Wall Street is still playing us for suckers - By Richard Cohen

[kpete]

Wall Street is still playing us for suckers

By Richard Cohen
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As for Obama’s government, it has been too gentle with these miscreants. Why not a single major banker has been cuffed and frog-marched to some Financial District Guantanamo is unclear. Why their firms have gotten off with modest fines and non-confession confessions is not clear, either. That, in itself, is a crime.

Somebody has to break this culture. In this sense, Wall Street is no different than the New York Police Department, where it apparently has been customary to fix traffic tickets for friends, family and — almost certainly — the odd person with some cash. When 16 of the alleged ticket-fixers were arraigned last week, hundreds of off-duty cops came to cheer them, denounce the DA and manhandle reporters. Their union took a firm position in defending this behavior. An appalled city awaits firm action by the mayor and police commissioner.

An appalled nation awaits a similar response to what went on in the financial sector. What we would like to see is some version of a public hanging, the appropriate reaction to the breathtaking fleecing of investors. In the end, those investors got their money back. That’s more than we can say about our lost faith in justice.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/wall-street-is-still-playing-us-for-suckers/2011/10/31/gIQA3NGQaM_story.html?hpid=z5

[closeupready]

1. Not going to happen as long as the existing system of campaign finance remains in place.

nt