In the wake of Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation last week, a former Obama administration official made an incredible statement. The Washington Post reported that Jim Parrott, who advised the Obama White House on housing policy during the first term, said Holder’s “tough” enforcement actions on big banks harmed the economy, with the implication that his replacement should just back off.First of all, the idea that Eric Holder led a hard-charging onslaught against bank malfeasance is a fantasy. The Justice Department never led one top executive to jail for the mountain of fraud that caused the Great Recession, and much of the misconduct that was never fixed continues to this day. Big banks were so wounded by the DoJ crackdown that their stock prices rose whenever they announced a settlement.Maybe Parrott’s current work, advising financial institutions on housing finance issues, fully explains his perspective. But it’s worth examining his assumptions, because they appear to be epidemic in Washington.Read More.Source: Salon/David Dayen