8/8/2019 BIGGEST CRIME YET NO TIME!! WHY DOES WALL STREET GET AWAY WITH IT?

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8/8/2019 BIGGEST CRIME YET NO TIME!! WHY DOES WALL STREET GET AWAY WITH IT?

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But what a bout cr imes of economic homicide? These are the opposite of cr imes of  passion.When, say, a s peculator secur itizes bad mortgages and  peddles them to  pension f unds as safe

investments, that fr aud involves exactly the k ind of calculation that might be deterred via the pr os pect of harsh  punishment.

"What if a bank CEO was given life without  par ole?" I asked Tai bbi. "What if instead of countryclu b jail, one of these guys was shown ex per iencing  pr ison like a regular convict? That would have to stop some of the worst stuff, r ight?"

"R ight, and go a ste p f urther," Tai bbi countered. "How a bout  putting a few of them in the electr ic 

chair? Are you telling me Goldman Sachs execs aren't then going to change?"

We both busted out laughing -- and har d. Not at the tr uth behind the theor izing, but at the idea 

that any of it would actually happen today. In 2005, Washington couldn't even  pass a  post-Enr on  pr oposal to hold CEOs legally lia ble f or their com panies' cor  por ate tax fr aud. So the notion that

the same money-dominated capital will now su bject CEOs to anything remotely "tough on 

cr ime" is, well, f ar -fetched.

And yet, the hy pothetical is com pelling, isn't it? That's because it highlights how our society

misapplies deterrence -- and how it might apply the conce pt more successf ully.

The necessity of such a cr iminal justice shift should be o bvious. With f inancial fr aud now so sophisticated and  pervasive, we clearly need zer o-toler ance solutions to change Wall Street's

culture. Indeed, without tr ue shock -and-awe deterrence, most regulatory ref orm will likely be an ineffectual thumb in the economic dike -- just as the thieves desire.

David Sir ota is the author of the best-selling books Hostile Takeover  and The U pr ising. He hosts

the mor ning show on AM760 in Color ado and blogs at O penLeft.com. E-mail him atds@davidsir ota.com or f ollow him on Twitter @davidsir ota.