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Why the SEC Won’t Hunt Big Dogs

propublica.org

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Re: Why the SEC Won’t Hunt Big Dogs

#2
A few of my in-laws are working night and day, literally, to meet the legal document production requirements for a DoJ investigation of a Large Financial Institution which must remain nameless for ethical reasons. The DoJ is doing it's best to investigate Wall Street as aggressively as it can, but their electronic discovery team's annual budget is on the order of $20 million, which is peanuts when an investigation can yield tens of millions of responsive documents.

http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?i...

Re: Why the SEC Won’t Hunt Big Dogs

#4
I think a big part of the problem is probably talent.

A hot shot kid coming out of a C.S./engineering program wants to work at Google or Facebook or a startup, not the federal government. A kid coming out of an econ/math/finance program wants to work for a "big dog" at an investment bank or a PE fund, not some wimpy bureaucrat.

Re: Why the SEC Won’t Hunt Big Dogs

#5
I wish they had let Wall Street crash and burn when they had the chance. It's obvious that the majority of credible advisors had an inherent conflict of interest in proclaiming that systematic failure would destroy the economy irreparably. I say it would have been better to let the economy crumble and then rebuild it rather than allow this precedent to be set that investment banks can take any disk imaginable and it'll be backed by the taxpayers. If these rich fucks think they have such huge brass balls, let them take some risk, and I don't mean the risk that their bonus might only be $1 million instead of $50 million.

Re: Why the SEC Won’t Hunt Big Dogs

#6
post #5

I wish they had let Wall Street crash and burn when they had the chance. It's obvious that the majority of credible advisors had an inherent conflict of interest in proclaiming that systematic failure would destroy the economy irreparably. I say it would have been better to let the economy crumble and then rebuild it rather than allow this precedent to be set that investment banks can take any disk imaginable and it'…

Quick economics lesson. The money on Wall St doesn't belong to the guys in red braces - it is the pensions of ordinary Americans and the savings of little old ladies.

Letting Wall St crash and burn means everybody in America's pension disappears - everybody over 65 is out on the street. Everybody who saved money has lost it. Nobody accepts cash anymore, after all if you put it in the bank it might dissapear. You are back to bartering chickens.

Re: Why the SEC Won’t Hunt Big Dogs

#7
post #5

I wish they had let Wall Street crash and burn when they had the chance. It's obvious that the majority of credible advisors had an inherent conflict of interest in proclaiming that systematic failure would destroy the economy irreparably. I say it would have been better to let the economy crumble and then rebuild it rather than allow this precedent to be set that investment banks can take any disk imaginable and it'…

The precedent was already set before. S&L others, it's a regular, periodic occurrence.

Re: Why the SEC Won’t Hunt Big Dogs

#9
post #5

I wish they had let Wall Street crash and burn when they had the chance. It's obvious that the majority of credible advisors had an inherent conflict of interest in proclaiming that systematic failure would destroy the economy irreparably. I say it would have been better to let the economy crumble and then rebuild it rather than allow this precedent to be set that investment banks can take any disk imaginable and it'…

Quick economics lesson. The money on Wall St doesn't belong to the guys in red braces - it is the pensions of ordinary Americans and the savings of little old ladies. Letting Wall St crash and burn means everybody in America's pension disappears - everybody over 65 is out on the street. Everybody who saved money has lost it. Nobody accepts cash anymore, after all if you put it in the bank it might dissapear. You are…

IANAE, but this always struck me as... odd. How would the failure of the banking system stop people who really only use it for money storage and purchasing convenience from continuing to use hard currency?

Re: Why the SEC Won’t Hunt Big Dogs

#10
post #4

I think a big part of the problem is probably talent. A hot shot kid coming out of a C.S./engineering program wants to work at Google or Facebook or a startup, not the federal government. A kid coming out of an econ/math/finance program wants to work for a "big dog" at an investment bank or a PE fund, not some wimpy bureaucrat.

Case in point. Harry Markopolos is a fraud investigator who works for institutional investors "big dogs", not the SEC.

He looked at Madoff's returns, the strategy they claimed they were using and took "4 hours" at home to figure out that it was fraud.

Here is a choice section of Markopolos's testimony: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1A7LdW0Y_s

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