If everyone on Wall Street is as pure as the driven snow, or at least “not guilty”, then it’s fine for Obama to raise tens of millions of dollars from them to pay for his shot at re-election.

Prosecutions are game changers. Obama is a meliorist.

The efforts to keep Wall Street and all its celebrated creativity intact could serve to make it easier for banks like Wachovia to engage in widespread money-laundering. That is, it’s not just shadow banking as it is politely understood, but banking for entire shadow networks, both our own and our enemies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which a week ago initiated a civil fraud action against Goldman Sachs, has now also referred the matter to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution.