Along with its formal report, the commission probing the financial crisis of 2008 has done an online archival dump of internal company documents that some hope, and others fear, will be of great help to litigators — even perhaps a “Wikileaks for the class action bar,” which with its allies was well represented on the commission and staff. [BLT; earlier]
More: David Frum has been doing a series of blog posts on the report’s substance.
Steve Chapman, as usual, keeps a cool head about things. And I’ve got some links at Point of Law on the remarkable House-passed proposal to slap a punitive tax on the compensation of many thousands of financial institution employees who are not even notionally to blame for the current crisis, as well as on the threats of violence to AIG employees, which are being met with complacency if not encouragement in some surprisingly respectable circles. Update: Point of Law post now considerably expanded, and with followups here and here.
Roger Parloff at Fortune looks at the outlook for prosecutions over the financial implosion. One major source of potential criminal liability: over-rosy business statements put out by executives in hope of keeping customer/supplier confidence from tanking (cross-posted from Point of Law).
Did we imagine that it was not going to occur to anyone to have the government start using its big new stakes in banks and other commanding heights of the economy to, as it were, command? (David Frum, Oct. 30).