
Paulson's Swindle Revealed - chaostheory
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081110/greider2/print
======
jhancock
What follows is a pretty harsh opinion, but I'm going to attempt to state it:

In the 80s when RICO laws were being extended to drug dealers, my strict
judicial process viewpoint was that you simply cannot take away property prior
to a conviction. Over the years, many courts and subsequent laws have
supported this practice and now its part of our legal fabric whereby many
thousands of drug dealers have seen _all_ their assets seized prior to trial
(and that includes anything they put in other peoples names). A judge doles
out from the seized assets to allow the accused to pay attorney fees
throughout the legal process and if found guilty, the gov keeps the bounty.

As this practice has become standard and well vetted by our court system, I
think its about time we start applying it to those that destroy our economic
fabric and treat them in the same fashion we would treat a drug kingpin.

Ken Lay should have never had a house in Aspen to go to to die after being
found guilty in Texas. He should have had no assets and been escorted straight
from the courtroom to a holding cell to await sentencing.

If Paulson and many thousands of others are found guilty of fraud or gross
mismanagement or collusion, we should wipe out their entire fortunes in
addition to the 5 to 20 years of prison time. And God forbid we find out they
illegally offshored some money...we'll need to tack on extra years for that.

I am a hard working entrepreneur. I invent real things that create sustainable
jobs and tangible assets. People that only flip money around while defrauding
investors should be treated the same as drug dealers.

I know many will think that those cheating the system are doing so "semi-
legally" in that if there were no or few regulations, then they didn't
technically violate the law. However, most states have "fraud legislation"
that defines fraud as "what 12 members of a jury think it is." I think its
about time we start putting some of these massively wealthy people that have
fleeced the public in front of a jury of "our peers" and give them a fair
trial.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
I agree, but you're unfamiliar with how the upper class works aren't you?

~~~
kirubakaran
How did the French upper class work before the guillotine?

I think jhancock is talking about how it should be, not about how it is right
now.

~~~
jhancock
I'm just hoping that if people can finally stand up and elect a minority as
president, then maybe we can also demand that white collar criminals start to
take some heat.

To put it in Hacker perspective, if "The best way to predict the future is to
invent it." then the best way to create social change is to get off our
collective butts and demand it ;)

btw, I'm not actually foolish enough to think Obama is going to make radical
progress in these areas. If we want people to pay the price for economic
malfeasance, we have to demand their heads be put on pikes. If we make it
clear that its either them or you ("you", meaning our elected officials) we
might see some progress.

~~~
anamax
Subprime loans were made at the insistence of elected officials.

~~~
jhancock
that's correct. However, I do not believe our elected officials pushed it to
allow "poor and minorities" easier access. I think they did it to allow
financial institutions to reap the benefits of more and cheaper funds.

------
pragmatic
Arggghhhh... Stop linking to print versions. They are way harder to read.

