I've been reading dkos for a while but I just decided to join. (This is my first submission.)
I see oft-repeated calls for the prosecution of bankers who were guilty of the wrongdoings which caused the Great Recession.
For the most part, I disagree - (and I know I AM alone).
Of course anyone found guilty of fraud (etc.) should be prosecuted, but it should be accepted that there are actually very few. The unimaginably rich owners of these banks (and their staff of the worlds most-expensive lawyers) have had DECADES to prepare for this. Through ALEC and the legislators that they've purchased, they have, for years, been crafting all applicable laws and regulations to both maximize their own profits and, importantly, to minimize their culpability were malfeasance ever to be charged. So, regardless of their "wrongdoings", they are most probably not guilty of violating any laws or regulations - they've made sure of that.
Make no mistake. They CAUSED the crash of 2008. They have not been prosecuted, not because there was no will to do so, but because the legal protections they have been putting in place for ages prevent it.
All effort should now go into getting sizeable liberal majorities into both Houses so the protections currently shielding these 1%ers can be stripped away. It may even be possible, with enough will, to recover (by attacking estate laws) some of the booty they've stashed and use it to build some schools.