Is The Hammer Finally Coming Down on Wall Street

A New Wall Street Investigation: Is the Hammer Finally Coming Down?

POSTED: May 18, 11:16 AM ET | By by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Magazine

This investigation has the potential to be a Mother of All Nightmares situation for the banks for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the decision to go after the securitization process is a total prosecutorial bullseye. This is the ugly heart of the wide-scale fraud scheme of the bubble era. Again, the business model during this time was a giant bait-and-switch scam. Sleazy lenders like Countrywide and New Century first created huge masses of bad loans, committing every conceivable kind of fraud to get people into loans (from doctoring income statements with white-out to phonying FICO scores to engineering fake appraisals). They then moved the bad loans quickly to the big banks, which pooled them and chopped them up (this is the “securitization” process), sprinkled hocus-pocus math on them, and them sold them to suckers around the world as AAA-rated securities.

Finally we have some movement.

Hoping the final outcome will be "JAIL TIME" for those that perpetuated this Crime Against America!

Read the link for the whole story!

Rolling Stone

Its going to get pushed under a rug with a couple of bribes here and there. Call me pessimistic but that is all that's going to happen.

But if they do follow through then hey ... good I suppose.

reply to post by anon102


There was an investigation into Wachovia and it was found they laundered billions of dollars in drug money from the mehican cartels. 100 million dollar fine later all was fine and Wells bought em up. Nothing will come of this but maybe a little wrist slapping. NOBODY will be held accountable. Hell all that are accountable are sitting next to Obama or at the treasury now anyway with their hands directly connected to the magic cookie jar.

Personally, I think they should pay back ALL of the money scammed
and be tried and thrown in prison. Those people are addicted. They're
not going to stop unless we stop them. Simply getting fined is
is just not enough.

too b i g for the rules too apply
from outside looking in
america is finished if no one gets prosicuted
it means the rule of law is for the little guy

and this is only going to get worse because there are no consiquences
the behavour will only get worse

xploder

I think more people should filed for bankruptcy.

The banks can then eat all that unscecured credit card debt!

Even with the FHA rules you can buy another home after 2 years following a bankruptcy. Too many people let the Credit Rating agencies hold their credit score over their head.

File bankruptcy, wipe away your debt and pay cash for everything. Show the banks we don't need their money!

reply to post by Julie Washington


Its nothing but a show trial to enable Obama to be able to point at a couple of gents in tennis court prisons and spout nonsense about how he is all about justice and getting tough on Wall Street.

The Obama administration is currently pushing for more subprime loans because the poor and minorities are not getting credit. That essentially forces banks into a bad debt portfolio and financial engineering to escape redlining.

The administration has done nothing with respect to legitimate regulatory reform in the wake of this crisis.

They have not addressed the issues with respect to conflicts of interest inherent with the current indepentant rating industry.

They have not addressed the perverse accounting ramifications of "mark to market" valuation of loan portfolios which force banks to secure bankrupcy.

They have not done anything to regulate the level of risk management and oversight over derivative portfolios.

They have done nothing to ensure better transparency into debt instruments.

They have done nothing from preventing ERISA qualified pension accounts to hold trash debt and securities that the holders of those pensions can not begin to understand.

They have done nothing to stop the revolving door between Wall Street (particularily Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan) into senior positions in the administration.

They have resisted any legitimate audit of the FED.

The administration has failed miserably in doing anything which would even come close to correcting the underlying systemic problems that led to the crisis. They will, of course hold a couple of hearings and push out some sound bites and as the OP states, toss a few marginal folks in jail.

If anyone is buying this BS about the administration getting "tough on Wall Street" they are kidding themselves. This administration and the 5 administrations before it ARE Wall Street.

reply to post by dolphinfan


WELL SAID!

2ND

Originally posted by dolphinfan
reply to post by Julie Washington

 

Its nothing but a show trial to enable Obama to be able to point at a couple of gents in tennis court prisons and spout nonsense about how he is all about justice and getting tough on Wall Street.

The Obama administration is currently pushing for more subprime loans because the poor and minorities are not getting credit. That essentially forces banks into a bad debt portfolio and financial engineering to escape redlining.

The administration has done nothing with respect to legitimate regulatory reform in the wake of this crisis.

They have not addressed the issues with respect to conflicts of interest inherent with the current indepentant rating industry.

They have not addressed the perverse accounting ramifications of "mark to market" valuation of loan portfolios which force banks to secure bankrupcy.

They have not done anything to regulate the level of risk management and oversight over derivative portfolios.

They have done nothing to ensure better transparency into debt instruments.

They have done nothing from preventing ERISA qualified pension accounts to hold trash debt and securities that the holders of those pensions can not begin to understand.

They have done nothing to stop the revolving door between Wall Street (particularily Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan) into senior positions in the administration.

They have resisted any legitimate audit of the FED.

The administration has failed miserably in doing anything which would even come close to correcting the underlying systemic problems that led to the crisis. They will, of course hold a couple of hearings and push out some sound bites and as the OP states, toss a few marginal folks in jail.

If anyone is buying this BS about the administration getting "tough on Wall Street" they are kidding themselves. This administration and the 5 administrations before it ARE Wall Street.

WOW - That was brilliant. I wish I could be as good as you in putting all the right words together.

Star & (wish I could flag that - maybe your statement warrants a thread of its own)