Tag Archives: white collar crime

Will those who led the financial system into crisis ever face charges?

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Devin Smith | 3 comments

This is Terry Carter’s latest work and appears in the American Bar Association Journal. He interviews Bill Black along with other prominent figures about the lack of prosecution brought against those responsible for the financial crisis. You can read it here.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged banksters, criminogenic environment, the great financial crisis, white collar crime

Now the DOJ Admits They Got it Wrong

Posted on September 11, 2015 by William Black | 12 comments

William K. Black

September 10, 2015

By issuing its new memorandum the Justice Department is tacitly admitting that its experiment in refusing to prosecute the senior bankers that led the fraud epidemics that caused our economic crisis failed. The result was the death of accountability, of justice, and of deterrence. The result was a wave of recidivism in which elite bankers continued to defraud the public after promising to cease their crimes. The new Justice Department policy, correctly, restores the Department’s publicly stated policy in Spring 2009. Attorney General Holder and then U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch ignored that policy emphasizing the need to prosecute elite white-collar criminals and refused to prosecute the senior bankers who led the fraud epidemics.

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Tagged banksters, DOJ, white collar crime

McCloskey Wants the U.S. to Repeal the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Posted on March 9, 2015 by William Black | 3 comments

By William K. Black
Quito: March 8, 2015

This is the fourth column in my series of articles critiquing Deirdre McCloskey’s book review in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Two Cheers for Corruption.” McCloskey has subsequently written to New Economic Perspectives – but apparently not the WSJ – to complain that the title was authored by the WSJ and is contrary to her views. As I mentioned, in my third column, the title is also innumerate in that McCloskey’s book review actually endorsed three types of corruption – and corruption is inherently a composite of bribery, extortion, and fraud. She claimed that these three types of corruption exemplified why corruption can be desirable because it makes society more “efficient and just.” I addressed in my second column in this series the first form of corruption that she endorsed – secret bribery, fraud, and corruption by firms in order to violate building safety codes with impunity.

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Tagged McCloskey, white collar crime

McCloskey Wants to Change the Title and the Substance of Her Article on Corruption

Posted on March 8, 2015 by William Black | 3 comments

By William K. Black
Quito: March 8, 2015

Deirdre McCloskey has responded with two comments (to date) to my series of articles critiquing her book review in the Wall Street Journal of two new books about corruption. We welcome her to the pages of New Economic Perspectives and invite her to provide an article or series of articles presenting her views on elite white-collar crimes such as fraud and corruption of whatever length she thinks best. The harm done by these crimes is so severe that these topics well warrant extended discussion and debate. NEP is one of the rare economic blogs that devotes considerable space to these topics.

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Tagged corruption, McCloskey, white collar crime

McCloskey’s First “Cheer for Corruption” is also a Cheer for Fraud

Posted on March 6, 2015 by William Black | 9 comments

By William K. Black
Quito: March 5, 2015

In my first column in this series I discussed the gaping contradiction in Deirdre McCloskey’s book review of two books on corruption. The title of her article captures the immorality of her proposed “sermons” on corruption: “Two Cheers for Corruption.” McCloskey urges us to embrace many forms of corruption because she asserts that they add to economic efficiency and justice.

“But corruption can be efficient and just, too. It can be good for efficiency if, say, bribes are paid to get around bad laws (such as most of the building codes in American cities) or to smooth the course of sales by U.S. businesses to the Egyptian military. And the turkey at Christmas supplied by Tammany Hall justly helped the poor—if they voted right.”

McCloskey’s first of three “cheers for corruption” is inherently a cheer not only for corruption, i.e., bribery and extortion, but also a cheer for four types of felonies by elite white-collar criminals. The first crime is deliberately violating the building safety codes. The second crime is covering up that underlying crime through corruption – the bribery and/or extortion of the building safety code inspectors.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged banksters, corruption, fraud, white collar crime

The Euphemistic “White Collar Watch” is Addicted to Euphemism

Posted on November 8, 2014 by William Black | 3 comments

By William K. Black
Kilkenny, Ireland: November 7, 2014

Kilkenomics pairs top professional comedians with economics contributors who share two characteristics: wide-ranging interests and knowledge and candor. This means that the contributors take clear positions and defend those positions with facts and logic. That refreshing willingness to actually be blunt about important things may be what set my teeth so on edge when I read the New York Times’ “White Collar Watch” feature. It is written by Peter J. Henning, who teaches, and writes about, white-collar crime. The problem is evident in the “brand” that Henning has chosen for his columns. Note the deliberate exclusion of the word “crime.” What is Henning doing – writing a column (from Detroit) on the lives of “white-collar” employees, professionals, and officers? His very brand is based on the bowdlerization of his academic specialty through euphemism.

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Tagged DOJ, nyt, white collar crime

CEO Pay is Perverse and Must be Fixed to Avoid Recurrent Crises

Posted on April 21, 2014 by William Black | 11 comments

By William K. Black

Slate has published a piece by Zachary Karabell entitled “Stop Obsessing Over exorbitant CEO Pay” in which the author appears unaware that he has reported, and then ignored, evidence that scholars he cites favorably are “resoundingly convinced” proves the opposite. Karabell’s author’s page shows that he has recently joined Slate and promotes theoclassical dogmas about economics. He is a Wall Streeter of the kind that thinks it is an honor to be a “regular” on CNBC. He also touts being a favorite of the Davos plutocrats. In roughly a month with Slate he has managed to be an apologist for high unemployment, inequality, and high frequency trading (HFT) scams.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, Control Fraud, criminogenic environment, executive compensation, Karabell, white collar crime

What Banks Should Expect in the Future

Posted on April 19, 2014 by William Black | Comments Off

By William K. Black

Bill talks with CCTV America about the future expectations for Banks.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, banking, banks, Control Fraud, Great Financial Crisis, regulation, white collar crime

Mueller: I Crippled FBI Effort v. White-Collar Crime, My Successor Will Make it Worse

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Devin Smith | 7 comments

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

FBI Director Robert Mueller is taking his victory lap as he steps down after 12 years of service. I have done three articles in a series that explains how the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) conned the FBI into adopting the Tea Party’s mythology about the causes of the crisis – virginal banks beset by ultra-sophisticated fraudulent hairdressers. The MBA created a faux definition of mortgage fraud under which the bank and its senior officers were always the victims instead of the perpetrators.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, banksters, FBI, mortgage fraud, Robert Mueller, white collar crime

The Incredible Con the Banksters Pulled on the FBI

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Devin Smith | 12 comments

By William K. Black

This is the second in my series of articles based on the FBI’s most (2010) “Mortgage Fraud Report.”

In my first column I began the explanation of how many analytical conclusions one can draw from a close reading of what is left out of the FBI report.

In particular, I emphasized the death of criminal referrals by the SEC and the banking regulatory agencies. The FBI report implicitly confirms the investigative reporting of David Heath that first quantified the death of criminal referrals by the banking regulatory agencies.

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