General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Obama is giving the speech liberals have begged him to give for four years. [View all]1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)but still, with the AG, there has to be a criminal case to be prosecuted. It's not for nothing that, while there are plenty of investigative journalists and academics calling for legal action, there are very few in the legal community calling for prosecutions. Yes, this may be the result of a thoroughly corrupt legal system; but while we can agree that the banksters engaged in amoral conduct, this doesn't necessarily equate to provable criminal misconduct. Much of what was done "wrong" was within the bounds of the law, and that that wasn't, from what I can gather, violated civil, rather than criminal, law.
Yes ... I would like to see the banksters held to account; but being a nation beholdened to the rule of law, there must be a there there and bad outcomes don't necessarily equate to criminal violations ... and many criminal violations, despite our desires, are not prosecutable in the real world. Frequently, prosecutors must weigh the likelihood of conviction against the "bad law" created by an unfavorable decision and the fall-out of a conviction.
We don't like to look at that; but, in the real world, these all factor into the prosecute/no prosecute decision.