Tag Archives: SDI

The Wall Street Journal Pines for the Return of Liar’s Loans

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Devin Smith | 3 comments

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

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial staff (WSJ) criticizes the Dodd-Frank Act and the leadership of the financial regulatory agencies. I share many of those criticisms, but I parted company when the WSJ expressed its horror that: “The regulation micromanages bank decisions down to the kind and quality of loan.” The Dodd-Frank Act bans a “kind” of loan based on the inherently fraudulent “quality of [the] loan.” The Act bans liar’s loans. The WSJ considers this ban so appalling, so obvious a violation of the divine right of banks, that it labels it “micromanage[ment]” and assumes that the label proves the absurdity of banning liar’s loans.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged crony capitalism, dodd-frank, liar, SDI, WSJ

Brown-Vitter Will Not and Cannot Work but it is Criminogenic

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Devin Smith | 12 comments

By William K. Black

Introduction

Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and David Vitter (R-LA) have introduced a bill entitled “Terminating Bailouts for Taxpayer Fairness Act of 2013.” It is a miracle of modern staffing that Vitter, who loves polluters as much as his prostitutes, was able to pull himself away from demanding that President Obama’s nominee to run the EPA answer over 600 questions and join Brown in proposing the bill. Under Obama, bipartisan bills have a dismal fate because the Democrats negotiate away key elements necessary to create a good bill and add provisions that make parts of the bill harmful – just to pick up a few token co-sponsors – and then the Republicans kill good parts of the bill anyway and try to enact the bad parts. Continue reading →

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, Brown-Vitter, criminogenic, SDI, too big to fail

Yglesias pours the Geithner, Holder, Breuer (GHB) banksters immunity doctrine in our drinks

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Devin Smith | 21 comments

By William K. Black

It’s early, but Salon has published on January 30, 2013 either the funniest or saddest column of the year to date: “Are Banks Too Big To Prosecute?”

The column is attributed to Matthew Yglesias, a blogger who studied philosophy as an undergraduate. It could be a brilliantly ironic satire of the Geithner, Holder and Breuer doctrine of immunity for banksters (which I am dubbing “GHB” for short). GHB is the “roofie” that the Obama administration gave us so the banksters could screw us repeatedly with impunity. Alternatively, and far more likely, Yglesias has written the saddest and most immoral apologia for elite white-collar crime that has yet made it into electronic bits. It takes a rerouted beginning student of philosophy, posing as a commentator on finance, to replace what should be a discussion that includes virtue ethics with a virtue-free, criminology-free, and economics-free apologia for the felons who became wealthy by costing the Nation $20 trillion and 10 million jobs.

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21 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged banksters, immunity, SDI, too big to prosecute

The Second Great Betrayal: Obama and Cameron Decide that Banks are above the Law

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Devin Smith | 23 comments

By William K. Black

One of the “tells” that reveals how embarrassed Lanny Breuer (head of the Criminal Division) and Eric Holder (AG) are by the disgraceful refusal to prosecute HSBC and its officers for their tens of thousands of felonies are the false and misleading statements made by the Department of Justice (DOJ) about the settlement. The same pattern has been demonstrated by other writers in the case of the false and disingenuous statistics DOJ has trumpeted to attempt to disguise the abject failure of their efforts to prosecute the elite officers who directed the “epidemic” (FBI 2004) of mortgage fraud.

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23 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged banksters, Breuer, DOJ, HSBC, SDI, to big to prosecute, Treasury

Romney implicitly endorses Too Big to Fail Banks

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Devin Smith | 13 comments

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

I explained in a prior column that Gregory Mankiw, Governor Romney’s lead economist, wrote a column endorsing the regulatory “competition in laxity.” “Romney’s Lead Economist Urges Policies that will Cause the Next Financial Crisis.” One of the key events in “winning” the regulatory race to the bottom is welcoming significantly dangerous institutions (SDIs). The SDIs are the leading contributor to U.S. politicians – and the politicians of many nations). The difficulty is that “too big to fail” (TBTF) institutions are unpopular with both parties’ voters. Historically, TBTF was a misleading phrase, for TBTF banks could fail. TBTF actually meant that the general creditors would be bailed out by the government.

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