Academic

BELDAR WARNS THAT STAMPING ?TAX CHEAT? OVER TIM GEITHNER?S SIGNATURE might get you prosecuted. And,?

By Glenn Reynolds

BELDAR WARNS THAT STAMPING “TAX CHEAT” OVER TIM GEITHNER’S SIGNATURE might get you prosecuted. And, yes, it might. I think such a prosecution would be unjust, but the world is full of unjust prosecutions. However, it occurs to me that, so far, I don’t think I’ve seen a single bill with Tim Geithner’s signature. And while I haven’t checked every bill that has passed through my hands, I’ve stopped to look on a number of occasions. Are any of those out yet? And, if not, is it possible that this stamp, and the publicity it’s gotten, accounts, at least in part, for the delay?

UPDATE: Reader Juan Paxety writes: “I’ve checked every bill that has passed through my hands since March, 2009 – not a single Geithner. My stamp sits unused.” But another reader emails that his business just started getting bundles of Geithner-signed bills, so stay tuned.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Mark Wilson writes:

Are you familiar with “Where’s George”? People stamp a tracking number on a dollar bill and register it on a website. As the bill circulates, other people record when and where they received the bill. It’s kind of interesting to watch the movement of the bill. This has been going on for at least a decade. How is that different from stamping “tax cheat” on a bill?

One makes fun of the Secretary of the Treasury, and the other does not. And prosecutors have a lot of discretion. As I say, I’d regard a prosecution here as unjust — unjust enough to warrant calling out the prosecutors by name — but that’s no guarantee they wouldn’t do it, though it’s true that there’d be considerable blowback.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch writes: “Funny. You see enough unjust prosecutions, you don’t fear them any more. They can’t prosecute three hundred million people.”

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on April 24, 2010 (boomark / email).