The number one reason that the SEC got rid of some documents was to cover up fraud--no surprise to us where financial fraud coverups are endemic in the system.
The article lists all the culpable parties including Bush, Negroponte, Geithner, Bernanke, Paulson, Summers, Rubin, Gramm, etc. Fraud caused The Great Recession and those who committed the fraud are free and wealthy.
The Real Reason the SEC Has Been Shredding Documents For DecadesRead the whole article here
By Washington's Blog
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I pointed out in January that fraud is Wall Street's business model, which is being supported by the government:Nobel prize-winning economist George Akerlof demonstrated that if big companies aren't held responsible for their actions, the government ends up bailing them out. So failure to prosecute directly leads to a bailout.
Moreover, as I noted last month:
The government has not only turned the other cheek, but aided and abetted the fraud.Fraud benefits the wealthy more than the poor, because the big banks and big companies have the inside knowledge and the resources to leverage fraud into profits. Joseph Stiglitz noted in September that giants like Goldman are using their size to manipulate the market. The giants (especially Goldman Sachs) have also used high-frequency program trading (representing up to 70% of all stock trades) and high proportions of other trades as well). This not only distorts the markets, but which also lets the program trading giants take a sneak peak at what the real traders are buying and selling, and then trade on the insider information. See this, this, this, this and this.
Similarly, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley together hold 80% of the country's derivatives risk, and 96% of the exposure to credit derivatives. They use their dominance to manipulate the market.
Fraud disproportionally benefits the big players (and helps them to become big in the first place), increasing inequality and warping the market.[And] Professor Black says that fraud is a large part of the mechanism through which bubbles are blown.
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Finally, failure to prosecute mortgage fraud is arguably worsening the housing crisis. See this and this.
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And this environment is ongoing today. See this, for example.
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Even when the government has prosecuted financial crime (because public outrage became too big to ignore), the government has settled for pennies on the dollar [as a way to quietly bail out the big banks].
Corruption At the Top Leads to Lawlessness By The People
Unfortunately, the lawlessness by those at the top will lead to lawlessness by the people. This will lead to the break down of the economy and the financial system ... and society as a whole.
7 COMMENTS:
Dear Fellow American,
All I see is self serving corruption, greed, stupidity, short sightedness and outright thievery by the parasites and leeches that would have us look upon them as our grand leaders and paragons of commerce.
They ask and take, they take and complain, then they give precious little or nothing in return.
They blather endless platitudes about what's good for them, then pay feeble lip service to what is good for the rest of us. Their idea of a free market is that of justice and prosperity to the highest bidder.
They are good at one thing and one thing only, preserving their own status quo by exploiting you, me and the rest of us.
They are callous human strip miners and care absolutely nothing about anything but their own fat cat bank accounts, fat cat sports cars, fat cat jets, fat cat hideaways, fat cat trophy wives, fat cat mistresses, fat cat country clubs and gold plated suntans.
The question I want to ask you is this: Why?
Why is it taking so long for you, me and the rest of us to look each other in the eye and finally say what needs to be said?
Those selfish crooked liars and thieves on Wall Street in collaboration with their hired guns and bought politicians in Washington DC have taken over the town. They are down in the Silver Dollar saloon whoring themselves at a big old drunken Wall Street party while the rest of us are quietly cowering in the miserable shadows of Everywhere USA.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/dear-fellow-american?
"Banksters become trillionaires from TARP and other government programs as the common man suffers on.
How will history see this period? The end of America and Europe as we knew them? The dawn of the new Dark Ages with the class system of only serfs and banksters and their bodyguards? Total spiritual bankruptcy in the Western world as the foundation for Total Monetary Bankruptcy of the Western world? The rise of China as the dominant world nation? A five currency world made up of Gold, the Swiss, Singapore dollar, Cando and Yuan?
There is much more at stake here than just your finances."
California’s unemployment rate climbs two-tenths of a percentage point in July, the U.S. Department of Labor says, to 12%. The state has the second-highest jobless rate in the nation, exceeded only by Nevada at 12.9%.
http://www.jsmineset.com/2011/08/19/in-the-news-today-955/
So which investment house do you think the great O will go to after he loses? Seems he sold out his base..no?
President F@#$ You: Raising Medicare eligibility to 67 is a "modest reduction"
http://tinyurl.com/3bueqsd
“Modest modification” is classic political newspeak code for cuts. The “modest”change Obama indicates he would support, like raising the Medicare retirement age to 67, would cause very real hardship for some older Americans and make every seniors’ Medicare premiums go up.
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/08/18/obama-pushes-for-modifications-to-medicare-and-social-security/
Interview with Dr. Michael Hudson. Hudson maintains that President Obama’s second-term plan is to shrink US wages by 30% because his Chicago-school casino capitalist backers demand it. The Chicago School is the economic model the U.S. exports globally and it is a business model of cheating and free lunches. Today’s global inflation in commodities is a direct consequence of this global financial war by the Chicago School of economics against the workers, savers and producers of the world.
http://maxkeiser.com/2011/08/20/on-the-edge-with-dr-michael-hudson/
Please read the entire Rolling Stone article by clicking here. It's a real eye-opener. I know all about whitleblowing. It pretty much ruined my chances of ever getting a job in the finance industry ever again. That, and the fact that I'm open about my struggle with MS and employers systematically discriminate against people with chronic conditions. But I really don't care anymore. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.
Bottom line: I and a few others were right, they were wrong and all their inflated pension bonuses in the world won't change that fact.
As far as the mess on Wall Street this Thursday, I guarantee you the wolves are making a killing. The name of the game is volatility. Big banks, big hedge funds and especially high-frequency trading platforms are soaking it all up. The Fed gave them a green light to trade like crazy.
http://pensionpulse.blogspot.com/2011/08/is-sec-covering-up-wall-street-crimes.html
Few reflect back to 12 years ago when the Maastricht Treaty was being approved. The cornerstone was public debt that was not supposed to be more than 3% of GP. That did not last long. Then Italy and Greece, with the help of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan helped these two basket cases qualify for the euro and euro zone by Mickey Mousing their balance sheets. We saw one interest rate fits all and we knew the euro was doomed before it got started. The condition of the euro zone and Europe is certainly terrible, but so are US debt problems. Policy decisions are bad, but not any worse than they are in the US.
We see pundits trying to separate sovereign debt from bank debt. They are one in the same, because the banks control the governments, and tell them what to do.
http://www.swarmusa.com/vb4/showthread.php/6889-The-Root-Causes-of-the-Global-Financial-Crisis
All above comments are well stated. Check out the links they provide.
Why, as one Anon commenter asks, "Why is it taking so long for you, me and the rest of us to look each other in the eye and finally say what needs to be said?"
It is a question worth asking again and again. Is it that we, the American people are afraid to speak up and out. I have written about this many times in the past. Where are the dissenters of the 60's? Many are the fat cats and politicians of today.
But what of the rest of us? The millions of us enduring all the hardships bestowed upon us by these crooked business leaders and politicians who turn and look the other way. Then to top it all off, he (Obama) or they (whoever he reports to) want to increase the Medicare age so more will die sooner.
My message to those who would see Social Security decreased along with Medicare and other needed programs for the masses who have gone broke and are at or soon reaching retirement age. REDUCE Congressional salaries, eliminate Congressional health care benefits and ABSOLUTELY END THEIR FULL PENSIONS BE IT AFTER ONE TERM OR MORE.
The message to Congress, live like the rest of us and suffer the consequences of your actions as you would have us do.
Keep your comments coming and thank you all for visiting our site.
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