Where’s the reporting on the fraud that led to the crash?

The mortgage-related crash was the product of wide-scale criminal fraud, says economist James Galbraith, and people should be going to prison. Instead, he says, the press has pretty much ignored that aspect of it, treating the issue as boys-will-be boys.

(Part of our series on "Reporting the Economic Collapse.")

By John Hanrahan

Hanrahan@niemanwatchdog.org

University of Texas economist and author James Galbraith believes the press has paid too little attention to investigating the “criminal and felonious behavior” involved in the economic crash of last year.

“The press as a whole used [Ponzi-schemer] Bernie Madoff as the emblem of wrongdoing, but compared to the wrongdoing in the housing sector, the Madoff scandal was small-bore,” Galbraith told Nieman Watchdog in a recent interview. “The press has tended a bit to treat this issue [mortgage related fraud] as a kind of boys-will-be-boys phenomenon. The press has not been aggressive in investigating this the way they should, to point out to readers the extent to which we’re talking about fraud -- criminal, felonious behavior -- that will end up with people in the penitentiary.”

The rest.

Source: Nieman Watchdog