Why was no one prosecuted for contributing to the financial crisis?
Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 1 month ago to Business
Excerpt:
The FCIC was set up to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. The commission didn’t have either the authority or the resources to do a criminal investigation. But as the documents show, a number of matters—involving Goldman Sachs, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Fannie Mae—were referred to the Attorney General. No criminal prosecutions arose from any of those. (In Citigroup’s case, the SEC settled with the company and two executives in the fall of 2010 for a paltry sum. The Commission drily noted, “The SEC’s civil settlement ignores the executives running the company and Board members responsible for overseeing it. Indeed, by naming only the CFO and the head of investor relations, the SEC appears to pin blame on those who speak a company’s line, rather than those responsible for writing it.”)
The FCIC was set up to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. The commission didn’t have either the authority or the resources to do a criminal investigation. But as the documents show, a number of matters—involving Goldman Sachs, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Fannie Mae—were referred to the Attorney General. No criminal prosecutions arose from any of those. (In Citigroup’s case, the SEC settled with the company and two executives in the fall of 2010 for a paltry sum. The Commission drily noted, “The SEC’s civil settlement ignores the executives running the company and Board members responsible for overseeing it. Indeed, by naming only the CFO and the head of investor relations, the SEC appears to pin blame on those who speak a company’s line, rather than those responsible for writing it.”)
When Mark-to-Market hit, any Bad Loans had to be re-valued to what they would sell for if someone put a gun to your head and asked your selling price under the condition you had to close the sale in the next hour. What would YOUR Home's selling price be under those conditions... Hint: Nowhere near what you'd like it to be! All that was forgotten or swept under political rugs in order to blame banks for essentially doing what any sane businessperson would do under those conditions!
Barney and Bill encouraged a You Should Own A Home culture and when people discovered they could get mortgages on homes they otherwise could Never afford... IN A Buyer's Market... houses stopped being Homes and morphed into Fast-Gain Cash Cows. Houses changed from Homes to Investments, and highly leveraged "futures" ones, at that. That got renters and flippers excited.
I believe the get-rich-quick culture, compounded by Barney and Bill's stupid manipulations of the otherwise Free Market in homes lit the fuse. The banks and investment companies tried to capitalize on the distorted market so naturally politicians blamed THEM for the problems caused By The Politicians!
Yeah, I would love to have gotten a piece of some of those banks' profits, but hey... I did... I sold a Silicon Valley postage stamp about a year before the bubble burst. (timing just happened that way) and got to trade UP in house at a lower purchase price in a wonderful area AND live a year or two off the 'excess profits' that Bill and Barney helped me get.
I don't blame the banks. I blame the politicians and the greed of economic illiterates who got sucked into the bubble because they didn't know shit about how economics Really Works...
Oh, and by the way, when all that paper was being transferred from the one FM to the other FM, I'm told that NOBODY EVER looked at the numbers on the paper to see if they were right or even realistic. Logistical, Bureaucratic Process FAILURE.... so everyone but the guilty parties get blamed.
I watched it happen. It seems that nobody else saw the wall or the handwriting on it.
Cheers!
Fines and still of course bonuses still paid again to the grifters because they are so valuable to the corp. When they should rot in said manure pile.
More aptly into jail cells, but agreed, that isn't likely with the corruption evident in and between the Dark Center and NYC.
The three parts of socialism working together for their own ends is also known as the ruling class, the aristocracy the neo feudalists and more than that the one's you are going to vote for again they don't care which of the three it's all a charade.....and they can find enough willing to sell out with ease.
As to the risk taking; either a person did, or they were gone (meaning: find a new career). It was a direct, and VERY predictable, consequence of the regulations.
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