Reuters is reporting that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the downgrade of the United States credit rating by Standards & Poors. The issue at hand is not whether or not the United States deserved the downgrade. Rather, the concern is that potentially there was a leak at S&P, which may have given some traders inside information causing unethical trading. According to the report, there isn't any clear evidence at this time whether or not any crimes were committed.
I understand that there are billions of dollars on the line when it comes to the stock market and that people typically do not become rich because they are frivolous with their money. However, I really think that crimes like insider trading should be treated with much more severe penalties. When our country is in a time of crisis and people do things for their own benefit at the expense of the rest of the citizens, it is nothing short of treason. Insider trading in this instance should be viewed as a betrayal of America and American citizens and punished accordingly. Time and again we see white collar criminals stealing from hardworking American people and receiving very light penalties. I really believe that if we made punishments more severe there would be a dramatic decrease in these types of activities.
This post was written in response to:
SEC Investigates S&P's Downgrade of U.S. Credit Rating: Report
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/12/us-sec-sp-idUSTRE77B0KW20110812?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29
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