MUST READ EDITORIAL - Protesters Arrested While Wall Street Crooks Go Free
Scathing, blistering, truth-telling op-ed from columnist David Weidner.
This is awesome.
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‘Occupy Wall Street’ Protesters Harassed While Banker Crooks Go Free
It had to be a case of mistaken identity.
Protesters had been swarming Wall Street and Lower Manhattan for a week. There were at least six arrests the first day Occupy Wall Street camped out and chanted near the New York Stock Exchange. There were dozens more by the weekend.
By Saturday, the hundreds of protesters appeared to have lit a fuse with New York City police. There were rough arrests that bordered on brutality. Pepper spray brought tears and pain.
And to a nation’s shock, not one of the police targets was a banker.
So much for law and order.
If you want to know how a nation supposedly by and for the people has become uprooted, one only needs to see how common young people, who are suffering so badly in this recession, were humiliated further by trying to exercise their given right to peacefully protest.
If this is justice, I’d rather break the law.
The bankers who brought us this mess not only walk free, they drive free in Bentleys paid for by money looted through toxic mortgages, trading debacles and derivative madness. Regulators, prosecutors and an administration patsy to big finance do nothing except hand out $1.3 trillion in bailout cash and guarantees.
Consider how sick this narrative has become. A counter protest was planned in which bankers and traders said they would douse the “dirty hippies” of Occupy Wall Street with champagne, to give them “a bath.”
These are the people police are protecting.
The ones outraged by greed run amok, reckless behavior and fraud are getting wrestled to the pavement and arrested.
Ask yourself how you might act if you were in school or fresh out of it or young and unemployed. What future has Wall Street, the heart and brain of our capitalist country, promised you? How does it feel to be the sons, daughters and grand kids of a “me” generation that's run up the debt and run down the economy?
Unemployment is between 13% and 25% for people under 25. Student loans are defaulting at about 15% at a time when more young people have no alternative but to borrow to pay for school.
Meanwhile, Wall Street bonuses continue to be paid at close to all-time highs. Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs took home $13.2 million last year, including a $3.2 million raise.
Brian Moynihan, the chief executive of Bank of America got $10 million in stock and salary. Thomas Montag, Moynihan’s lieutenant actually got more, $14.3 million. Their bank has lost $14 billion during the last year. Shareholders — that’s you moms and pops, widows and orphans with 401(k)s — are holding the bag.
Enter the New York City police, who were just lauded for their bravery on 9/11 On that day they rushed in to save anyone and everyone, putting their own lives at risk.
We must have lost a lot of “heroes” that day because what’s left of the NYPD are out there pummeling the young and disenfranchised. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, a front-runner for mayor in 2013, has, by blessing this behavior, ingratiated himself to the moneyed crowd that doesn’t want a way of life disrupted by dirty hippie riffraff.
Just watch the donations roll in.
OK, maybe I’m wrong about all of this. Perhaps police thought that the black guy they shoved was Stan O’Neal, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch. Maybe they thought they had penned Erin Callan, the former CFO of Lehman Brothers, when they shot her eyes full of pepper spray.
That kid with the bandana who was thrown to the ground? Could have been Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase or Joe Cassano, who ran AIG's cowboy outfit, the financial products unit, that caused $60 billion in losses.
Maybe those protesters were planning a new mortgage-backed security doomed to fail.
This could all be just one big mistake.
After all, this country wasn’t founded to serve a bunch of elitists. Government wasn’t intended to be bought and paid for by financial interests. Our nation’s economy wasn’t supposed to be built on fraud and abuse. If that came to pass, you’d expect people to be angry. You’d expect people to get roughed up. You’d expect a revolution.
And you’d expect the system would fight like hell to keep it down.
Oct 7, 2011 at 7:17 PM
Reader Comments (42)
~Derrick Jensen
Endgame
http://www.endgamethebook.org/Excerpts/1-Premises.htm
What if we became shareholders and initiating several qui tam actions against them? They can be taken down by outmaneuvering them in their own silly game.
What I see are a lot of people willing to put together $10 each to end the banks the tough love way.
