Why bankers don't get arrested

The title of the following piece is a little confusing.  It is Mary Jo White, who is our beloved President's idea of a good idea for who should run the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who actually made the revelations.  Ms. Sherod was doing the (on target) questioning.

Senator Sherrod Brown Drops a Bombshell in Mary Jo White’s Hearing
Pam Martins, Wall Street on Parade, 13 March 2013 (hat tip: NC)

Americans learned for the first time on March 6 of this year that the highest law enforcement agent in our country, Attorney General Eric Holder, weighs economic interests when deciding whether to enforce our Nation’s laws against criminal wrongdoers like the too-big-to-fail banks.

The spectacle of warped law enforcement grew worse today during the Senate Banking confirmation hearing of Mary Jo White to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. Under questioning by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), White admitted that even the economy of a foreign country – like Japan – is taken into consideration before bringing a criminal indictment in the U.S. Even worse, White was forced to admit that while working for the U.S. Department of Justice as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (from 1993 to 2002), she considered it appropriate to speak with Larry Summers (a Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration) to weigh the economic impact of bringing an indictment.

 

The excellent piece goes on to site the verbatim questions and answers.

 

Of course this type of things happens all the time.  The bank that forecloses on the wrong folks, and guts someones property, doesn't have to worry about criminal proceedings after all.  To some extent there is an (unfortunate at times) deference to those with power, money, or prestige.  But to make it part of the formal process is just a little twisted.