September 4, 2009

Mortgage, banking and securities fraud used to be a crime in America. As we can all see today under Eric Holder and Barack Obama, not so much.


Frog marches.

By the tens of thousands.

Start with Mozilo, Perry and Fuld.

And then work backwards all the way to Casey Serin.

In the 90's, after the S&L debacle, thousands went to jail.

Today?

[/sound of crickets chirping]

Yes, the wheels of justice turn slowly. Yes, investigating this clusterf*ck will take time. Yes, the SEC barely existed under Bush.

But seriously, come on, how much more obvious can criminal cases be than Angelo Mozilo's? And Michael Perry? A fifth grader could prosecute those cases.

Frog marches. Now. And for every bigtime banker humiliated on his frog march to justice (complete with recovery of ill-gotten gains), Obama's approval rating will go up 1%.


Insight: A matter of retribution - Financial Times


Between 1990 and 1995 no less than 1,852 S&L officials were prosecuted, and 1,072 placed behind bars. Another 2,558 bankers were also jailed, often for offenses which were S&L-linked too.

29 comments:

Bukko Boomeranger said...

Keeeeeith, what part of the word "kleptocracy" do you not understand? I realise it's hard to wrap your head around the fact that the United States of America, a country you were raised to believe in with pride, has ceased to exist. Maybe it never existed, when you look at the genocide against the natives, enslavement of blacks, suppression of women, brutality against workers, etc. But the sham was easier to maintain in the past.

Obama and Holder are just front men of the same ruling class that put Cheney and Bush in power. Hopey fooled me too. I thought he'd try to turn things around. I knew he couldn't totally reverse eight years of Cheneydisaster, but I thought he'd at least TRY. Even a cynic like me wasn't prepared for the depth of disgustingness that the U.S. has sunk to.

Face it, America is now a land of 299,700,000 slaves who are Soylent Green for the top 0.1% of the population. It's a bad political science fiction novel come to life. An African or South American dictatorship in a land of mainly white people. The future that we feared is REAL.

You should be glad, Keith. you're one of the lucky few who escaped the shambles that the U.S. is becoming. I don't know if there's a leash that's going to snap you back. But enjoy your position of privilege in self-chosen exile. (Even if it is in that dreary land of rain and drunken Poms.) You made it, mate! You can watch the collapse from the Old Blighty balcony. I hope your popcorn tub is full.

casey said...

Nobody cares about all the fraud.They are still getting kickbacks form their friends.We are in a new bull market.Go buy a house with an fha loan and why your at buy some aig stock.Goldman needs money for bonuses.

Psycho said...

When all the fraud in the system is realized Bernie Madoff and the Orange Man will look like amatures.

Hey Keith can you put an Obama panic meter on this blog?

Ross said...

We will take back our country, which used to belong to the middle, upper middle class and wealthy.

I agree that it only belongs to the richest .1%. The problem is that those people have to trick the lower classes in to doing their bidding and fighting their wars while they sit around getting soft and over-playing their hand. That's all they know how to do and all they ever will do. The trick isn't working right now.

Everything in this world is a cycle, ecomically, socially and politically.

I truly believe that we are at the end of another cycle of greed, foreign wars and corruption. Change is slow and it can be bloody. This time should be no different.

Barack is just an empty suit in a shiny package with a smooth tongue. He's the spokesmodel for elitist and special interest groups.

The sheer number of people that I talk to on a daily basis who are done falling for the lies of both parties is astounding. Thank the good Lord for the voices of reason who are crying out to newly opened ears and fear not for their safety or the safety of their family.

I think a great post would be, who are you listening to now?

I wonder how many answers their would be and how many politicians would be included.

Rob said...

Keith, glad you're back. I am not kidding when I say your hiatus gave me nothing to sink my teeth into. Every other news outlet spins and fabricates. Glad you are back to give me an honest perspective.

Lady Di said...

Love the Obama panic meter idea.

Anonymous said...

The corruption runs so deep.

I drove out an old county road last weekend en route to Philadelphia that I hadn't been on in 10 years. I didn't even recognize it. This is an area of NJ which has gotten some notice lately for developers bribing local officials for zoning clearance, and it shows.

Where there used to be farms, there were fancy "grove" malls (full of SUVs at the Longhorn steakhouse), and empty office buildings. And of course, a Wal-Mart.

One of the newly minted roads bore the poetic name of "Wal-Mart Drive". Another, a "Drive" bearing a name of clear Italian, perhaps Sicilian, origin.

It is sickening how corruption has created frozen seas of concrete and asphalt where there used to be fertile fields... this is just a metaphor for the sickened feeling I have about society in general.

As my dear deceased grandma used to say, "where will people get their food now?"

Uggh...

