Yep, that about sums it up. Prison for the rich is never the same as prison for the not so well to do.

That's true enough, although I never expected him to be doing his time in a supermax.

He certainly is not a Jay Gatsby. I haven't heard him interviewed recently, but I understand that all the way through the trial he kept insisting he'd done nothing wrong, which is why the prosecution were demanding 20 years.

Was it both of them?
Fitzgerald said "The rich are not like us"
to which Hemingway's sour reply was,
"No, they have more money."

Really? I'd never heard the whole of the quote before. That's really funny. You don't tend to think of Fitzgerald and Hemingway as a comedy double-act, do you?

There's a piece about it here. I had a feeling it wasn't quite as straightforward as a two-handed exchange; the first bit was in a story of Fitzgerald's, and Hemingway added to it.

That's an interesting story. It just shows how history can be conflated together, even though nobody really means to do it, doesn't it? Mind you, whether they said those things to each other or not, it's still a great gag.

I must say that, without wishing ill even to Black, it's refreshing to see a modern megarichie facing at least an approximation of the same justice the rest would receive. Far too many of them get off scot free -- if even brought to court -- simply because of their wealth/celebrity.

It is refreshing, and I think after Enron there's a greater willingness, in the States at least, to go after people like this.

"I think after Enron there's a greater willingness, in the States at least, to go after people like this"

I think that's a bit of an optimistic exaggeration, alas.

I don't know whether it's an exaggeration or not. Before Enron these people were, as far as I know, mostly invulnerable, walled off from retribution by power and privilege. Enron proved it's possible to take them down if they step out of line. And I think smart politically-minded prosecutors have their eyes on them.

My cynicism is because there's a stack of powerful politicians here who've effectively been protected from corruption charges by the Bush Administration's getting rid of the prosecutors who were pursuing those cases.

Had there been anything like it in the UK, not just the corrupt pols but the people in charge of the corruption at the Justice Department would be facing sturdy sentences. As it is, the chances are the whole fucking kaboodle of complete crooks will waltz of scott-free.

Ya know, when I moved here it was to a nation of laws, despite the "walled off from retribution by power and privilege" stuff you mention. That was a boil -- albeit a large and pustulent one, and perhaps even a whole rash of them -- on the side of a system that was at least approaching approximate honesty. Your pal Bush has changed all that. In any honest legal system, himself, Cheney and a whole passel of senior figures in the current Administration would be facing prosecution.

Ah, now, politicians, that's a different thing altogether, and I agree with you a hundred percent. In any rational society Cheney and his greedhead mates would be in jail. I was talking about white-collar corporate crooks like Bernie Ebbers and the late Ken Lay.

And Bush is not my pal.

was in pissing off the plebs and messing with the stock market in a new and fancy manner. You can rip off poorer people all you like, but if you contribute to an economic maelstrom that dents peoples faith in "free" markets and the invisible hand, then you are nasty and evil and hung out to dry.

Thats the only reason the Enron executives were jailed.

I'd say that's more or less accurate, yes.

Me too, but it still seems to me there's a greater willingness to schmeiss these people than there was. Maybe, like Thog says, I'm just being optimistic, but that's how it seems to me. Forty years ago Conrad Black would still have been sitting in the House of Lords and using Hollinger as his private piggy-bank. Eighty years ago Ken Lay would have been in Congress.

Weeeellllll,
yes, I suppose there is a bit more willingness to get them. The problem is that i am not so well read up on old corruption and theft scandals.

To be honest with you, me neither. I just can't remember trials like this in the Eighties and Seventies, so in that respect it looks to me as if there's less tolerance for corporate raiders in the States than there used to be. I could be wrong. Indeed, the law of probabilities favours it.

"Eighty years ago Ken Lay would have been in Congress."

Today he'd not be scuzzy enough -- at least to be a Repug Congressmen. The Dems aren't precisely pure as driven snow either, but at least there are some of them who seem to think public service has purposes other than to line their own pockets.

That is a truly scary thought.

Politicians and entertainment/sports stars.

Surely you don't include the sainted Lord and Lady Beckham of Sawbridgeworth?

"Lady Beckham"

You mean The Artiste Formerly Known As Podge Spice?

To be fair, I don't think you'd ever have been able to describe her as `Podge.' You'd think they'd be able to afford to give her a decent meal every now and again.

"I don't think you'd ever have been able to describe her as `Podge.'"

Um, I just did.

Well, yes, you did, obviously... You know what I mean.