Category Archives: William K. Black

European views on financial regulation (and other American evils)

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Devin Smith | 5 comments

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

I was invited back to the give the welcoming keynote address last week to the 33rd SFOA International Bürgenstock Meeting. SFOA is an acronym for the Swiss Futures and Option Association and their meeting (long held at Bürgenstock, Switzerland but now at Interlaken) is the preeminent meeting in Europe on financial derivatives. The meeting attracts industry participants, regulators, and academics from all over the world. I’m writing from the Munich airport, where I get to wait overnight for a flight back to the U.S.

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5 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Control Fraud, gresham's dynamic, Subprime mortgage crisis

The Race to the Bottom Produces Regulators who are Invertebrates and Epidemics of Fraud

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Devin Smith | 8 comments

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

I examine how highly conservative newspapers are covering the interplay of widespread “control frauds” by the world’s most elite banks, the carefully structured de-evolution of financial regulators through descent from the subphylum Vertebrata into the phyla of the invertebrates, and the global failure to prosecute the elite frauds that drove the ongoing financial crisis. The three factors are interrelated. Vigilant financial regulators serving as the vital “regulatory cops on the beat” are essential to the successful prosecution of large numbers of elite financial frauds. Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, media, media coverage, regulators

Why is Paul Ryan, an Irish Catholic, praising the dogmas that drove the Great Hunger?

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Devin Smith | 24 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross-posted from Benzinga.com )

At the invitation of the Steamboat Institute’s “Freedom Conference” I debated Dan Mitchell, an economist at Cato on Friday August 25, 2012. Dan suggested me as his debate opponent, a role we have played several times in Europe. Our primary topic was Paul Ryan’s budget policies. In the course of our debate Dan stressed an August 24 column he wrote entitled “For Once, I Hope Paul Krugman is Right.” Continue reading →

24 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged budget, great hunger, irish potato famine, paul ryan

The Dangerous Myth that Financial Regulation is Unrelated to Financial Crime

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Devin Smith | 2 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross-posted from Benzinga.com)

The inspiration for this article was an op ed in the Wall Street Journal by Wendy Long, the Republican/Conservative Party of New York’s candidate for the U.S. Senate. Long’s thesis is: Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, bank regulation

Kudos for William Black’s Performance on CNBC

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Devin Smith | 4 comments

Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) has a post giving kudos to William Black for his performance on CNBC’s Closing Bell. The episode’s topic was whether or not Goldman Sachs should or could be prosecuted on fraud charges for their part in the financial crisis.

4 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged bank fraud, Control Fraud, goldman sachs, liar loans

Saletan’s elegy for Paul Ryan’s DOA budget fantasy

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Devin Smith | 2 comments

By William K. Black

William Saletan has written a column that epitomizes the media’s bizarre infatuation with Paul Ryan. Saletan entitles his piece “Why I Love Paul Ryan.” His intro summarizes his attraction to Ryan: “He’s what a Republican should be: an honest, open-minded, solution-oriented fiscal conservative.”

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2 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged budget, paul ryan

Romney takes his Political Inspiration from Europe’s Worst Mistakes

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Devin Smith | 5 comments

By William K. Black

One of Governor Romney’s criticisms of President Obama is that he “takes his political inspiration from Europe….”

Romney never gives specifics on this criticism. The irony is that Romney (and Representative Ryan) “takes his political inspiration from Europe” and that the European policies they embrace have already proven disastrous in Europe. Here are five examples: Continue reading →

5 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Mitt Romney, obama

Going after Wall Street – and watching the clock

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Devin Smith | 2 comments

NEP’s William K. Black provides input on the approaching deadline imposed by statute of limitations on prosecutions related to the economic crisis. You can read the article here.

2 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Financial crisis, prosecutions

“Budget Hero” – Public Media’s Most Despicable Financial Propaganda

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Devin Smith | 14 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross-posted from Benzinga.com)

We know that the supporters of austerity simultaneously urge us to reject “European socialism” while adopting the key European strategies that drove Europe into recession – twice. American conservatives assume that Europe must epitomize stringent financial regulation. The opposite is true. Europe adopted “light touch” financial regulation pursuant to neo-liberal economic theory. Its embrace of the three “de’s” – deregulation, desupervision, and de facto decriminalization was far more extreme than the United States. The City of London “won” the regulatory race to the bottom with the U.S. European’s Continue reading →