Time for criminal investigations on Wall Street

Finally, an A-lister raises the obvious question. Josh Marshall is wondering where to draw the line.

Another point. The more I learn what got a lot of these companies into trouble, foolish bets or excessive risk taking don't really capture what we're talking about. A lot of this stuff just amounts to fraud. So where are the criminal investigations. Not just hassling CEOs up on Capitol Hill, which is fine. But accountability before the law for the people who ruined the economy? There may be some short term prudential argument for not getting distracted while we're in crisis mode. But I'm not sure I buy that. I lot of this was simply criminal.

I started making that point myself last Sunday. It becomes more clear every day the bubble wasn't created out of irrational exuberance so much as it was pre-meditated theft. They knew it was wrong but they were making too much damn money to stop themselves. I'm beginning to think the only reason there aren't any investigations is because the President's advisors are just as complicit as anyone in the industry.

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