The $6.4 Trillion Question: Why Not??
I’m sure Eric Holder accomplished lots of other things during his six-year tenure as (now-outgoing) U.S. Attorney General.
Unfortunately, holding Wall Street accountable for its egregious — and frequently criminal — conduct at the heart of The 2008 Financial Crash most certainly wasn’t one of them.
The really hard part to swallow: it’s not that Mr. Holder tried and failed; he demonstrably didn’t even try.
Too Big to Jail? Wait for the Memoir
Whether that was because of pressure from his boss; fear of wider economic consequences (“too big to jail”); and/or a too-cozy relationship with Wall Street, we won’t know until Mr. Holder’s memoir addresses the matter (or not), presumably 2-3 years from now.
Or at least until Mr. Holder decides where to put up his legal shingle, post-Justice Department (bonus question: do you think the law firm will do business with Wall Street and/or lobby Congress on Wall Street-related legislation??).
Call it, “Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss” (apologies to “The Who’s” classic “Won’t Get Fooled Again”).
In the meantime, all I know is this:
If a car dealer sold cars with defective brakes — indeed, designed them to be defective — then bought insurances policies on the people it duped into buying them, I’ve got a hunch that Mr. Holder and his lieutenants would have found a way to put a few people in jail (and very much out of business).
Too bad we can’t say the same about Wall Street.
Carnivorous Bankers, umm . . . Car Dealers
That colorful — and very accurate — analogy — isn’t mine.
It’s courtesy of Phil Angelides, the former California State Treasurer who chaired the Senate’s inquiry into the financial melt-down.
If anything, Angelides’ analogy is not nearly as sordid as what really occurred — it omits a key, last step.
Namely, when AIG, the company standing behind all those insurance policies, failed, the U.S. government stepped in to effectively pay its obligations.
At 100¢ on the dollar.
In other words, when the inevitable financial carnage arrived — and boy, did it arrive — all those carnivorous “car dealers” got paid off by . . . us.*
In many cases, after (before?) using taxpayers’ bailout money to pay themselves . . . wait for it . . . bonuses.
Mr. Holder’s official position on all of the above: “unsavory, but not illegal.”
Really, Mr. Holder?
Really??
See also, “Drug Dealers vs. Bankers: ‘Top Ten’ Differences“; “Number of the Week: $600 Trillion(!!)”; “Deconstructing AIG: Define, “Almost”; “AIG Explained“; “Hank Paulson’s ‘Five Years Later’: I’m Not Buying It“; and “Michael Lewis’ “The Big Short”: Diabolical Castles in the Sky.”
*Fans of 1973 sci-fi great “Soylent Green” will recognize an eery (and sickening) parallel.