The generation whose mantra was "never trust anyone over 30", sure has created a greater monster than they ever protested.
And this OpEd is right on the spott.
Its not about banking, we need banks in every aspect of life, what we dont need is parasites, that feeds on the fact that they dont create value, only a currency game that brouth us down.
We dont need hugh speculating casino corporates that is alowed to speculate on every aspect of our lifes, from food to petrole, they runn it all, and moustly thru marked maupilations and wars. Exploiting poor countrys and makes competition on equal levels to a fairytale, thats monopolism or facism, whatever.
Fact is, we loose.
They destroyed USA, no terrorist, or invasion that they have sceared Americans for decades with.
It was the finnanceworld, and the politicians we voted for, the ones on the topp, the ones that was putt the for the benefitt of us all.
Instead thru corruption and diversion, greed and wars by the mil. ind. complex all founded by you, they missused their trust and in the end thats what we must take back.
And now they have ruined USA, thru their policy.
Democracy is a fragile creature and must be contantly garded and the moment we lett others runn our life and goverments, we loose.
And this is a definding moment when the los of Fear is eminent, the single moust biggert threat to the existing powers.
The people are not sceard anymore.
"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."
George Bernard Shaw
Soon, there will be armed protests and when the popo sprays gas, the people will spray lead!!
Our economy is suffering a huge correction. Unproductive employees are being sifted out. Union greed is still outpricing the market, so jobs are going overseas. It's high time we have a correction in our government, starting with the White House and continuing all the way to the bottom feeders who nurse from the public teat and eat from its trough.
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Hank, you can believe whatever some radio DJ (Rush Limbaugh) tells you if you want. However, successful investment manager, Barry Ritholtz, has addressed these lies a dozen times. Start here:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/10/misunderstanding-credit-and-housing-crises-blaming-the-cra-gses/
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Let’s clarify the causes of current circumstances. Ask yourself the following questions about the impact of the Community Reinvestment Act and/or the role of Fannie & Freddie:
• Did the 1977 legislation, or any other legislation since, require banks to not verify income or payment history of mortgage applicants?
• 50% of subprime loans were made by mortgage service companies not subject comprehensive federal supervision; another 30% were made by banks or thrifts which are not subject to routine supervision or examinations. How was this caused by either CRA or GSEs ?
• What about “No Money Down” Mortgages (0% down payments) ? Were they required by the CRA? Fannie? Freddie?
• Explain the shift in Loan to value from 80% to 120%: What was it in the Act that changed this traditional lending requirement?
• Did any Federal legislation require real estate agents and mortgage writers to use the same corrupt appraisers again and again? How did they manage to always come in at exactly the purchase price, no matter what?
• Did the CRA require banks to develop automated underwriting (AU) systems that emphasized speed rather than accuracy in order to process the greatest number of mortgage apps as quickly as possible?
• How exactly did legislation force Moody’s, S&Ps and Fitch to rate junk paper as Triple AAA?
• What about piggy back loans? Were banks
required by Congress to lend the first mortgage and do a HELOC for the
down payment — at the same time?
• Internal bank memos showed employees how to cheat the system to get poor mortgages prospects approved that shouldn’t have been: Titled How to Get an “Iffy” loan approved at JPM Chase. (Was circulating that memo also a FNM/FRE/CRA requirement?)
• The four biggest problem areas for housing (by price decreases) are: Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Miami, Florida, and San Diego, California. Explain exactly how these affluent, non-minority regions were impacted by the Community Reinvesment Act ?
• Did the GSEs require banks to not check credit scores? Assets? Income?
• What was it about the CRA or GSEs that mandated fund
managers load up on an investment product that was hard to value,
thinly traded, and poorly understood
• What was it in the Act that forced banks to
make “interest only” loans? Were “Neg Am loans” also part of the
legislative requirements also?
CREDIT CARD DEBT MORATORIUM. No repayment of monthly credit card debt until indictments are issued and convictions brought. If even 10 million went on this sort of mass protest, you'd see the banker's champagne blow back to piss in their faces. Street theatrics are limited. Go for the jugular, and deal some real discipline to the monopoly.
