Fits and Smarts

Somebody at a more august publication than www.conradblacktrial.com (hard to believe, I know) has written something so much smarter than I, at this moment, can possibly muster that all I can do is offer a link.

James Surowieki of the New Yorker simply reminds readers that despite the possibility that prosecution of white-collar crime can go too far, the purpose is admirable. Just when you thought, Hey, maybe Steyn and Worthington have a point, Surowieki suggests that those who ridicule Black’s prosecution “have used too broad a brush, casting nearly all white-collar trials as unjustified, and cavalierly dismissing the social and economic importance of sending fraudsters to prison. Instead of diminishing the populist fervor for sending executives to jail, it’s more likely to fuel it, since asserting that almost all white-collar defendants are innocent is a good way to make people believe that they’re really all guilty.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.