Incompetence, stupidy and then the SEC.

 

Having been utterly clueless about Bernard Madoff's 50 year multi-billion dollar ripoff while failing to prevent the immense and so far unpunished meltdown of the U.S. financial system, the Securities and Exchange Commission has now let off two ex-Bear Sterns traders with a civil fine which constitutes a tiny fraction of what the two traders earned while defrauding investors. In fact, the SEC even admits in its own filing, that the two misrepresented their activities and results to investors.

This is one of the most odious and incredible aspects of the whole financial meltdown. That is, the dearth of competent enforcement not only prior to but since the debacle. Very few convictions have been achieved while in point of fact, most perps have been allowed to go free and to keep the money stolen via their many frauds.

Even more amazing, has been the lack of zeal by the press in reporting the greatest fraud and theft in history. The financial press was mute and clueless prior to the meltdown and the press in general has been a chorus of reeds since.

“Are we like late Rome, infatuated with past glories, ruled by a complacent, greedy elite, and hopelessly powerless to respond to changing conditions?”
                          Camille Paglia
 

What does all this mean? First, our institutions do not function as advertised and in fact, function little at all. Second, our society is now beset by criminals who have free reign to steal what they can while allowed to freely keep what they have stolen. Second, it means our press is not a press at all but a propaganda machine employing over-paid teleprompter readers to dish out pap in place of real information. Third, it means the rest of us are virtually helpless in the face of this all. Fourth, it means that American society is doomed, at least as we have always imagined it to be. No society supposedly based on the rule of law instead of the rule of evil men can long withstand this state of affairs.