RSS Feed for This PostCurrent Article

Money and The Great American Bank Robbery – Open Thread

By Linda Anselmi on August 18, 2009 at 6:09 PM in Bank Bailouts, Bank Failure, Economy


_________

As many recent townhall meetings have shown, the American people are dealing with a few issues of trust in regards to their government. So I thought it might be fun to take a look at two very different videos on Money and what it can do.

________


__________

In this video from a June forum on the banking industry, William Black discusses our current financial meltdown in which a single bank, IndyMac, lost more money than was lost during the entire Savings and Loan crisis. He examines the industry structures and political failures behind this economic disaster, including a pretty scathing analysis of the key players and current FOG’s, Friends of Goldman, in charge of our economic recovery. And he explains the massive fraud as well as the vast transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class that took place and continues as the federal government bails out the reckless, and quite possibly the criminal.

Warning, this video is 98 minutes long, but well worth the time.

William Black was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the FSLIC, SVP and General Counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and Senior Deputy Chief Counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He was deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement.

He currently teaches White-Collar Crime, Public Finance, Antitrust, Law & Economics (all joint, multidisciplinary classes for economics and law students), and Latin American Development at University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.

In his book, The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One (University of Texas Press 2005) Mr. Black presents a history of the savings-and-loan industry scandals of the early 1980s and lays out how dishonest CEOs, crony directors, and corrupt middlemen can systematically defeat market discipline and conceal deliberate fraud for a long time — enough to create massive damage.

Sound familiar?

  • sowsear

    How about some kind soul posting a synopsis of the video, please.

    • oowawa

      Sowsear & Linda, I’m working on the William Black video, and it’s a killer, but I don’t have time to watch it all at once. It is just full of essential info and is one of those “must watch” things you hear about. I would not presume to synopsize, except to say this: the theme is “we’ve all, as taxpayers been royally ripped off on an unimaginable scale by a bunch of white color criminals, and this is how it happened.”

      Thanks for the post and videos, Linda (the Liza vid was fun).

      • Ferd Berfle

        oowawa:

        I think it is due, for at least a moment in time, to lift the veneer of civility, if only for a moment, and take these sorts of low-life amoebas to a rifle range and summarily execute them. The current and future white-collar scumbags would then drop a monumental load in their britches for all to see and we could then round them up based upon smell, stain, and countenance.

        And should they whine in the least, show them the path to perdition.

        Bloodthirsty–probably.
        Justified–more than likely
        Deterrent–Oh, yes.

        ADMIN NOTE: POINT IS VIVIDLY MADE WITHOUT PRESCRIBING KILLING AND/OR MURDER.

        • oowawa

          Yes Ferd, I agree that they should all get a stern scolding, and perhaps some should even spend an extended period in a small enclosure with a roommate named Bubba or Snake.

      • Onofre’s arm

        “a bunch of white color criminals..”? Gosh oowawa, did you really need to bring race into the picture? Or was it simply a Freudian typing slip?

        • oowawa

          OMG Onofre’s Arm–I proofread that paragraph several times, and I never noticed that until now. I guess I’m guilty of Freudian slipism. However, I do think most of the criminals Black is speaking of are indeed White–I mean we’re not talking about inner-city Chicago thugs here . . .

          • Onofre’s arm

            Well, since whites are still the predominent ethnicity in our country, it only makes sense in a mathimatical context that they would be more heavily represented in this sort of endeavor. This type of statistical phenomenon causes me to often challenge people with a favorite riddle of mine; “You know why my black cows produce more milk than my white cows?………………….I’ve got more black cows!”

            • oowawa

              Good point, Onofre’s arm. Well, I really didn’t intend to inject race into this discussion of CEO’s and upper management con-men who scam the system, but as a matter of fact, Chief Executive Officers are disproportionately white in this country:

              as of 2004. Department of Labor statistics place the percentage of all U.S. chief executives who are African Americans at 3.2%, well below their demographic representation (12.1%) in the U.S. population.

              http://www.hr.com/…/executive_summary__the_glass_ceiling_eng.html

              Having said that, I think ethnicity makes absolutely no difference in how conniving deceitful fraudster executives should be prosecuted: severely.

    • Linda Anselmi

      Sorry, sowsear. I have not been able to find a transcript for this video. Back in April, William Black was on Bill Moyers Journal.

      http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html

      There is a transcript as well as a much shorter video. He covers much of the same material, but it is not in as depth.

  • tzada

    What happened to the TARP money? No transparancy. They took from Fannie and Freddie and covered for Frannie and Freddie. There is not enough funds in the FDIC to cover deposits. They are snatching and grabbing banks. Car companys, closing dealerships. Cash for clunkers, no problem. Take that $4,500 and buy a foriegn made car. Cozy up to dictators and condemn the citizens of Honduras for their rightful dissent.

    To many of us it appears to be the “take down” of the United States of America. They put our young men and women in foreign wars. Bring in immigrants from Egypt and Somolia, places that clearly do not like us. Over 46,000, which within months will be able to join our military. The Posse Comitatus Act which kept the military from interacting with citizen is no longer in place. This administration has signed Canada up to bring in troops if there were riots. The Mexican army is on our southern border. Our National Guards go unfunded. What could possibly go wrong? Read George Washingtons vision, for a possible scenario.

    http://www.ushistory.org/ValleyForge/washington/vision.html

    For some this is about money, some fear, for some this is about power and for some this is to get a seat at the table of whomever is behind the curtain. The laugh will be on Congress first. They will be shown the door, when the czars take control.

