[A-List] Operation Restoring Investor Confidence: Merrill-Spitzer Settlement

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Anne writes:

> Here's an excellent example of state-supplied
> justice; the state will take in $100M in fines,
> the perpetrators will have suffered a slap on the
> wrist and have been set free to steal again, and
> the victims?  Zip, nada, nichevo, zero, absolutely
> nothing!  -A.

Don't you think your conclusion from this information is flawed
Anne? What we are observing here is a market failure, as our
neoclassical economists call it, where the pursuit of
self-interest led to a socially undesirable outcome: outright
fraud and lies to the so-called investors. This did not happen
because the US government placed heavy restrictions on the free
operation of markets. On the contrary, most of the previously
existing restrictions were removed and this is the outcome.

Whose government is this, after all?

Sabri