Danny Schechter - ColdType

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ing plunder of resources is if there’s a structural change,” he
said, “a structural change in the way the Street is allowed to
do business.”
Will we see more prosecutions? Criminal law expert John
Coffee said he expects so, but stresses that the rights of defendants
must be assured.
Antar, who was a defendant, says the government only has
the capacity to investigate and prosecute a relative handful of
cases.
The courts also seem unequipped to deal with complex
criminal cases, writes Gillian Tett in the Financial Times:
Some senior figures in the financial world are looking for solutions
to this. Jeffrey Golden, a prominent lawyer who helped
to create the modern derivatives world, for example, thinks
there is an urgent need for a specialist, cross-border financial
court (in much the same way, say, that there are specialist
family or trade courts.) This, he argues, could be staffed by
former derivatives experts and lawyers, since these not only
understand finance but also have a vested interest in ensuring
that their beloved derivatives business is built credible
foundations.
But there seems to be a limited chance that Golden’s sensible
suggestion will fly soon. Right now, in other words, the
Western financial system is stuck with a legal structure that
seems ill-equipped to cope.
But, even if there are more prosecutions, that may not lead
to the changes we need argues Max Wolff, “I think you will
see a bunch of people get some prison sentences. More importantly,
and a bigger question to me is, will we see a structural
change or will we go through a long, bad recession while we
waste our money struggling to rebuild an unsustainable system
that should have never been erected in the first place?”
I share Wolff ’s sense that just tossing more people in prison
will not solve the problem, even if feels good to know these