It is dismaying evidence of the growth and power of corporations as
opposed to civil government that America's attorney-general fails to
do his duty when faced with the awesome power of corporations. Eric
Holder's capitulation as described in Shahlen Nasirpour's article (FT
3/7/13) demonstrates how weak our citizen led institutions have become
when charged with enforcing the law of the land. In my recent book,
The Anthropology of the Credit Crisis (2012) I devote a chapter to the
nature of criminal prosecutions in American originating in fraud cases.
I compare those in the Great Depression and today.
It illustrates how the average person will do prison time over the
same kind of fraud while banks and corporations can shield themselves
and their employees from the same punishment. While the Roberts
Supreme Court has given credence to the idea of corporate personhood,
the failure to treat corporations in the same way real citizens are
treated undermines the validity of that assertion.
What is also disturbing is the increase in "Wash trades" where traders "produce artificial liquidity that can distort prices or perceptions of supply and demand in the market." See Silla Brush in Bloomberg News, "Wash trades prompt call for review of regulations." In this case a fraud is central to the trade as a party buys a contract from itself creating the appearance of demand and price. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Bart Chilton has complained about the practice which is technically illegal but no action has taken place yet. For an analysis of the history of banking my article, " The Theory of Banking: Why Banks Exist and Why We Fear Them," which can be downloaded from from the Social Science Research Network.