Banking on outrage

Kudos to Ned Barnett for the Jan. 13 column “Pursuing those who caused the crisis.” The column rightly suggested that settlements with big banks for fraud and mishandling in the foreclosure crisis amount to slaps on the hand and neglect prosecution of bank CEOs.

Bank regulators should have known that efforts to fix the crisis would fail because they allowed banks themselves to select the consultants to review bad loans.

But such cozy arrangements between regulators and the industries they’re supposed to regulate result from lax policies and enforcement against the revolving door between industries and government. Along with persistent deregulation and slashing regulatory budgets, no wonder big banks, big industries and their leaders are too big to jail.

If commentary like Barnett’s occurred repeatedly in both print and electronic media, enough public outrage might result in meaningful change.

Dennis Welch. Cary