Legislative changes 1989
Legislative changes 1991
Legislative changes 1992
Legislative changes 1994
Regulatory changes 1995
Legislative changes 1999
Regulatory changes 2005
Regulatory changes 2007
Legislative changes 2008
It is funny how this act keeps getting pushed to the top of the heap, yet no one ever mentions The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, or a host of other laws,deregulations, and regulator "oversights", that played a massive part in the problem.
Herd animals of a feather stick together I suppose...
I resent the indication that my generation (age in the 60's) allowed these clowns to grab all the goodies, especially after all we went through. These people are "outliers" in the overall scheme of things,
G. W. Bu$h - expanding home ownership 12/16/03 - http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/achievement/chap7.html
President George W. Bush signs into law H.R. 3648, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, during ceremonies Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. - http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/homeownership/
Sep 24, 2008 ... President George W. Bush addresses the White House Conference on ... More
and more people own their homes in America today. ... We've got to work to
knock down the barriers that have created a homeownership gap. ...
- http://www.vdare.com/posts/2002-bushs-speech-to-the-white-house-conference-on-increasing-minority-homeownership
Hank. You are a douche' bag.
; STOPPING TRAFFIC SHOULD BE OVERLOOKED? ARE YOU A reporter, or a cheerleader? do you know the difference?
Seriously, this is just off the top of my head. I'm sure I could come up with twice as many known instances of criminal conduct if I had more time.
Insider Trading (Steve Friedman - Goldman Sachs, FRBNY)
http://dailybail.com/home/is-stephen-friedman-guilty-of-insider-trading.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqKeLRO_9Nw
Securities Fraud, Perjury (Dan Sparks, Fabrice Tourre, Josh Birnbaum, Michael Swenson - Goldman Sachs)
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/04/daniel-sparks-goldman-sachs-hearing
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/7641733/Goldmans-Fabrice-Tourre-admits-lack-of-accuracy-in-Senate-grilling.html
Securities Fraud, Sarbanes-Oxley violations (Dick Fuld, Erin Callan - Lehman Brothers; Ken Lewis, et al. - Bank of America; Ernst & Young, LLP)
http://dailybail.com/home/lehman-accounting-fraud-attention-prosecutors-watch-this-vid.html
http://dailybail.com/home/busted-bank-of-america-admits-to-sec-that-it-repeatedly-lied.html
http://dailybail.com/home/repo-105-lies-ernst-young-will-be-hit-with-fraud-lawsuit-ove.html
Plus, the FCIC made a number of (undisclosed) CRIMINAL referrals to the DOJ when they issued their final report earlier this year.
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/01/28/justice-department-confirms-fcic-referrals-which-appear-related-to-lack-of-disclosure-on-mortgage-bonds/
We've been covering this shit for almost three years. You have much to learn if you don't already know that bankers have broken laws or that people of all political stripes, including a number of current and former Wall St. professionals (like the founder of The Daily Bail) fully support #OWS and any effort to hold people accountable. Honestly, you sound like a grouchy harrumphing "conservative" who doesn't have a clue about anything except that you hate "them liberals."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/business/06justice.html
The mortgage scam stated back in 2000.
I just thought of one more instance. Richard Bowen of Citi testified before the FCIC that by2006 60% of the mortgages Citi was packing into MBS were defective per the reps and warranties they were giving investors. By 2007 80% of the loans Citi was packaging into MBS were defective. Bowen warned Robert Rubin (Chairman) and other executives at Citi starting in 2006. They did nothing. His testimony and the VERY DETAILED email he sent to Rubin et al. is here:
http://fcic-static.law.stanford.edu/cdn_media/fcic-testimony/2010-0407-Bowen.pdf
Has Eric Holder done jack squat about any of this? Has anyone checked his pulse lately? I used to call myself a conservative (I can't remember voting for a Democrat ever), but now I'm just pissed off because the rule of law has been totally tossed out the window.
as for as what you sent, he is talking about selling them to other banks. The banks didn't go into neighborhoods and drag people to the bank, hold a gun to their head and make them buy a home!e little guy, right? now they want to blame someone else for the mess THEY created. Those evil banks.
