Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?

Here's Cenk Uygur with guest Matt Taibbi acknowledging that Wall Street is now above the law.



Taibbi, who is one of America's last remaining old-school journalists, the kind that actually investigate the issues that matter and the perps behind the issues, reports on what should be on the front page of every newspaper, but isn't: The Security and Exchange Commission has been routinely destroying data, including sensitive and potentially incriminating data, for years. And it isn't data on you and me, but the bankers, brokers, and hedgies, the ones who have been defrauding us.

So not only are no charges being brought against criminals on Wall Street, much of the primary evidence against them, thanks to an accommodating SEC, has been trashed, quite literally. As Taibbi writes:

Imagine a world in which a man who is repeatedly investigated for a string of serious crimes, but never prosecuted, has his slate wiped clean every time the cops fail to make a case. No more Lifetime channel specials where the murderer is unveiled after police stumble upon past intrigues in some old file – "Hey, chief, didja know this guy had two wives die falling down the stairs?" No more burglary sprees cracked when some sharp cop sees the same name pop up in one too many witness statements. This is a different world, one far friendlier to lawbreakers, where even the suspicion of wrongdoing gets wiped from the record.

That story was in the August 17th edition of Rolling Stone, Taibbi's main haunt. There is, or should be, much more to this story. And, of course, much remains to be actually proven. But that is precisely what the media should be jumping on. Uncover the story one way or another. But we have a deadly combination of feckless media and embarrassing lack of citizen interest and knowledge. Considering all the Ritalin this country takes, you would think people could pay attention.

What do you want to bet this story goes nowhere? Republicans won't touch it because they don't care; they are ones that have largely emasculated the SEC anyway. and Obama is having enough trouble with moneyed interests as it is. He has decided he needs Wall Street's approval, so that quaint shit about equal application of the law is out the door.