I heard it on Brian Lehrer this morning:
9/11 and the Patriot Act mandated banks to be more scrupulous about monitoring bank accounts. But the biggest push came from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
“Spitzer said it is no longer acceptable for a bank to say, ‘we didn’t know.’ He said, to do due dilligence, you have to use these software programs,” says Adam Davidson, WNYC’s business and economics reporter on this morning’s Brian Lehrer show.
These software programs that Spitzer demanded are good at following the transfer of sums.
“Before 9/11 it was left to individuals to do the accounting. There was no way that someone could uncover thousands of transactions. Now it’s done trivially by computer,” said Davidson.
Eliot Spitzer was undone by the very mechanisms he mandated.
“He should know more than anyone how these things work. It brings up real questions about his judgement let alone his sanity,” Davidson told Lehrer.
No way was this routine monitoring. The amount of money being transferred wouldn’t have raised any flags because if you looked at the balance in the accounts and the normal transactions these were not out of the ordinary. No, this was a case of big brother watching and waiting for Spitzer to do something stupid, and stupid he did. But you better believe that all of our cell phone conversations and emails are routinely ‘monitored’. For our own protection, of course.
Regarding judgment, its easy to understand why it went haywire. I will quote a line uttered by Robin Williams during a conversation with Jay Leno about the male species:
“We have two heads but only enough blood for one”
One can’t help but think of the wonderful phrase, “hoist by his own petard.” These days, petards go for $4,000 a night–who knew?