4 ms·

The problem is not that something illegal happened. The problem is that what happened wasn't illegal. Prosecution is boring and pointless. We should focus on l

by moe 14y ago

The problem is not that something illegal happened. The problem is that what happened wasn't illegal. Prosecution is boring and pointless. We should focus on limiting the damage that the next crisis can do. There's the real problem: Nothing happens in this regard. The beneficiaries of the current system have become powerful enough to deflect any external influence on their schemes. That is the question of our time: How can we break this regime before we find ourselves (or rather: our children) living in a dystopia. As of today the odds are not looking good.

damoncali 14y ago
Those are systemic changes, though. Breaking up banks, reinstating Glass Steagall, that sort of thing. I don't think those solutions are out of reach. It will be tough, but it certainly seems doable. It is a shame that politicians are demagoguing with all this "they need to go to jail" talk, because it is a distraction from the actual problem. That is simply that when too much leverage is applied to the same bet and hedged in the same way by everyone, it will blow up catastrophically when things go bad. That has nothing to do with legality or fraud or any such thing, and everything to do with regulation. It was a political and intellectual failure, not a moral one.
- moe 14y ago
  It is a shame that politicians are demagoguing with all this "they need to go to jail" talk Depending on how cynic you are you could believe this is exactly the message that $wall_street wants them to push. Everyone knows that nobody relevant is going to jail anyway, but it's a nice, superficial "debate" to keep the general public busy with... Nice in the sense that you can apparently drag it out near infinitely. Remember: Lehmann crashed 5 years ago. Yet when you look at the state of discussion in the mainstream media you'd think it happened just yesterday.

by moe 14y ago

damoncali 14y ago

Those are systemic changes, though. Breaking up banks, reinstating Glass Steagall, that sort of thing. I don't think those solutions are out of reach. It will be tough, but it certainly seems doable. It is a shame that politicians are demagoguing with all this "they need to go to jail" talk, because it is a distraction from the actual problem. That is simply that when too much leverage is applied to the same bet and hedged in the same way by everyone, it will blow up catastrophically when things go bad. That has nothing to do with legality or fraud or any such thing, and everything to do with regulation. It was a political and intellectual failure, not a moral one.

moe 14y ago
It is a shame that politicians are demagoguing with all this "they need to go to jail" talk Depending on how cynic you are you could believe this is exactly the message that $wall_street wants them to push. Everyone knows that nobody relevant is going to jail anyway, but it's a nice, superficial "debate" to keep the general public busy with... Nice in the sense that you can apparently drag it out near infinitely. Remember: Lehmann crashed 5 years ago. Yet when you look at the state of discussion in the mainstream media you'd think it happened just yesterday.