Prosecutions of financial criminals continue to plummet

Coming out of the dot-com bubble, the United States prosecuted a lot of people. I have no idea how many of them were related to the bubble and I have no idea if it was nearly so many as deserved to be in cuffsl, but a recent report shows that in the first couple years of his term, Bush, Jr. prosecuted some 3,000 potential financial criminals across the country.

Now, it’s no big surprise that the financial industry prosecutions dropped pretty fast under Bush, Jr.. Here’s what is surprising. They kept dropping under President Obama. Out of the biggest financial imbroglio this country has ever been in, we’re prosecuting less than half as many folks a year as we did coming out of the Dot-Com bust. Does that make sense?

Like, to anyone?

I found this via a twitter link from Catherine Rampell, who blogged about it on the New York Times’ Economix blog. She also goes on to show that meanwhile, on balance, prosecutions by Federal prosecutors are going up. So they aren’t prosecuting fewer financial institutions for lack of manpower.

Doesn’t it seem like this is a moment in which prosecuting the financial industry really ought to be a high priority?