On the recordMarch 1, 2011
You know, you are absolutely right, and so is Will Rogers. I think that it's important for us to communicate to the American people that while we don't want bloated government, we want to make sure that there is a government that has the cop on the street. Look at the savings and loan crisis and those who were criminally charged and those who were convicted and those who went to prison. The FBI deputy director at the time, John Pistole, testified before Congress and said that there were a thousand people working on the S&L crisis at its height within the FBI, a thousand people. That compares to about 240 agents working on the mortgage fraud cases last year. So, you see, no numbers in terms of convictions, and you can see that if you don't have cops on the beat, then you are going to have people that are going to take advantage, that are not going to follow the rules, and that, frankly, will not be charged nor convicted for their crimes. I am reminded, too, that during much of this review by the commission they talked about the action that some regulators did take in 2005 where they weren't willing to actually take action against the banks, but they did issue what they called was a nonbinding guidance.
