Why Nobody Has Been Criminally Prosecuted for Financial Crisis

This article describes many of the behaviors that contributed to the financial crisis. The author claims that risk taking and stupidity are not crimes. He also points out that prosecutors must prove criminal intent to get fraud convictions. Perhaps the article was written prior to the government audit of the major bank's behavior in filing fraudulent claims to the FHA for mortgages that they foreclosed on, and which the FHA had insured. Its hard to imagine that our Masters of the Universe on Wall Street are stupid or simply risk takers. There is substantial evidence that management was aware of, and even encouraged, the problems that permeated the loan origination organizations, and that underwriting standards were knowingly violated. Its also clear from internal emails that Wall Street banks sold securities to their customers without disclosing adverse information which they were aware of. If we can't get fraud convictions on the available evidence we should reexamine the fraud laws that have been recently changed to make criminal intent almost impossible to prove.