

Conversely, the prescience and good judgment of who argued against deregulation, like Sanders, Dingell and Dorgan should be recognized and praised.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12778045

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1277&pid=9158

[Enthusiast]

5. +1 a whole bunch!

[Octafish]

13. Phil Gramm is Vice Chair of UBS working with Bill Clinton and George W Bush.

Ask the operator for "Wealth Management."

See with your own eyes and grab a screenshot for a souvenir. That's about all We the People will get out of the deal -- other than our names put on the Naughty List by HomeSec.

[Enthusiast]

14. Jesus Christ!

[Octafish]

6. Drats. The Statute of Limitation!

Better luck next time, right Ben?

[Wilms]

7. .

[Octafish]

10. It's better to look mahvelous than to feeeel mahvelous.

[closeupready]

8. Shucks. Who could have predicted THAT?

That the Statute of Limitations would be the real spoiler here?

[Octafish]

11. A nobody. That way, nobody has to pick up the tab...except the US taxpayer, of course.

From 21 Sept. 2008:

Know your BFEE: Phil Gramm, the Meyer Lansky of the War Party, Set-Up the Biggest Bank Heist Ever.

And a nobody even recommended making those who stole it put it back.

[Octafish]

12. Glad somebody finally asked him. Bernanke's one of them who should be behind bars.

[font size="1"]Conspiratorial Wink (detail) by Michael Samuels[/font size]



Know your BFEE: Goldmine Sacked or The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One

PS: Thank you for outstanding info, as always, Ichingcarpenter. Bernanke would make an excellent witness at trial. William K. Black would make an excellent special prosecutor.

[TheKentuckian]

16. Thanks for mentioning that after eight fucking years