Daily Archives: March 18, 2013

Modern Money and Public Purpose 5 – Money, Democracy and the Constitution

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Devin Smith | 43 comments

The latest installment of Modern Money and Public Purpose is now online. This seminar explores the relationship between money and the legal formation of the modern liberal capitalist state, with a particular emphasis on the pre-Revolutionary and early United States. In contrast to conventional economic narratives that cast money as lubrication for existing forms of exchange, this event highlights the legal and political origins of our modern monetary system, and traces the influence of those forces on the shape of the modern economy.

You can view the video below or view at the Modern Money and Public Purpose Continue reading →

43 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged constitution, democracy, Modern Money and Public Purpose, money

The SEC embraces irony – its enforcement “inflection” “point”

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Devin Smith | 5 comments

By William K. Black

Many readers doubtless shared my doubt that the SEC was capable of exercising the critical self-examination and sense of humor about itself as a flawed institution that would make it capable of deliberate irony. When I accessed the Wall Street Journal’s home page I found the most delicious example of SEC (and WSJ) irony. The WSJ synopsis of its article on the SEC reads: “The SEC is filing significantly fewer civil fraud cases this year, as its efforts to punish misconduct related to the financial crisis start to ebb.”

“Start to ebb?” Is it only me, or have other readers missed the tidal bore of SEC enforcement cases “punishing” the “misconduct” of the most culpable, elite perpetrators of what, even conservative, finance scholars describe as “pervasive” accounting control fraud by our “most reputable banks”? Continue reading →

5 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, banksters, Control Fraud, enforcement, Great Financial Crisis, SEC

The EU Needs a Bill Seidman to Save It from Itself: Cyprus and the “Reverse Toaster Theory”

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Devin Smith | 11 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com)

Everyone involved in financial regulation in modern times with any broad knowledge of the field will know of Bill Seidman, Chairman of the FDIC and the RTC. In 1989, the newly elected President Bush (the First) had a very good idea that became the Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA). FIRREA was one of the very unusual cases of enhancing financial regulation. It was prompted by the lessons we had learned in containing the Savings and Loan (S&L) Debacle. The original administration bill, however, had a very bad idea associated with the President’s chief of staff, John H. Sununu. Sununu is a brilliant guy – who wants you to know how much smarter he is than everybody else. His wiki biography page informs the reader that: Continue reading →