The big bankers who enriched themselves while wiping out many blameless peoples’ life savings have been the focus of substantive inquiries, but the people advocating jail time for the bankers’ criminal behavior have been repeatedly ridiculed by corporate news outlets as irrational and vengeful. As Janine Jackson of Extra! reports, “While there have been substantive inquiries into the wrongdoing of investment banks and auditors, those calling for jail time are often dismissed as irrational, driven by “blood lust” (Washington Post, 9/12/13), “anger” (Chicago Tribune, 11/30/13) or “vengeance” (Washington Post, 11/18/13). Various media outlets have explained that, while bad business decisions are not crimes, knowingly selling fraudulent mortgages and other dubious financial products is punishable by jail time. People have pointed to multiple reasons for the lack of prosecutions, such as regulatory agencies stopping key functions and non-deterrent settlements from government watchdogs. Media outlets have also made the case that imprisonment and increased liability would be ineffective, and many press accounts appear to be arguing for the legality of CEO actions. As Jackson reports, “Many press accounts seem more intent on explaining why what CEOs did wasn’t a crime than on asking whether it should be.”
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 21:32:42 +0000
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