Comments on: More prosecutions of investment banks coming?

By: Danny_Black

Danny_Black — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:45:07 +0000

DanHess, amen. Weird how the people who actually did commit fraud are now victims….

By: Danny_Black

Danny_Black — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:43:42 +0000

Of course the flaw in the story is the assumption that Gretchen is accurately and competently reporting the facts…. Now I know past performance is not a guide to future performance but I wouldn’t be taking this as a slam dunk.

Anyway Obama got his bill passed so there is no more need to villify bankers, he can just keep this in his pocket for next time he needs to people to look the other way.

By: hsvkitty

hsvkitty — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:48:08 +0000

Bad behaviour all round indeed, Dan. The sound of hand slapping is deafening!

I sincerely hope they start looking at the top and realizing it was larger then a few bad mortgage brokers.

Felix, when Goldman said on April 20 “but, everybody was doing it…” they meant it!

By: Woltmann

Woltmann — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 10:50:35 +0000

I can’t wait til we get to the part where the Senate parades some more evil Wall Street execs out and says mean things to them and gives them dirty looks. That is so intense!

By: McGriffen

McGriffen — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:58:44 +0000

I do not fathom any seriously legitimate litigation might ever arise from this. Pay some fines, well-meaning restitution and move ahead.

The banks had no true reason to stop. Only if/when investors in the lowest-rated (BB, BBB) dreck stopped buying, would the issuance volume screech to an end. Hey, nothing beats hosing those institutional, buy-side customers. Such fools.

By: DanHess

DanHess — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:53:31 +0000

There was bad behavior all around. I have a friend who bragged to me about the job and income he fabricated for himself for the inappropriately large house he bought in the middle of the last decade.

He ended up selling the house massively short and sticking his bank with an enormous loss. Did he commit a crime? Certainly. Will he face prosecution? Not a chance. He is a victim.

By: fresnodan

fresnodan — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:50:14 +0000

There are two excuses for the housing mess:
A. Bankers were soooo stupid that they did not know that loans had to be repaid
B. they did not know because when making millions upon millions depends on not knowing the quality of a loan, they put quite a bit of effort into not knowing.

If the US Justice department was too stupid too figure this out 2 years ago, why do you think they now know?
Us Gubermint policy is obviously that first and formost, banks must be saved at all costs, and the bigger and stupidier the bag, the more the bailout

By: LadyGodiva

LadyGodiva — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:10:17 +0000

Well said, Felix. Clearly the fix was in by 06-07 ON WALL STREET, not Main St.

Why is this distinction so important? Because Americans are still playing a sordid game of “kick thy neighbor,” with renters and long-time homeowners blaming “greedy” or “stupid” bubble buyers for being stuck with underwater property. From long-time owners (largely pre-2000 by now) there is much tut-tutting but little understanding for the suffering of neighbors who bought later. From younger would-be buyers/renters there is cold-blooded vengeance mixed with a sense of frustration that homeowners are not jumping off the rooftops faster and banks are not selling to them at rock-bottom prices (yet).

I have been saying for years now that the water was poisoned upriver, but we are blaming the people who drank downstream and got sick. This is perverse and counterproductive.

If we can get some prosecutions out of this and get people to understand how much they have lost as a nation, and how much they have been manipulated, then we may actually start pulling together to solve the problem.