Untouchables

I'm starting to think we have a new class of "Untouchables" in this country.  We have regulatory agencies like Moody's and SEC conspiring to, respectively, give higher ratings to make clients happy (remember those ratings are supposed to be rational and objective), and to literally shred/delete preliminary investigations, despite a law requiring them to archive all of their information.  Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone did a great story on the SEC cover-up.  Go check it out.

Balloon Juice asks a good question regarding the Moody's situation;

Again, I am not a lawyer, but what exactly has to happen before this stuff falls under RICO. How is this not an organized crime situation?

In an earlier article for Rolling Stone, Matt Taibi opens with this:

Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.

"Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."

I've said before that it's not that the poor commits more crime like everyone believes, it's that the rich have more options.  And apparently they have a Get Out Of Jail Lifetime Pass as well.

Follow Up

As a follow up to my previous post, I'd like to note, once again, the biggest housing subsidy is the home mortgage interest deduction program (and other smaller homeownership-related programs).  But there are no oversight or requirements associated with owning a home with that subsidy like there is for renting a home using rental assistance.  Evidently it doesn't matter what crimes I commit if I own a home, but if I rent...then hell breaks loose.

Odious Wall Street

The Wall Street Journal, infamous for its blindly conservative leanings in its editorial pages, has come out with an odious editorial by James Bovard on Section 8 Housing, "Raising Hell in Subsidized Housing", which unfortunately is walled off behind a subscription. 

I'll quote from it as much as I can without violating the "fair use" principle, although I fear there is so much odiousness in it that I might very well end up quoting it in its entirety.

Something Cool

"The 5 Most Incredible Stories of Pimped Out Wheelchairs!"