Geithner said. “… Old Testament vengeance appeals to the populist fury of the moment, but true moral thing to do during a raging financial inferno is to put it out. The goal should be to protect the innocent, even if some of the arsonist escape their full measure of justice …”.
Tim doesn’t get it. One of the main purposes of a good Justice system is to find, prosecute and jail the guilty. If you let offenders off, there will be no fear so the same thing will happen again.
Sorry … Had to get it off my chest.
I agree with Geithner. He had to not let the banks fail. That is a totally different issue from saving the hated banks AND prosecuting the associates responsible for criminal behavior. There is nothing like prison to scare a white collar worker not to break the law.
I personally believe the US should have briefly nationalize the large banks. They were bankrupt. The tax payers put money into the banks through the Federal Reserve, TARP and AIG (Banks were paid 100 cents on the dollar for the Credit Default Swaps even though AIG went bankrupt and was nationalized.). The US should have nationalize the banks so:
• Faith could be put back into the Financial System – the US Government will not allow the banking system to fail.
• Stock Holders would receive not be rewarded for failed institutions.
• Banks could have been forced to renegotiate with qualified home owners who were underwater with the backing of the US.
• Banks could ease commercial credit lubricating the monetary system.
• AND lastly, the US Tax Payer would “own” all of the information transactions (emails, letters, etc.). Many of you recall if you work for a large corporation you sign a document stating that the company owns the computer, phone system essentially everything you use to communicate at work. Meaning … the banker is not entitled to constitutional protection of their business communications.
As part of the stimulus package they could have funded the FBI and attorneys at DOJ to sift through all the Banking documents to find “who done it”. The offending bankers would be choice. The result could have been “bankers in jail”.
By this time, Initial Public Offerings would have occurred creating smaller banks.