The Untouchables on Wall Street - Essay Example

THE UNTOUCHABLES ON WALL STREET (Discussion board) ID Number: of of (affiliation)Location of University:Word Count: 334 (text only)Date of Submission: July 28, 2014Question 1. - the two most important things from the video are that firstly, the banking system is very delicate and vulnerable. Secondly, there is a failure of free market capitalism in the sense that the biggest banks, financial institutions, and investment firms were taking excessive financial risks to the point of failure and bankruptcy.

There were all the warning signs but these were ignored by the top people of the giant firms because all they want are the profits. Banking and finance are both based on trust and confidence but some people are motivated by a different sense of what constitutes legitimate profitable transactions and so they try to game or con the whole financial system operating on Wall Street. Any hints of possible wrongdoing can ruin the investment climate with serious consequences for employees and the whole economy.

I consider these two aspects as extremely important because America was founded and grew on its democratic institutions including a free-market capitalist economy based on investor confidence. Question 2: The two most important things about government today are its failures to regulate Wall Street and the financial industry in particular, and secondly, government regulatory agencies were caught sleeping on the job and even now with plenty of evidence of fraud, is still very reluctant to bring cases and charges against those who caused the financial crisis of 2008.

It is clear that the U.S. government is beholden to the titans of Wall Street as many politicians owe a lot of campaign contributions from these same Wall Street executives and so the DOJ is to handle these cases with kid gloves or even worse, delay filing the cases altogether which is why up to now, there is no big fish or top Wall Street executive who has been sent to jail. What is now important is that justice is elusive for many burnt investors who lost their shirts and savings. On another note, the video shows government makes compromises that renders justice to be elusive.

ReferencePublic Broadcasting System (2013, January 22). “Untouchables on Wall Street.” Retrieved July 28, 2014 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqmyrWDQljwDue: July 29, 2014 @6:18 a.m.