Which is worse, a bank who loans yopu money that you can't afford to pay back guaranteed by the tax[payers and demanded by the goverment,or a union taking dues from someone who doesn't want a union?
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/
Thousands of cases are still on the dockets and rulings come in on a daily basis.
You don't have to like Nancy Pelosi to support OWS. There are lots of different kinds of people down there in NYC and lots of different kinds of people who support what they're doing.
The bottom line is, we have a bought government. And some of the biggest buyers are the Too Big To Fail banks. In 2008, you should note (if I remember correctly) that Barack Obama received more campaign money from Wall St. than any other candidate. His biggest donor, without a doubt, was Goldman Sachs. Wall St. owns Obama -- just look at what we've spent, lent and guaranteed in order to bail out the banks.
Most of the people protesting are protesting the bailouts and subsidies Wall St. receives, and the fact that they have bought off our politicians. Many are very critical of Obama and his Dem pals. We need money out of politics. Period.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/03/union_head_says.html
If you have perused this site you might note I post frequently on energy Issues. The Enron issue is still with us. Many do not know this but that problem actually started with the Clinton administration and was exacerbated by Bush (just like the financial problems)
We all know that Unions were given a pass in a sense of the word on Obama Care (so wasn't congress, their staff and families)
We all know that congress is exempt from insider trading laws.
We all know the Banks are above the law and congress is complicit.
We all must stand together. It is not a perfect world, but it certainly could use a tweak about now.
Hey! How is it Linda Green could sign her name to 10,000 affidavits as an officer in 15 different corporations? If you answered fraud, you're correct.
Fraud on the courts, which is a fraud that causes the court to malfunction at its root, for example, by issuing a legal ruling in contravention of the U.S. constitution because the fraudulent plaintiff never had standing, is super-bad. It's so bad that--just like murder--there's not even a statute of limitations for it. If you're caught 50 years after you did it, you're going to prison.
If you'd like some case cites, richard, do you prefer federal or state law? Whichever one sounds more Republican, right?
Jesus H. Christ. You do know that the Rule of Law is about 500 years older than the good old U.S. of A. AND the Republican party, right?
And how classic is the fraud of selling the same asset to multiple different people? An oldie but a goodie, EPIC even. Bear Stearns and Countrywide both did that as a business, defrauding pensioners around the globe. Those rascals were so smart they even fooled Republicans!
But hey, the perpetrators went free, so they must've been right! Worked for OJ, for the murders at least. At the casino hotel, not so well.
Absolutely under no circumstance in America today has a bank gotten judges to accept fraudulent paperwork and render judgment in favor of those passing off fraudulent "evidence".
Absolutely under no circumstance in America today has a bank sold mortgage-backed securities that were not mortgage-backed.
absolutely under no circumstance in America today has a bank sold bundles of promissory notes as AAA-rated knowing they were not AAA quality.
absolutely under no circumstance in America today has a bank sold the same promissory note multiple times.
Absolutely under no circumstance in America today has a bank engaged in accounting fraud by marking junk assets at 90-95 cents on the dollar.
It must be fun in your world Richard (the unions did it), at least these circumstances listed above are not as severe obviously as blocking traffic...
You rave about Chris Dodd and villianize countrywide? Dodd was their INSIDE CONGRESS man!
And you assume that since I hate Democretas, i'm a republican. Not so. Thee're corrupt too, but not even in the same league with your communist, atheist democrats!
Let me ask you a question.... what do you hope to accomplish by sleeping inm the park, and shitting on police cars? that should endear you to everyone. Such classy people.
And cool it with the patronisibng tone
And for the record, we have attacked Chris Dodd and other DEMS on multiple occasions. You don't know a lot about this site. We rip both parties for their crimes, on a regular basis. Take the time to read some of the links that others have provided. Do some research. You will start to see the light.
Here are 2 more excellent links to help you understand why there have been no prosecutions.
http://dailybail.com/home/dylan-ratigan-with-author-ron-suskind-tim-geithner-ran-the-w.html
http://dailybail.com/home/nyt-tim-geithner-convinced-ny-ag-andrew-cuomo-to-back-off-wa.html