CNBC editor thinks insider trading is a "victimless crime"

[deminks]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/44894853

The idea that the sentence handed down Thursday to fallen-hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam resembles anything like the proper administration of justice depends on a very common factual error.

The error: Investors are victimized by insider traders.

Rajaratnam received the longest prison sentence ever for insider trading . But unlike those convicted of any other kind of fraud, Rajaratnam’s sentence is not at all linked to the harm he inflicted on his victims.

The reason why Rajaratnam’s sentence isn’t linked to any victims is because no one has found any victims. They just don’t exist.

(end snip)

Hey, asswipes, Y U No do the time if you do the crime?

[dkf]

1. Some think it is and some think it isn't.

http://insidertrading.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001111

I am not sure it's clear cut.

[trumad]

7. And those who don't are fucking douchebag idiots.

[dkf]

8. What is the actual financial cost to the victim?

And who is the victim?

[midnight]

2. Maybe Elliot Spitzer could explain who the victims are...

[Aerows]

3. It is a crime against investors

It's throwing the market - though it's not like HFT doesn't throw the hell out of the market, too. We need a financial transaction tax in the worst way to stop the HFT, and to put more of these dudes gaming the system in jail. That includes the Senators that have a higher rate of returns on their investments than hedge fund managers.

You don't suppose they are operating off of insider knowledge, do you, to get that rate of return? The system is hopelessly corrupt, and the only way to fix it is to start holding people accountable.

[xchrom]

4. +1

[Scuba]

6. + Another

[Thegonagle]

5. Until the social safety net is so strong that the difference between wealthy and poor

is just an irrelevant piece of trivia, it is nowhere near victimless. Sure, nobody dies... until somebody dies because they are too poor to properly survive.

[truedelphi]

9. Actually, we are all dependent on the biggest companies.

Back in 1930, the Innuit gathered in front of the northern trading post, with their year's collection of animal pelts. Waiting for the white man to show up, and give them the needed canned foods and flour and sugar in trade for their work.

The white man never showed up, due to the stock market crash.

What happens to our farmers, who are not allowed to save seed from this year's crash, if next year, Monsanto's stock tanks, and they decide to fold?

Not only will the farmers fold, but our cupboards will be empty as well.

Or what if all your tax, banking and client info is on the cloud, and the cloud's plug is pulled, as the company you used is now insolvent.

The way everything is set up, we are all like those Innuit waiting in front of the trading post. Times better be good enough for that white man to show up, or we are all screwn.

[SoCalDem]

10. Well, then just who stole $31K from us?

One month it was "there" and the next it, was gone:(