So Fannie and Freddie execs have to fall on their stage swords while the rest of the finance sector gets off scot-free.

And yet tea partiers deride Occupiers as the real enemy.

BigTuna: No one should be surprised. The SEC is bought and paid for.

That's why we need a playoff.

/Oh wait...
//obligatory joke is obligatory

The private firms don't even get charged.

Days like today turn me more and more into a rabid communist.

This is a Republican conspiracy. Barney Frank himself said they were innocent.

so why bother? what the hell?

Anybody who thinks we have the (equally applied) rule of law in this country is an idiot.

This is clearly the Civil Rights Act's fault.

/ducks

Remember corporations are people, but they can't be jailed or executed under the letter of the law. They have special rights.

this makes so much sense

Related:

Oh how nice... they can get a little slap on the wrist. As with all SEC cases this will end with the individuals and institutions settling without admitting guilt and having to pay a small fine that represents pennies on the dollar for all the fraudulent profits that were reaped in.

Grand_Moff_Joseph: If anything, the politicians that made that cr@p legal need to be thrown into a vat of lava.

I think the problem isn't that the things they were doing were legal, it's that they weren't illegal.

We're just being punished for tolerating gays, that's all. Duh.

qorkfiend: I think the problem isn't that the things they were doing were legal, it's that they weren't illegal.

These two guys misrepresented (to the investors) how much shaky and sub-prime mortgages their companies were exposed to, which amounts to securities fraud. That ain't all that legal.

Grand_Moff_Joseph: "The SEC said both firms have agreed to cooperate with the agency and have entered into non-prosecution agreements."

Pitchforks and torches. Now.

I think we should graduate right up to the guillotine.

HotWingConspiracy: The private firms don't even get charged.


This.

Ridiculous... I'd bet this is as much to protect the right-wing spin story ("It was teh debbil gubmint and irresponsible darkies, not Wall Street and the unfettered free market!!!!") as it is anything.

"See? Told you it was Frannie and Freddie and the CRA!"

qorkfiend: I think the problem isn't that the things they were doing were legal, it's that they weren't illegal.

Yeah I agree with this sentiment. The subprime mortgage disaster was more or less within the confines of the law. As much as I want these firms to be punished, it would be difficult to muster up a good enough case to warrant a harsh enough penalty in the criminal courts.

Dog Welder: Grand_Moff_Joseph: "The SEC said both firms have agreed to cooperate with the agency and have entered into non-prosecution agreements."

Pitchforks and torches. Now.

I think we should graduate right up to the guillotine.
----------
You would never get close enough to apprehend these criminals, much less walk them to a guillotine.
But that is why they want to take our guns from us.

That's why we have a myriad of little laws (like having a family fight and the police are called) that continually remove the rights of Americans to own guns. Eventually, they will catch up to you too.

Stoker: But that is why they want to take our guns from us.

That's why we have a myriad of little laws (like having a family fight and the police are called) that continually remove the rights of Americans to own guns. Eventually, they will catch up to you too.


Um, Freeper alert?

I find it interesting that the indefinite detainment part of the NDAA was put in only after the Occupy bit started.

I suppose that questioning our corporate betters and wanting them held accountable is worthy of total liberty loss.

A man who steals 100 bucks returns the full amount, gets 15 years.

These assholes burned billions to get their millions, and they get away scot free with every shiny penny.

DarnoKonrad: [i.imgur.com image 300x245]

You can get banned for posting close-ups of ruptured sphincters here.

whidbey: Stoker: But that is why they want to take our guns from us.

That's why we have a myriad of little laws (like having a family fight and the police are called) that continually remove the rights of Americans to own guns. Eventually, they will catch up to you too.


Um, Freeper alert?

This theorem is getting more widespread. And it's not entirely unfounded, given the difference between the responses to the (armed) teabaggers and the (unarmed) OWS protesters. Corporate mercs don't like going to a stomp if the victims are dangerous, and when they DO go they expect hazard pay.

