Unfair cop

“THE message to every Wall Street banker is loud and clear,” cried Elizabeth Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, last year. “If you break the law, you are not going to jail.” After the savings-and-loan crisis of the early 1990s, Ms Warren pointed out, over 1,000 people were prosecuted, and more than 800 convicted. Yet since the financial crisis of 2007-08, which did far more damage to the economy, no senior banker has been convicted of any crime related to it. America’s regulators and prosecutors, Ms Warren complained, were not only failing to pursue those responsible; they were also declining to take the banks themselves to court. Instead, they were negotiating murky settlements, in which financial firms agree to pay big fines if prosecutors promise not to press charges.Events this week have only made the senator more apoplectic. Regulators and prosecutors announced settlements with six international banks for alleged manipulation of currency markets (see ). The six agreed to pay some $5 billion in fines. Two did not admit to any crimes related to this abuse; the other four did, but received waivers shielding them from the consequence that would normally follow—the loss of an all-important banking licence. This week also marked the end of a 90-day period the Department of Justice (DoJ) had given itself to decide once and for all whether it could launch any prosecutions related to the financial crisis. The DoJ says only that it is reviewing the results of the review.