Category Archives: William K. Black

Floyd Norris’ Apologia for Citi’s Frauds

Posted on September 3, 2014 by William Black | 1 comment

I have just written a column about the New York Times’ financial journalist, Floyd Norris’ August 20, 2014 column decrying attacks on those who detect and seek to sanction elite frauds. Norris’ focus was on the Chinese government attacks on whistleblowers who “detect” elite frauds. Norris bemoaned that those who detect elite fraud suffer far more than those that commit it.

My column pointed out that the practice of elite frauds, in league with their protectors in government and the media, attack those that detect and seek to sanction elite frauds in every country. Indeed, I showed that Norris had aided and abetted the SEC’s leadership’s smears of Gary Aguirre, the SEC whistleblower who detected evidence of what he (and his superiors) considered likely fraud by elites. His SEC superiors, however, blocked the investigation when they discovered it would lead to John Mack, the soon-to-be CEO of Morgan Stanley, one of the world’s largest investment banks.

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Tagged banksters, criminogenic environment, fraud

Floyd Norris’ Hypocrisy: Elite Fraud is More Dangerous to Detect than to Commit

Posted on September 2, 2014 by William Black | 4 comments

By William K. Black

Floyd Norris, who I once respected, has written an interesting column titled “In China, Detecting Fraud Riskier Than Doing It.” Norris states that China’s hostility to those who expose fraud is so unusual that it is worthy of a column: “It can be very risky to do things in China that are taken for granted in other countries.”

China is different from some other countries. China has no domestic rule of law and no respect for the rule of law in its dealings with other nations. The same is true of Russia. It is important to understand such differences.

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Tagged elite fraud, nyt, SEC

The Wall Street Journal Claims that only the “Left” is Willing to Prosecute Banksters

Posted on August 28, 2014 by William Black | 4 comments

By William K. Black

This is my third installment in my series of columns discussing the WSJ’s rant against even feeble actions by Attorney General Holder to hold the banks and (a pittance of banksters) even slightly accountable for leading the three epidemics of mortgage fraud that caused the financial crisis and the Great Recession. The WSJ is enraged not at how feeble Holder’s efforts have been, but that Holder dared to take any action against the elite frauds. The WSJ explicitly frames the question of accountability for the banks and banksters as a left v. right divide. Only the “populist left” is in favor of not granting the banks and banksters immunity from the criminal and civil laws for leading the most destructive fraud epidemics in history.

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Tagged banksters, WSJ

Hollande Channels Pétain and Chooses Economic and Political Suicide

Posted on August 27, 2014 by William Black | 2 comments

By William K. Black

In a prior column I described how the finance ministers of Italy and Serbia committed financial malpractice and betrayed their nations and their heads of state by insisting on bleeding the economy through austerity to make it healthy. “Two EU Finance Ministers Throw their Bosses and Nations Under the Bus.”

In France, however, Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg risked his political life to try to prevent President Hollande from throwing France and the Socialist Party under the austerity bus. Hollande and Prime Minister Valls proved that no good deed goes unpunished by forcing Montebourg out of his position and throwing the Nation and their Party under the bus. Montebourg proved the truth of the proverb that warns that it is dangerous to be correct when those in power are desperately wrong.

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Tagged Austerians, austerity, eu, France

The WSJ Rages that Bank of America Was Sued for “Only” Committing a $9 Billion Fraud

Posted on August 26, 2014 by William Black | 3 comments

By William K. Black

The Wall Street Journal is deeply upset that almost none of the banks and none of the banksters that became wealthy by leading the three epidemics of mortgage fraud that drove the financial crisis are being subjected even to prosecution-lite cases. The WSJ wants us all to know that “almost none” and “prosecution-lite” are both excessive. The WSJ rant demands that we bestow the thanks of a grateful nation to the banks and banksters that committed the frauds. This financial crisis is the first Virgin Crisis – conceived without sin in the C-Suites. This second column in my series on the WSJ rant responds to the WSJ’s claim that mortgage frauds that are “only” $9 billion in magnitude do not warrant even civil sanctions.

