The Long Con... Scolding Minnows

Tracking Financial Crisis Cases

Very few cases related to the financial crisis have been brought against executives at large companies, and the ones that have been involved are almost entirely civil fraud, rather than criminal allegations. Here are the prominent cases so far. In many of them, the government negotiated a settlement with the defendants before it even filed a complaint, then announced both the case and settlement at the same time.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/financial-crisis-cases.html?ref=business

A Compelling Dosey-Doe | Time to move the burden from the taxpayer to the culprit

Interesting concept... from last week's Business Week:

"Blinder thinks the Fed is being "a little too passive."
 
He wants the Fed to cut to zero the rate it pays banks on the excess reserves it holds for them. That would remove banks' incentive to park money with the Fed. Even better, says Blinder, the Fed could effectively charge banks for holding their reserves by paying a negative interest rate. 

 More likely is that Bernanke will keep short-term interest rates, now around 0.25 percent, at that low level for even longer. "It is becoming increasingly likely that the Fed will be on hold until 2013," says Perli. 

What Now, Ben Bernanke?