    What will it be to be a man or woman without a country? Because who could ever trust a traitor?

    Like Sarah Palin says, “it’s time to quite being nice”

  • Pingback: Home Loan | All Days Long

  • Doc99

    Financial crisis may not peak for another five years.

    http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/08/financial-crisis-may-not-peak-for.html

    • Obamastolemycountry

      That is some scary sh-t Doc99! I would say that it’s true. There will be no peak until Dr. Destrucobama is out of office and we have someone who’d actually like to fix the economy!

  • CG

    Economic Time Bomb
    Elizabeth Warren has characterized troubled assets as “the most serious risk to the American financial system.”

    If the economy worsens, especially if unemployment remains elevated or if the commercial real estate market collapses, then defaults will rise and the troubled assets will continue to deteriorate in value. Banks will incur further losses on their troubled assets. The financial system will remain vulnerable to the crisis conditions that TARP was meant to fix.

    http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/08/12/an-economic-time-bomb-being-mishandled-by-the-obama-administrati/

  • CG

    Cindy Sheehan is leading protests next week on Martha’s Vineyard where President Obama will be vacationing. She writes

    Obama sounded downright hawkish — and, yes, presidential — when he addressed the issue of terrorism in front of the veteran-laden crowd.” Dick Cheney could not have said it better. Obama actually had this to say in his speech in front of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW):

    We must never forget. This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people.

    and she included this, as

    …an editorial writer for the Kansas City Star, put it:

    President Barack Obama did his best imitation of former President George Bush Monday at the VFW national convention in Phoenix.

  • CG

    Even though we are are closing in on September 11, 2009, federal agencies apparently still don’t share information, and the quality of federal agencies’ lists is in question…

    Fugitive Still Licensed to Fly by the F.A.A.
    The Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering a $50,000 reward for a Seattle man it says is a domestic terrorist. But that has not kept him from keeping his pilot’s license or from trying to sell his airplane online, apparently because the Transportation Security Administration has not compared the F.B.I.’s wanted list with the Federal Aviation Administration’s list of licensed pilots.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/us/19license.html?th&emc=th

  • Pingback: Money and The Great American Bank Robbery – Open Thread : NO QUARTER | ilegal money

  • http://www.googlemoneytree.me/ CG

    Even though we are are closing in on September 11, 2009, federal agencies apparently still don’t share information, and the quality of federal agencies’ lists is in question…

    Fugitive Still Licensed to Fly by the F.A.A.
    The Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering a $50,000 reward for a Seattle man it says is a domestic terrorist. But that has not kept him from keeping his pilot’s license or from trying to sell his airplane online, apparently because the Transportation Security Administration has not compared the F.B.I.’s wanted list with the Federal Aviation Administration’s list of licensed pilots.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/us/19license.html?th&emc=th
    P.S. – Sorry, forgot to tell you great post!

  • tzada

    Good news: Obama backs off-shore drilling! Update: A Soros connection?

    http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/18/good-news-obama-backs-off-shore-drilling/

  • ~~JustMe~~

    UBS to divulge 4,450 account names, more expected

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090819/ap_on_bi_ge/us_ubs_secrets

  • helenk

    http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/18/good-news-obama-backs-off-shore-drilling/

    More money going out , will any come back?

    WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

  • helenk

    SORRY TZADA…….

  • Doc99
  • helenk

    http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090819_ubs_money_laundering_what_did_phil_gramm_know/

    INTERESTING just who was he representing when he was in congress?

    WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

  • mountainaires

    Nat Hentoff says he’s not that crazy about Obama’s health care ideas, either:

    http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/19/legendary-civil-libertarian-spreads-death-panel-disinfo/

    • Docelder

      “I was not intimidated during J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI hunt for reporters like me who criticized him,” the 84-year-old Hentoff writes. “I railed against the Bush-Cheney war on the Bill of Rights without blinking. But now I am finally scared of a White House administration.

      That is some harsh reality. The thing with this administration is the methodology is underhanded. These players are unbounded by moral fiber and or conscience and they lack even the appearance of doing any of this in the interest of anything that resembles traditional America or traditional American values. It is scary. There is no candy coating that reality.

  • tzada

    God and Gog: It’s Like Christ and Anti-Christ Join Forces on Super Best Friends

    Barack Obama got on a call with some rabbis begging them to help sell Obamacare (separation of church and state, anyone?)

    Obama declared us, not servants of God, but in a partnership with God to kill all the old people, or something like that.

    Michael Goldfarb notes in a call to Jewish leaders, Obama said,

    “We are God’s partners in matters of life and death,” Obama went on to say.

    Partners “in life and death.” Really? So this is a tacit admission that Barack Obama’s government is going to play a role in matters of death?

    The hubris is overwhelming. And as Goldfarb also points out, if Obama and God are partners in matters of life and death, are the 54% of Americans who oppose Obamacare, soon to be named Godcare, pagan sinners worthy of the wrath of God?

    This is ridiculous and a sign of desperation.

    http://www.redstate.com/

  • http://insurancegonemad.com hamsZisisanes

    Good Evening

    I am a new member here and just wanted to say a quick hi to the group.
    What’s happening today?