“I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult to prosecute them,” Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “When we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps world economy, that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large. It has an inhibiting impact on our ability to bring resolutions that I think would be more appropriate. That is something that you all need to consider.”
Holder added that he felt the department had been “appropriately aggressive,” in pursuing and bringing cases where it could prove companies or individuals had broken the law. “These are not easy cases to make,” he said. “Things were done wrong, but the question is whether they’re illegal.”
As far as “not easy cases to make,” well, Holder, we don’t pay you the big bucks to nab people who shoplifted makeup on CCTV and then confessed to it the minute the clerk heard the alarm go off. Christ. It’s the same old nonsense, what if you go after them and lose? Well, what if you do? They’ll still be sons of bitches who are going to hell, and you’ll still be on the side of the angels. Assholes beat the rap every day, and yet we still make arrests. You fight the fights need fighting, and at least then you’ve fingerprinted the bastards so the next time they steal it’s quicker to book them.
And as for “even if we win, they’re too big, it’s too much, it’ll collapse everything,” THEY ALREADY DID THAT. There’s already a giant flaming hellmouth in the fucking earth.In case you hadn’t noticed. And if you throw the guys who fucked the economy up in jail, I have news for you: Someone else will take their jobs, even if those jobs will now have to be done within the bounds of the law. Someone else will want to be head of a giant squillion-dollar bank. It is not going to be a position that is vacant for very long. Someone else wants a swimming pool full of money to Scrooge McDuck around in. This is not hard sell in America.
The other thing that might happen is that people who look at the entire American economy as one giant “you just won a free timeshare” scam might start thinking about investing again. Spending again. Hiring people again. Feeling, again, like maybe they’re not gonna get screwed no matter what they do.
Imagine what that would look like.
A.