Opinion: Wall Street abuses cannot continue
By Phil Angelides
Money laundering. Price fixing. Bid rigging. Securities fraud. Talking about the mob? No, unfortunately. Wall Street.
These days, the business sections of newspapers read like rap sheets. GE Capital, JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Wells Fargo and Bank of America tied to a bid-rigging scheme to bilk cities and towns out of interest earnings. ING Direct, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank facing charges of money laundering. Barclays caught manipulating a key interest rate, costing savers and investors dearly, with a raft of other big banks also under investigation. Not to speak of the unprecedented wrongdoing that precipitated the financial crisis of 2008.
Evidence gathered by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission clearly demonstrated that the financial crisis was avoidable and due, in no small part, to recklessness and ethical breaches on Wall Street. Yet, it’s clear that the unrepentant and the unreformed are still all too present within our banking system.
A June survey of 500 senior financial services executives in the United States and Britain turned up stunning results. Some 24 percent said that they believed that financial services professionals may need to engage in illegal or unethical conduct to succeed, 26 percent said that they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace, and 16 percent said they would engage in insider trading if they could get away with it.
That too much of Wall Street remains unchanged is not surprising. Simply stated, the banks and their leaders have paid no real economic, legal or political price for their wrongdoing and thus have not felt compelled to change.
Phil Angelides, former state treasurer of California, was the chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which conducted the nation’s official inquiry into the financial crisis.
Wall Street is nothing more than a massive casino, sans regulations. The main difference is that on Wall Street THEY gamble with YOUR money!
Wall Street is what it is today because of the efforts of politicians like Phil Angelides. It could never have gotten as powerful and convoluted as it is without support from BOTH parties in Washington DC. After all, they’ve been making and altering the rules for generations. Has it gotten better? Is it less complicated? Are politicians no longer reaping vast sums from Wall Street? No? Blame your government.
Anyone else notice that 24% said they believe the wrongdoing is going on and a higher 26% say they have actually seen it happen. Have a feeling the numbers on both are actually be higher and they are lying on the poll. But it does remind me of the line, “who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes”!The govt should arrest and prosecute the biggest wrongdoers on Wall Street. At the moment Wall Street has no reason NOT to engage in unethical or illegal behaviors.
The Wall St. bankster thievery is what it is today in spite of efforts by politicians like Phil Angelides. He has been fighting for more regulatory legislation and criminal punishment for these white-collar crimes for years. The false equivalency blaming Both political parties is, of course, nonsense. The “greed is good”, deregulate and privatize everything, let the invisible hand of the free-market control our economy are overwhelmingly the policies of the GOP and it’s lunatic fringe teabaggers and libertarians. With a few exceptions, like Pres. Clinton’s stupid acquiescence to the GOP Congress in repealing the Glass-Steagal Act protections, the guilt can be traced to our country’s 30 yr. lurch to the right bought and paid for by the 1% who are obviously proud reaganomics fans.
This thought is not originally mine: Many people in this country area afraid of being victimized by brown people, every night on COPS and the news, we hear reports of brown people committing crimes. We are told that is out right to own a gun to protect our homes and ourselves. Meanwhile, every single one of us has been robbed repeatedly by a white man in a suit and we don’t do anything about it.
Go to youtube and search for ‘i want the earth, plus 5 percent’
The tea party was originally started to fight TARP. Glass-Steagal is the key. A fourteen page bill that was replaced by a two thousand page bill.
Graham Leach Bailey was a bi partisan bill. By the way Goldman Sacs was/is a huge supporter of Obama.
STOP THE LOOTING START PROSIQUTING!!
Great (paraphrased) Woody Guthrie quote told by Arlo at a recent concert….”If a farmer goes into town and robs a bank, they will immediately send the sheriff after him with guns to arrest him, but if the banker steals from the farmer well….”
” Meanwhile, every single one of us has been robbed repeatedly by a white man in a suit and we don’t do anything about it.”
Speak for yourself. Some of us DO do something about it. And politicians continue to aggrandize themselves while claiming to be working for the people against the corporates. Uh huh. Follow the money trail.
Yup. Romney 2012.
Yup. Obama 2008. 2012? Really? Doing the same thing and expecting different results? Insanity.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Also an A. Einstein quote. And when we created them was Not during the Obama administration. That’s delusional denial.
Ordinarily I would have a post that applauded Wall Street for the efficient allocation of capital that enables business to provide the suite of goods and services demanded by society while employing the American people. But ya know what, at this point it is all just embarrassing. Even I cant stomach it anymore….
And “Ordinarily” you would have been horrifically, painfully, arrogantly Wrong. Just like all the supply- siders. If the bush tax cuts for the “job creators” would have worked we would all have 5 jobs. “Efficient allocation of capital” is Alan Greenspan spew that turns the middle class upside down with the 1% sweeping up whatever pittance might fall out of our pockets. The only real big piles of our community held money left is our social programs, so they want that too.
Dick, I had to pay $200 a unit for my MBA. I would have to charge you at least twice that to teach you why corporations exist. There is a very heavy “jerk surcharge” that would have to be leavied.
man if these people are just waking up to this, you been a-sleep at the wheel long after you ran the car off the road and are now waking up in another world.
The market a game people play with your money, but they keep more than you earn.
Pay Peter to rape Paul,but no one gets charged.
Most of the white collar crooks we’re talking about in this article are also jerks that purchased their MBA degrees. As did GW Bush and look what all those people did to us in the last decade that got us where we are.