The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Perez reports that the FBI is starting to probe the big contributors toward the financial mess — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG. While the FBI is now looking at 26 companies, lawmakers have criticized federal investigators for not doing enough. In the Savings and Loan crisis, the Justice Dept. brought more than 600 cases against 1,000 defendants.

But there a couple of obstacles in the way of the mortgage crisis leading to criminal indictments. Perez  seems to argue implicitly that the crisis is due to massively risky and irresponsible investments but not fraud per se. He also buries the story lead, writing near the article’s end: "In the case of the S&L bailout, the institutions were federally regulated, which made it easier for prosecutors to pursue charges on improper disclosures." Since it’s hard to break laws that were never created, perhaps its the federal regulators that should be put on trial.-MB

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