Hazard pay the Corporate Elite would rather not pay.

FTFH: Good: SEC to file charges against ex-Freddie, Fannie with fraud. Fark: Civil charges only, with a 'no prosecute' guarantee

And Totalfark: Other banks with worse evidence lined up against them aren't even being charged with civil charges.

$ome people are more equal than others.

The SEC doesn't have criminal enforcement powers.

beta_plus: Barney Frank


* drink *

TheBigJerk: whidbey: Stoker: But that is why they want to take our guns from us.

That's why we have a myriad of little laws (like having a family fight and the police are called) that continually remove the rights of Americans to own guns. Eventually, they will catch up to you too.


Um, Freeper alert?

This theorem is getting more widespread. And it's not entirely unfounded, given the difference between the responses to the (armed) teabaggers and the (unarmed) OWS protesters.

What does that have to do with gun ownership?

rahpower: The SEC doesn't have criminal enforcement powers.

True, but historically they would pass on information about offending entities to the prosecuting attorneys that do. They haven't been doing that lately. The SEC is a prime example of regulatory capture.

So how's this going to work?

SEC: You are fined $400 million dollars.
Fanny: OK. Hey US government, can we have $800 million in 0%, pay-it-back-whenever-or-not-it's-cool federal loans?
US: Better make it $900 million, tip the lobbyists
Fanny: Of course. Hey SEC, we're a little short on cash, how about $200 million?
SEC: What's this about again? Go away, we're gonna try and squeeze Zuckerberg for a piece of his action.

Grand_Moff_Joseph: The thing that makes this even worse is that if the SEC wanted to file criminal charges, they probably couldn't, because 99% of what Fannie/Freddie did was legal all along.


The SEC doesn't file criminal charges, they don't have the power. The Department of Justice would be the ones to file criminal charges... but the DOJ have totally failed in that regard in recent years. A scapegoat here, a sacrificial lamb there.... all the while ignoring some of the most flagrant violators.

The SEC has a few problems, IMHO... For one, as I mentioned, they DON'T have the authority to charge companies and executives with crimes, just to sue them in federal court. For another, congress members are forever pressuring them behind the scenes when they catch wind of an investigation in to the congress members' buddies (remember the S&L crisis? That's just the time some of them got caught doing it). Also, I think that the CFTC and the SEC should be rolled in to one agency... having them separate can cause jurisdictional confusion and leave vulnerabilities for bankers to exploit with novel financial instruments.

My prediction for what will happen to these executives in TFA is that they'll be sued, they'll lose and as usual the fine that they are able to have imposed will be a small fraction of the money those executives made mismanaging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It'll DAMN sure be an insignificant fraction of the damage they caused to public funds and the larger economy.

The message here kids is that crime DOES pay... so long as you're a rich guy and you don't mind giving the government a modest payment for the privilege. Steal from a store to feed yourself or your family? Fark you, dirtbag, get in that rapey jail and stay there! Steal so you can buy another three yachts and mansions and leave a massive trust fund so that your kids and their kids never have to work again - savaging the modest wealth of hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of your fellow countrymen and putting massive numbers of people out of work? Pay the fed 5% and then have fun with all that cash, sport - you're almost a model citizen!

ZAZ: I skimmed over the SEC complaint and I can't find how much money the government wants. Are the executives supposed to pay back all the hundreds of billions of subprime losses? Give back their tens of millions in compensation? What?

I assume they'll get fined a million each and told "don't do that again."

Sweet deal.

Seabon: rahpower: The SEC doesn't have criminal enforcement powers.

True, but historically they would pass on information about offending entities to the prosecuting attorneys that do. They haven't been doing that lately. The SEC is a prime example of regulatory capture.

I'm familiar with regulatory capture. My point was that I don't think subby understands what an SEC "non-prosecution agreement" is. It doesn't have anything to do with criminal charges because the SEC doesn't have the power to file criminal charges. These agreements mean that the SEC won't sue the entities in exchange for their cooperation in the investigation of the individuals.