The decision by the FHFA to sue 131 individuals in its effort to recover losses on $200 billion of subprime mortgage-backed securities heralds a dramatic change in Wall Street enforcement.  For perhaps too long, securities regulators have given a pass to Wall Street players - opting instead to extract an extra pound of flesh from the firms (which, in some cases, effectively punished innocent shareholders). Perhaps the watershed moment occurred with the financial and economic crisis that crippled the United States.  Americans lost jobs, homes and saw their life savings diminish, while they saw the federal government cradle and support the same financial institutions that many thought created the crisis in the first place.  With financial assistance from the federal government, Wall Street seemed to operate on all cylinders and the practice of paying outsized bonuses - at least to some - continued, which drew enormous resentment among Main Street Americans. The final insult to injury came when case after case and investigation after investigation played out without any significant fines or sanctions against individual bankers, traders, management, salespersons. FHFA $200Bn Lawsuits. Which brings us back to the lawsuits filed last Friday by the Federal Housing Finance Authority on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.   -- blog in progress. --