Four time bombs that will blow up Wall Street

[trof]

(story too late for LBN :-()

Commentary: Too late to jail bank CEOs; only revolution will succeed

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Put Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein in jail for six months, and all this will stop, all over Wall Street and America, a former congressional aide tells Matt Taibbi in his latest Rolling Stone attack, “Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail? Financial crooks brought down the world’s economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them.”

Taibbi’s right, everyone knows Wall Street’s run by a bunch of dictators who are doing more damage to democracy and capitalism than North Africa’s dictators. But jail the CEOs of Goldman, Citi, B. of A. or my old firm Morgan Stanley? Too late.

<snip>

During the S&L crisis two decades ago America had a backbone, indicted 3,800 executives and bankers. Today’s leaders have no backbone. Besides jail time won’t reform the darkness consuming Wall Street’s soul. We’re all asleep, in denial about the moral crisis facing America. Yes, we need a new revolution.
http://www.marketwatch.com/Column/Paul%20B.%20Farrell?siteid=nwtwk

[sarcasmo]

1. Two tier legal system Have piles of cash you stay out of prison, have no cash it's prison for you.

[trof]

2. More comment:

*Economist Peter Morici: “Capitalism is broken, America’s government is two bankrupt political parties bankrupting the country.”

*David Stockman, Reagan’s budget director: “If there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians” the “tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing.”

*BusinessWeek recently asked analyst Mary Meeker to run the numbers. How bad is it? America really is bankrupt, with a “net worth of a negative $44 trillion.” Bankrupt.

[snagglepuss]

3. Numbingly bang on:( nt

[baldguy]

4. Once there were real time bombs on Wall St.

September 16, 1920:

At noon, a horse-drawn wagon passed by lunchtime crowds on Wall Street in New York City and stopped across the street from the headquarters of the J.P. Morgan bank at 23 Wall Street, on the Financial District's busiest corner. Inside, 100 pounds (45 kg) of dynamite with 500 pounds (230 kg) of heavy, cast-iron sash weights exploded in a timer-set detonation, sending the slugs tearing through the air. The horse and wagon were blasted into small fragments, but the driver was believed to have left the vehicle and escaped.

The 38 victims, most of whom died within moments of the blast, were mostly young people who worked as messengers, stenographers, clerks and brokers. Many of the wounded suffered severe injuries. The bomb caused more than $2 million in property damage and destroyed most of the interior spaces of the Morgan building.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_bombing

Of course, today the anarchists are on the inside, and use stock portfolios instead of incendiary devices...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

8. I've been there. JP Morgan never repaired the divots in the building stone.

Is the building with the George Washington statue an old Federal Reserve Bank or what? They don't use it for anything now.

[Hotler]

5. kicking n/t

[sasha031]

6. K&R

[alfredo]

7. K&R Yeah, we need to put them in a cage.

[snot]

9. K&R'd

[DearAbby]

10. GOP = Bust up Banks No. - Busting Unions, Yes -nt

[Donald Ian Rankin]

11. My understanding is that the problem was mostly deregulation, not breaches of regulations.

I am sure that there exist some financiers who broke rules.

However, as I understand it, the main problem was not that the rules were broken but that they were too lax - most noteably, the repeal of Glass-Steagal is something I've heard repeatedly blamed by sources I at least moderately trust.

[TBF]

12. As much as I hate to admit it you're correct -

with capitalism as our economic system it is no surprise that people would push those limits in order to turn a profit. And, of course, it bears repeating that we have Mr. Clinton to thank for the repeal of Glass-Steagal and NAFTA.

[lonestarnot]

13. Every place one turns there appears to be someone scamming to make a buck. Some are better than

others. Deregulation is a bitch when it causes the downfall of an entire empire.