Danny Schechter - ColdType

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parency for derivatives as a response to the financial crisis
that began a year ago. As that battle with a reluctant Wall
Street inches forward about how to prevent another disaster,
judges are taking the first steps toward the same goal, punishing
executives and issuing rulings with national impact.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin threw out a
key free-speech defense that credit raters had used for years
to thwart investors’ fraud suits, knocking $1.5 billion off the
market value of Moody’s Investors Service Inc. and the parent
of Standard & Poor’s LLC.
“Judges have lifetime appointments and are freer to act on
their conscience than regulators,” said Charles Elson, chair
of the University of Delaware’s corporate-governance center.
Judges can act more decisively than regulators or politicians
because they’re “insulated from the political process,” he
said.”
Blogger Larry Doyle agreed: “With the gap between Wall
Street and Main Street never wider, the American public is
left wondering who truly is looking out for their interests. The
Wall Street lobbying machine is working overtime to dilute
real regulatory reform. The financial regulators themselves are
increasingly exposed as overmatched and incompetent, if not
worse. Where can the American public turn to get some relief?
Slowly but surely the courts are taking action to address the
gross injustices that the American public has had to bear at
the behest of Wall Street and with the protection of Washington.”
If so, this is a hopeful sign.