Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Cyprus, TARP, MF Global, GM, Gunwalker -- How Come Nobody's in Jail?

We are a simple people out here in flyover-country.  We tend to think that stealing is a crime and should be punished.  One of the most "American" scenes in the classic Stagecoach is when the banker, Gatewood, is arrested for embezzlement.  Remember, too, that the plot in It's a Wonderful Life is driven by the threat of scandal and prosecution because Uncle Billy misplaced $8,000 which was stolen by Potter.

It used to be sort of intuitive that bankers and other fiduciary agents who embezzled monies, who committed fraud and otherwise illegally deprived working people of their hard-earned savings should be prosecuted as thieves. 

We are not for bail-outs.  I don't think the government ought to come in -- if my bank goes belly-up -- and make sure that I get all my money back.  We have deposit insurance and we should understand the limits of that.  We should also have the good sense to know that if bank failures are too widespread, the FDIC will be bankrupt itself.  Our expectation should be that if a banker has acted negligently or maliciously, he should go to jail.  That may not help me or the other defrauded depositors in a given case, but it will send a message to future agents that such irresponsible or criminal behavior has consequences.

After all, this is why we punish criminals.  Sending a rapist to prison or a murderer to the gas chamber does not undo the horror of the crime, but if we fail to act punitively we only encourage future misdeeds.  

Unless and until the people who were responsible for the condition of the Cypriot banks are prosecuted and jailed, no one has any business confiscating deposits.  If the banks have failed, they have failed.  Those who have insured accounts should be recompensed up to the limit, then the criminals -- whomever they might be -- should be dragged out in handcuffs and leg-irons and thrown so far down in the Hole that they have to pipe in daylight.

And while we are at it, the same should happen to Jon Corzine. 

And Eric Holder and everyone else involved in "Fast and Furious" up to and including NMP Obama. 

When we are finished jailing those who violated the law by smuggling guns to Mexico, we should drag them out and prosecute them for defrauding the bondholders of General Motors.   Every senator and representative who voted for TARP, to use taxpayer money to bail out the banks and financial institutions who had acted -- at the very least -- irresponsibly is an accessory after the fact to misappropriation of funds.

The looting, mismanagement, outright fraud and theft will not stop until somebody is dragged before a bench and sentenced to HARD time.  The government's job is not to save the banks.  It is to enforce the law and defend the citizens against criminal activity.

Prosecute the lawbreakers, the embezzlers, the thieves.  

Do your job.  Or get out of the way.

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