Saturday, November 19, 2011

Suing the suits


Seven banks that helped MF Global Holdings Ltd sell bonds were sued by pension funds who said the bonds' offering prospectuses concealed problems that led to the futures brokerage's collapse.
The lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in Manhattan federal court against units of Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Jefferies Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.
Other defendants include several officials associated with MF Global, including former Chief Executive Jon Corzine....
Read the rest at The Huffington Post via Reuters
by Jonathan Stempel

I expect we will be seeing massive suits against cities and states over recent (alleged) police brutality, too, which was recorded in pretty gruesome detail on video. I would say that there should also be criminal charges pressed against the offending officers for using excessive force and inflicting injury without adequate reason, given what I have seen on the videos and reports I have read.

4 comments:

beowulf said...

Yup, grounds for a Section 1983 action.
Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act provides a way individuals can sue to redress violations of federally protected rights, like the First Amendment rights and the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Section 1983 can be used to enforce rights based on the federal Constitution and federal statutes...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1871

Here's something I just learned from that article... "Benjamin Franklin Butler drafted the initial version of 1871 Klan Act."
OF COURSE, Benjamin Butler would be the one to draft something so awesome (link through, you'll be glad you did, don't worry its a real website). :o)
http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2011/05/matt-rognlie-on-fallacies-of-mmt.html?showComment=1304599849349#c8501537467694804468

Tom Hickey said...

Thanks for the amplification, Beowulf.

Quite a guy, that Butler.

beowulf said...

You're welcome, and yes that Butler was a first round pick, the Tay Zonday of his time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37eqoYbj1QM

But I am told if we undertake to pay any portion of this debt in greenbacks [US Notes] we shall depreciate greenbacks so that they will be worthless... The common idea is that there will be inflation when you issue paper money. It is drawn from the old idea of bank circulation... Here is a limitation on this power of issuing greenbacks, and only one[,] they can only be issued in such quantities without depreciation in fact, as will be absorbed by the community to the degree that they are required for business purposes [p. 941]... The banking business, which, if well conducted, is the safest business on earth, and which heretofore has always been content with small profits, is now the most profitable of all businesses, and has the largest returns without any risks [p. 947].
http://books.google.com/books?id=0LIBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA941#v

Calgacus said...

That old thread mentioning the IGBC, plus mention of the civil war reminded me of the old story about Lincoln's response to the question - how long should a man's legs be?

His response was what I like to think of as Lincoln's Intertemporal Terrestrial Human Leg Length Constraint: Long enough to reach the ground. The reasoning incorporated in vacuities like the (I)GBC is parallel & equally serious.