<story><title>U.S. senators ask consumer watchdog head for details on Equifax probe</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-equifax-cfpb-lawmakers/u-s-senators-ask-consumer-watchdog-head-for-details-on-equifax-probe-idUSKBN1FS2R1</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>linsomniac</author><text>A previous HN discussion, possibly on Equifax now that I think about it, had a comment recommending the book &amp;quot;The Chickenshit Club&amp;quot;, about why the justice department doesn&amp;#x27;t prosecute.&lt;p&gt;I just finished in it a discussion of Enron and their auditors, Arthur Andersen.  The justice department prosecuted Andersen (one of the &amp;quot;big 5&amp;quot; accounting firms at the time), and there was a lot of backlash about the Justice Dept &amp;quot;killing Andersen&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;The details of it are that Enron was way crooked, lying to investors and the public saying everything was great, when it wasn&amp;#x27;t.  Andersen audits didn&amp;#x27;t reveal this, and also was responsible for increasing document shredding from 80lbs&amp;#x2F;day to &amp;gt;2,000lbs&amp;#x2F;day in the few days before the SEC subpoena.  And this was after Andersen had been shown to be negligent in the auditing of Worldcom, QWest, and Globalcom.&lt;p&gt;Basically, they recommended fraudulent practices with WorldCom, got caught and said &amp;quot;We promise we will never do that again&amp;quot; and did it again with Enron.&lt;p&gt;Justice Dept prosecuted, and then there was all this backlash about the prosecution.&lt;p&gt;So, is prosecution of Equifax likely?  Seems like we as a country have trained the government not to.</text></comment>
<story><title>U.S. senators ask consumer watchdog head for details on Equifax probe</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-equifax-cfpb-lawmakers/u-s-senators-ask-consumer-watchdog-head-for-details-on-equifax-probe-idUSKBN1FS2R1</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>rectang</author><text>Was it inevitable that the Equifax situation became partisan?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m a market constructivist, and I&amp;#x27;d prefer the simplest possible solution which regulates Equifax and its immense externalities out of existence.&lt;p&gt;But isn&amp;#x27;t there also a libertarian case to be made that the credit authorities are a cartel and should be deregulated out of existence?  And if that&amp;#x27;s the case, can&amp;#x27;t at least some of us find common ground?</text></comment>