Robert Reich: How to punish bank felons

[eridani]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-how-to-punish-bank-felons-20150623-story.html

Which brings us to Santa Cruz County.

The county's board of supervisors just voted not to do business for five years with any of the five bank felons. The county won't use the banks' investment services or buy their commercial paper, and will pull its money out of the banks to the extent that it can.

"We have a sacred obligation to protect the public's tax dollars, and these banks can't be trusted," said County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty "Santa Cruz County should not be involved with those who rigged the world's biggest financial markets."

The banks will hardly notice. Santa Cruz County's portfolio is valued at about $650 million.

But what if every county, city and state in America followed Santa Cruz County's example and held the big banks accountable for their felonies?

What if all of us taxpayers said, in effect, we're not going to hire these convicted felons to handle our public finances? We don't trust them.

[dreamnightwind]

1. Wow, great find

So why not take away the right of these convicted banks to participate in the political process, at least for some years? That would stop JPMorgan's Dimon from lobbying Congress to roll back the Dodd-Frank Act, as he's been doing almost nonstop.

Why not also take away their right to pour money into politics? Wall Street banks have been among the biggest contributors to political campaigns. If they're convicted of a felony, they should be barred from making any political contributions for at least 10 years.

Real ex-convicts also have difficulty finding jobs. That's because, rightly or wrongly, many people don't want to hire them. A strong case can be made that employers shouldn't pay attention to criminal convictions of real people who need a fresh start, especially a job.

Reich makes some great points. He's an interesting man, was to some degree part of the problem as Treasury Secretary under Clinton, yet he now consistently makes great points about the failures of our financial system and our financial regulatory laws and agencies. I hope he is a part of the next Democratic administration.

I spent about 8 years in Santa Cruz, great place, the Coonertys own Boookshop Santa Cruz, one incarnation of which was destroyed in the '89 Loma Prieta quake. Ryan Coonerty's father Neal was mayor of Santa Cruz part of the time I lived there.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/government-and-politics/20150107/ryan-coonerty-succeeds-his-father-as-santa-cruz-county-3rd-district-supervisor

My favorite part of the OP's article is at the end:
"There's hope. Supervisor Coonerty says he'll be contacting other local jurisdictions across the country, urging them to do what Santa Cruz County is doing."

We could help him out by bringing this to the attention of our local governments.

[eridani]

2. Exactly--just forwarded this tow the Seattle City Council and the King County Council

Will also mail to all the candidates--all positions open as Seattle has just switched to districts.