Thursday, July 19, 2012

Banks, Politicians, Car Dealers

(The headline is in ascending order, folks, in truth-o-meter scale).

Here are some recent improprieties by the big banks:
  • Engaging in mafia-style big-rigging fraud against local governments. See this, this and this
  • Shaving money off of virtually every pension transaction they handled over the course of decades, stealing collectively billions of dollars from pensions worldwide. Details here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here
  • Pledging the same mortgage multiple times to different buyers.  See this, this, this, this and this.  This would be like selling your car, and collecting money from 10 different buyers for the same car
  • Committing massive fraud in an $800 trillion dollar market which effects everything from mortgages, student loans, small business loans and city financing
  • Pushing investments which they knew were terrible, and then betting against the same investments to make money for themselves. See this, this, this, this and this
  • Engaging in unlawful “Wash Trades” to manipulate asset prices. See this, this and this
  • Bribing and bullying ratings agencies to inflate ratings on their risky investments
The executives of the big banks invariably pretend that the hanky-panky was only committed by a couple of low-level rogue employees.  But studies show that most of the fraud is committed by management.
Indeed, one of the world’s top fraud experts – professor of law and economics, and former senior S&L regulator Bill Black – says that most financial fraud is “control fraud”, where the people who own the banks are the ones who implement systemic fraud.

Oh, there's more where that came from.

HT:  Ticker

16 comments:

Jim said...

So explain one more time why rules and regulations are bad things?

Anonymous said...

That explains how banks were behind Fast & Furious.

Dad29 said...

Jimbo, since you have no common sense, I won't bother to explain it to you.

Jim said...

Cop out.

Anonymous said...

A number of the links are the same story from 2007-present, just categorized differently. Yes, the banking industry, like ANY industry, have their crooks.

So, Dad29, what are YOUR solutions?

Dad29 said...

20-to-life in prison with Bubba as the cellmate.

Not retirement with pension (paid for with TARP or taxes).

"Regulators" who don't do their duty? Same thing. No retirement, no healthcare--except for anal scarring.

Anonymous said...

So much for Christian compassion with that last comment.

Perhaps the bankers just played capitalism the way it was intended to be played...use the system to their advantage through gray areas.

And where is that hardcore evidence of perpetual malfeasance?

As far as the regulators making sure that they perform their jobs, good luck with conservatives in charge. Don'tcha know that banks and businesses can monitor their own activities, lest there be higher costs and declining job growth? We don't need no stinkin' tough regulators to go after the bad guys!

Jim said...

Well, maybe the states can do it. Right? If they decide to.

Dad29 said...

States regulate banks already, Jimbo.

The DoDoAnony of 9:34 AM seems to forget that Obozo, the Socialist, has been in charge of regulators for about 3 years.

Hmmmmmm. FAIL.

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

Government regulators will always favor those who provide the administration with the greatest campaign contributions.

If you want money and corruption out of government, make the government small enough that it cannot do favors for its friends.

Jim said...

If you want money and corruption out of government, make the government small enough that it cannot do favors for its friends.

Right! Let's leave money and corruption in the free market where it belongs.

States regulate banks already

How are they doing?

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

The Feds have been doing an awesome job, haven't they?

Jim, you twist what I say, as you always do. Do you deny that government does favors for its friends? If you do, you are completely out of touch. Do you deny that it is money that buys those favors? How would you take that money out of the equation? I say take the ability to do favors out of the equation and the money takes care of itself.

The problem isn't the Free Market. The problem is government is too damn big. It is big enough to allow its friends to write regulations to benefit themselves. It is big enough to provide loans to favored businesses (Solyndra) with the taxpayer left on the hook. And lest you think I'm bashing Obama (he may be the worst of the bunch), they ALL do it.

Do you have a better idea? I assure you "more regulation" is not a better idea. In large part it got us where we are.

Jim said...

Do you deny that government does favors for its friends?

No. Government has been doing that through the millenia. The US government has been doing it since day one.

Do you deny that?

And in 1788, the government was as small as it's ever been.

I say take the ability to do favors out of the equation and the money takes care of itself.

Can you name any piece of legislation that doesn't favor someone? Or whose opposition doesn't favor someone?

I'd say that taking the money out of the equation, if it were possible, would help. Like public financing of elections.

The problem is government is too damn big.

This is pretty vague. What size would you propose?

The Feds have been doing an awesome job, haven't they?

If you wanted an oversight agency to do a better job of oversight, would you reduce their staff? Cut back their authority? Refuse to approve nominated leadership?

Would you increase their staff but decrease the number of FAA aircraft inspectors? Decrease the number of FDA inspectors? Decrease the number of hazardous waste inspectors?

Government is too damn big? Maybe media corporations are too damn big. Maybe banks are too damn big.

I suggest regulations where regulation benefits the health and welfare of the public and consumers. I suggest working to eliminate those that don't (as the president is doing now). I suggest that regulations be backed up by effective and well-staffed oversight agencies.

What do you suggest?

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

"I suggest regulations where regulation benefits the health and welfare of the public and consumers. I suggest working to eliminate those that don't (as the president is doing now). I suggest that regulations be backed up by effective and well-staffed oversight agencies."

We are in agreement on principle, but I doubt our details match.

What regulation is the president eliminating? I get the Federal Register TOC daily and I see nothing being eliminated, only pages and pages and pages of new regulations nobody reads or understands.

Anonymous said...

Federal Govt needs to be reduced to 1/10th its current size. If I need to raise hell, I can drive to my state capital and raise plenty of hell. Bring back State appointed Senators. Eliminate the FED, pull there Charter.

Jim said...

I doubt our details match

Here is some information that details a lot of processes and results of eliminating regulations under the Obama administration. The page is from Democrats.org, but every item has citations.

Federal Govt needs to be reduced to 1/10th its current size.

$300 Billion wouldn't fund half the military. Anon, what do you think the Federal government should look like today? What would it do?