Soooo glad you are back Keith.

Anonymous said...

"...The problem is that those people have to trick the lower classes in to doing their bidding..."

Guy's such a tool.

Not the slightest hint of self-awareness. Not a bit of irony he sees in how his questions would be answered were they asked of apologists such as himself.

We've got a buttload of GOP kissups in this Navy town just like this guy.

Angry Leprechaun said...

Could not agree with Ross and Pshyco more. Obama Panic! Love it! Put the meter up Keith. We know how bad it is going to get a month down the road by how you are feeling about the guy today. HAHAHA

vanilla ice said...

Why haven't we started building mass prison camps for all the real estate, mortgage, builder and government criminals for looting the country? It's amazing the public sees absolutely no need to prosecute them for their destruction, nothing, almost no one at all.

new bull market? said...

Go buy some stocks and get over it.Don't miss out on the bull market.

Anonymous said...

Heads up.

When the next DOW 6800 day hits in the wave of 2010/11 pick your payment resets, be ready to buy crappy blue chip americon paper for pennies on the dollar.

america is retarded...

Psycho said...

A Plausible Reality
by Joseph Russo, Elliott Wave Technology | September 3, 2009
Print
Half Empty circa 1930
In similar fashion to the present wisdom held by the majority of professionals, it is with certainty that the majority of those embedded in the ’29 quagmire viewed their 48% V-shape rally in the Dow as the start of a full economic recovery, an end to the crisis, and a sure sign of a permanent return to prosperity.

As the record clearly shows, their optimistic perceptions could not have been more wrong. Although we are not predicting a repeat or rhyme of this diabolic sequence of devastating events, we wish simply to bring to readers’ attention the very real plausibility of such an outcome.

http://tinyurl.com/kkdrbw

Psycho said...

Turn up the Obama Panic Meter.

"Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama returns to Washington next week in search of one thing that can revive his health-care overhaul: a sense of crisis. "

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a5HawfX.Mxt8

Nick said...

I for one don't see anything wrong with what happened for the last several years. Let's face the real facts; you guys are upset because you missed the party.

You know, the party where banks gave you a 125% loan (the bank actually gave you an extra 25% to buy a house), endless amount of credit cards, credit cards from Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond, JC Penny, Sears, and who can forget the wonderful endless ATM machine called the home equity line of credit. What a fantastic invention.

You guys (Keith, the stupid Australian, etc...) are upset that you missed the party. And now you are even more upset that while you missed the party and did the prudent thing, people like me are still not on the losing side.

Dr. Huxtable said...

So where is everyone investing their money today?

I am still investing primarily in real estate because I have control over the investment.

I am not buying stocks because I feel the market is rigged and only insiders win big.

Anonymous said...

if things continue the way they have over the last 20 years Madoffs beach house will be worth in 20 years 650,000,000 and walmart will pay 6 dollars an hour

nasty midnighter said...

Bukko, anyone, sootmen. Isn't anyone scared? Have you seen what Fear of the Other manifests itself as? Today there are thousands of people on medicare ready to cut their veins and bleed on an American flag to fight government run healthcare. Seniors. My own grandmother. She's a smart WWII millionaire land owner. And she argues with me, against OBAMACare"" because her insurance "is okay." She's 75.

We've got a low, culturally speaking. A Dark Ages.

Am I being dramatic? Read the news.

Bukko Boomeranger said...

Hey Nick, the stupid, prudent guy from Australia here. My wife and I DIDN'T miss the party. We made out like bandits, even though that was not our original plan.

You see, we LIKED the house we bought in San Francisco in late 2002. (Yeah, I know we were just homedebtors renting from the bank, Keith.) We got an 80-10-10 mortgage, with big monthly payments, but we both had good jobs and could afford it. Banks weren't offering 125% mortgages then, but we wouldn't have taken one even if they were. We aren't fools, and we had enough money saved to get a legitimate loan.

We wanted to stay at that house for a long time, not flip it or "take money out of it" (a nice euphemism for "go deeper in debt.") We'd be living there, and keeping up the payments, underwater or not, if it hadn't been for the Bushofascism that made us get outta Dodge. We rent Down Under, FWIW.

So we sold our house in early 2006, near the peak of the market. (I had never heard of Keith, but an article in "The Economist" magazine in early 2004 convinced me that American housing was a bubble that was going to pop. The truth was out there from other sources besides HP, if your eyes were open.) I won't brag about how much profit we made, but it was sweet, mate.

And unlike your situation, we did everything legally. We don't worry about foreclosure, or a bad credit record, or having our assets seized. We sleep with clean consciences at night. It was a great party for us! But we would have rather stayed at home. Our home.

