Barney Frank: I Demand Prosecutions for Those Risk-Taking Villains Who Begat This Crisis!

After you, Alphonse.

U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said he wants to see people prosecuted for wrongdoing related to the financial crisis as lawmakers overhaul regulation of Wall Street.

Frank will call on attorneys general, bank regulators and officials from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to outline plans for prosecuting and recovering funds from those responsible for the crisis, he said today at a news conference in Washington.

“What are your plans to prosecute those people whose irresponsible and, in some cases, criminal actions helped bring about this crisis?” said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat.

...

“We have got to empower some entities that don’t now have it to restrain risk-taking that is irresponsible,” Frank said, adding that the Federal Reserve is in the “best capacity” to serve this role.

Risk-taking? How awful.

Here's Barney Frank on risk-taking, from 2003, as the bomb was being built:

House Financial Services Committee hearing, Sept. 10, 2003:

Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.): I worry, frankly, that there's a tension here. The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see. I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disaster scenarios....

House Financial Services Committee hearing, Sept. 25, 2003:

Rep. Frank: I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision]. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing. . . .

You dirty cocksucker.

posted by Ace at 04:05 PM

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