Regulators and prosecutors in the US are conducting closed-door trials of companies which never go to court and allow the agencies to become profit centres, according to the Economist. It says that New York's governor and attorney-general have squabbled over a $613 million settlement from JP Morgan whilst Rhode Island has had a $500 million payout by Google. The article says that not only are regulators effectively judge and jury as well as plaintiff in the cases they bring, they also have the criminal law at their disposal. The article complains about the secrecy around such settlements and says that there are too many laws to count. In the early 1990s, one law professor calculated there were around 300,000 regulatory statutes which had criminal penalties - a number which has escalated since then. Source: thechronicleherald.ca