Are you worried, Nick? Feel like you're on thin ice? Do you fear the knock on the door; have a little dread each time the phone rings? You might think you're ahead of the game, but you know you're "living on borrowed dimes." I don't envy you, Nick, and I'm not angry at you like many of Keith's readers. You'll get what you deserve. It may not happen soon, but it will. Good luck with that!

Bukko Boomeranger said...

Hey nasty midnighter, I am scared. Scared for America. It seems to have gone insane. I'm afraid it's headed for a violent fall. That's why we're not coming back to the U.S. My wife hates Australia, unfortunately (I love this place!) so we're moving out of the country this year so she can be closer to her friends in California. But we're immigrating to British Columbia. (Damn it's good to be a trained arse-wiper -- I can live in whatever country I choose!) Even that's too close to what might happen in the U.S. for my tastes, but I try to keep Mrs. Bukko happy.

Anonymous said...

Don't ever leave me again, Keith.

--Jersey Girl

Anonymous said...

"...I have little taste for seeing hordes of bankers heading for jail, or facing massive fines. Nor do I have any illusion that public or private prosecutions will resolve bigger structural flaws. A witch-hunt might be a media distraction.

But, on the other hand, if there is no retribution against financiers, it will be very difficult to force a real change in behaviour. After all, no amount of twiddling with Basel rules or pious statements about bonuses will ever scare a financier as much as the thought of jail..."


BULLSHIT.

Just. Take. The. Money. The narcs seize assets and make the druggies post bond to even be able to then prove legal pedigree.

Do the same to the financials who fraudulently conveyed liar loan pools as AAA. Freeze and seize the ratings agencies too.

They'll gladly do a few years to come out on the other side enormously wealthy. Milken; anyone?

Take. Their. Money. For real political possibility, let the sponsoring Senators/Reps keep half just like narc police departments do.

Anonymous said...

I have a scary question.

Why did the powers to be choose Obama?

Bukko please enlighten us all.

RayNLA

Anonymous said...

I lost my life savings after investing in AIG:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1210895/Frank-Skinner-I-lost-life-savings-investing-AIG.html

Anonymous said...

madoff paid 250,000 for that beach house that was "worth" 8 million less than 29 years later and if things remain the same will be worth 640,000,000 in twenty years while in comparison walwart will still pay 7 dollars an hour

Bukko Boomeranger said...

I have a scary question.

Why did the powers to be choose Obama?

Bukko please enlighten us all.


Hey RaynLA, I got no more hard evidence on that than you do. (I'm assuming the question is snark.) I'm not one of TPTB; I'm just a working schmoe with a loud, opinionated mouth.

I reckon TPTB allowed a clutch of candidates, who had already been pre-approved by them by virtue of being in high public office, to prance before the public's eye. Candidates like Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul, who wouldn't play the game, were ridiculed in the corporate media.

"He's a short guy with big ears! He's a secret racist who doesn't believe there should even BE a U.S. government!" That's how America's TPTB deal with unacceptable candidates -- they sneer them off the stage. (See Howard "Screamin'" Dean in 2004.) Less messy than assassinating them.

All the finalists after the first few rounds of primaries were people who would play the game. But the sheeple were given the illusion of choice. If they realised they weren't living in the democracy they THOUGHT they had, they might get restless.

And Obama made the perfect foil. TPTB like Goldman Squid gave him lots of money. He was a sop for lefties like me, so we'd think we were winning one. He could enrage the righties, so they'd keep fighting the lefties. And while we fight amongst ourselves, TPTB keep stealing everything that's left, degrading the dollar, turning Americans into peons.

"Pay no attention to the man picking your pocket. Look at the bright shiny black object. He's going to put your grandma in front of a firing squad and then talk to your kids in school! OH MY GOD! Start waving your guns at him!"

That's my opinion, Ray. But it's as full of shite as anybody else's on Keith's blog.

Lady Di said...

The worse could have been over, but then the retards in charge created an even bigger bubble called the "bailout bubble".

When that blows, watch out below.

Anonymous said...

"...He was a sop for lefties..."

That's EXACTLY what he is.

Problem being the letdown from this. More people are starting to realize that it's a forced, false choice.

That's why I was a proud McCain supporter. OWN your crazy greed proudly, folks.

Would've been a hoot to see he and Caribou insist that things are still peachy.

WizardofIB said...

I guess its true what they say about Tangello: "You (literally) can't live with him and you can't live with him." Either way your current paid-for suit filler at 1600 Pennsylvania has already seen to it that Mozilo will be free until he's the oldest oompa-loompa fraudster left at 125 years old. This being made possible because he will be able to pay for healthcare out of pocket. The rest of us will be hoping for generic prescriptions from the free clinic. Glad you're back Keith.


The Wiz

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