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Tagged accounting control fraud, bank fraud, banksters, mortgage fraud

The Wall Street Journal’s Choleric Rant about Cholera and Bank Fraud Epidemics

Posted on August 25, 2014 by William Black | 2 comments

By William K. Black

I wrote this column in Bogota, Colombia where I was presenting five talks at the Universidad Central’s economics conference, so I was struck by the title of a choleric rant by the Wall Street Journal entitled “Banking in a Time of Cholera.”

The WSJ’s title is a play on words on the title of a novel, “Love in the Time of Cholera,” by Colombia’s greatest writer, Gabriel García Márquez (“Gabo”). The novel is set in a city that appears to be based on Cartagena, the city famous for being looted repeatedly by pirates. In this first of several columns responding to the WSJ rant I discuss its failed literary allusions and tie these failures to some of the WSJ’s analytical and factual errors that render their rant risible.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, bank fraud, banksters, mortgage fraud

Europe’s Lousy Bank Loans Expose the “Recovery” Myth

Posted on August 22, 2014 by William Black | 3 comments

By William K. Black

One of the great lies of the financial industry is that it is the engine of Main Street’s growth. Giving the finance industry an enormous share of total business profits was supposed to super charge Main Street’s growth. It has never delivered on this promise. The truth is the opposite. The efficiency condition for a middleman like finance is that its size and profits should be minimized. Finance’s fraud epidemics blew up the world economy and devastated Main Street. Finance is a parasite that saps Main Street. The latest example of this comes in a New York Times article about European bank’s bad loans.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, austerity, bank fraud, fraud, Great Financial Crisis

Another Reason to Retire Sam Brownback: The Senate Subprime Car Loan Sleaze

Posted on August 21, 2014 by William Black | 1 comment

By William K. Black

When Sam Brownback was a Senator he carried water for the sleaziest of auto lenders – the subprime lenders that specialize in making “liar’s” loans. His successful mission was to carve out an exemption from the Dodd-Frank bill’s protection for borrowers. We had just seen the CEOs controlling similar home lending specialists lead the three mortgage fraud epidemics that blew up the global financial system. The bill’s drafters and President Obama strongly opposed the Brownback carve out, but Brownback’s brigade of auto lobbyists made road kill of their opponents.

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Tagged Brownback, kansas

Italian’s Apology for German Austerity Diktats Lasts 24 Hours

Posted on August 20, 2014 by William Black | 1 comment

By William K. Black

On August 13, 2014, the International New York Times printed an op ed by Beppe Severgnini attacking Matteo Renzi, Italy’s Prime Minister. Severgnini offered readers this classic question and answer.

“So why is Italy’s economy, the eurozone’s third largest, the only major one in Europe currently flatlining? Last week Istat, the national statistics bureau, reported that it had contracted in two successive quarters for the third time since 2007, plunging us into a triple-dip recession.

How did we pull that one off? Plenty of plausible explanations blame the feckless government of Silvio Berlusconi, or the acquiescent administrations of Mario Monti and Enrico Letta that followed, the latter two having imposed the European Union’s — or rather, Berlin’s — belt-tightening on a country needing to boost consumption and investment.

But blaming Brussels, or anyone else abroad, is wrong. The rest of Europe followed the German diktat, and yet Italy is the only one suffering.”

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Tagged Austerians, austerity

The WSJ’s Editorial Posing as “News” about Ecuador

Posted on August 19, 2014 by William Black | 4 comments

By William K. Black

Greetings from Bogota where I’m participating in an economic conference and teaching two class sessions.

Under the banner “Latin America News” the Wall Street Journal has poured out its pain that the people of Ecuador might reelect President Rafael Correa. The article is actually an editorial attacking Correa and the people of Ecuador for potentially voting to reelect Ecuador’s most successful President in the modern era.

The issue is term limits. I have always opposed term limits as an obstruction to democracy and competence. The U.S. had no presidential term limits for most of its history and the only president the population chose to elect to more than two terms was Franklin Delano Roosevelt – one of our greatest presidents. I am deeply thankful that our Nation had the great good sense to reelect FDR to four terms in office.

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