The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap Highlight

At the national level, at the systemic level, government response was virtually nonexistent. The federal government pushed exactly one single criminal prosecution against individuals at a major bank for crimes related to the financial crisis, a fraud case involving two testosterone-jacked Bear Stearns hedge funders who had told investors in their subprime-laden fund that they were “comfortable with where they are” just days after one of them privately confided to his wife that “the subprime market is toast.” That fund later imploded, helping cause the collapse of Bear Stearns, which in turn helped trigger the financial crisis. Despite a seeming abundance of damning emails and text messages, a jury acquitted, and the Justice Department never stepped to the plate again.