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January 22, 2014
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Wall Street Giants Make Out Like Bandits
Regulators go easy
on former and
future bosses
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by J anine
J ackson and P eter H art
It seems like almost every week brings news
about Wall Street’s latest sins.
“JPMorgan Is Penalized $2 Billion Over
Madoff,” blared one recent New York Times
headline, when the paper explained that Bernie
Madoff, the infamous Ponzi scheme con artist,
wheeled and dealed via accounts at the bank.
Just a few days later came this news: ‘‘Steep
Penalties Taken in Stride by JPMorgan Chase.”
In that article, the Times described how the
banking behemoth would pay out $20 billion to
cover its many government fines — without so
much as breaking a sweat.
The Wall Street giant can admit wrongdoing
— or even lawbreaking — and get away with
paying a pocket-change fine. How do they get
away with it?
Regulators, many of whom either have worked
at the big banks or aim to do so in the future, are
certainly willing to go easy on their former or
future bosses. And politicians backed by indus
try dollars are apt to counsel that it’s better to
look ahead than obsess about “the past.”
So if there’s ever to be true accountability for
Wall Street’s role in the financial collapse, it
might need to come from outside the govern
ment. How about the media?
If you watch the popular business channels,
you’ll see chief executive officers like JP M or
gan Chase’s Jamie Dimon chatting with pundits
like old friends.
Hold it. These people have enriched them
selves while eviscerating the life savings of
many blameless people, derailing the national
economy along the way. But have you ever
spotted any sense of outrage coming from the
well-paid TV hosts who are paid to question the
likes of Dimon?
Hardly. Indeed, much journalism on the ques
tion of criminal prosecution of industry leaders
amounts to apologizing for mistakes, and re
buffing calls for serious prosecution.
People who advocate for putting white-collar
criminals behind bars get dismissed as “irratio
nal,” or worse driven by, as the big newspapers
put it, “blood lust,” “anger” or even “ven
geance.”
As Washington Post reporter Neil Irwin put
it, “America doesn’t criminalize bad business
decisions.”
Except there were actual crimes committed.
Issuing mortgages based on false information,
and then reselling those mortgages for big prof
its, is an -act of fraud. The same goes for the
packing the same kinds of loans into mortgage-
backed securities — which is how many Wall
Street bankers extracted their fortunes from the
housing bubble.
Calls for incarcerating executives of malfeas
ant financial institutions are demands that the
powerful abide by the same laws as everyone
else.
Indeed, while so many pundits were telling us
that calling for justice for Wall Street crimes was
simple-minded and wrong-headed, the ACLU
released an astonishing report on the 3,300
people sentenced to spend the rest of their lives
in prison for nonviolent offenses.
The report, which drew scant mainstream
media coverage, shines a spotlight on how the
criminal justice works for those who don’t have
big bucks — and aren’t treated as rock stars by
the TV talking heads.
One more thing: That big $20 billion that JP
Morgan will pay out for its various crimes,
misdeeds and infractions? It will actually amount
to considerably less than that hefty sum. Some
of the bank’s penalties will come in the form of
mortgage modifications that, in the end, will
likely bolster its profits.
That’s no way to show Wall Street that crime
doesn’t pay.
Peter Hart is the activism director o f Fair
ness and Accuracy in Reporting and Janine
Jackson is the organization’s program direc
tor and producer, and co-host o f its syndicated
radio show CounterSpin.