"You put Lloyd Blankfein in pound-me-in-the-ass prison for one six-month term, and all this bullshit would stop, all over Wall Street," says a former congressional aide, "That's all it would take, Just once"
UPDATE - Taibbi has a brand new piece out today, Aug. 17:
Matt Taibbi: How The SEC Covers Up Wall Street Crimes
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Video - Matt Taibbi talks to Cenk about the revolving door between Wall St. and the regulatory agencies - Feb. 16, 2011
Taibbi's devestating new article in Rolling Stone talks about the corrupt and cozy relationship that characterizes the revolving door between banks on Wall Street and the agencies that exist to regulate them. In the clip above, Taibbi sits down with Cenk. See an excerpt from the Rolling Stone opus below, and enjoy this, the absolute money quote:
- "You put Lloyd Blankfein in pound-me-in-the-ass prison for one six-month term, and all this bullshit would stop, all over Wall Street," says a former congressional aide. "That's all it would take. Just once."
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And below we print an excerpt of Taibbi's piece from earlier this year.
Why Isn't Wall Street In Jail?
Financial crooks brought down the world's economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them
By Matt Taibbi
#
Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
"Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
"That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth — and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
The rest of them, all of them, got off. Not a single executive who ran the companies that cooked up and cashed in on the phony financial boom — an industrywide scam that involved the mass sale of mismarked, fraudulent mortgage-backed securities — has ever been convicted. Their names by now are familiar to even the most casual Middle American news consumer: companies like AIG, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Most of these firms were directly involved in elaborate fraud and theft. Lehman Brothers hid billions in loans from its investors. Bank of America lied about billions in bonuses.
Goldman Sachs failed to tell clients how it put together the born-to-lose toxic mortgage deals it was selling. What's more, many of these companies had corporate chieftains whose actions cost investors billions — from AIG derivatives chief Joe Cassano, who assured investors they would not lose even "one dollar" just months before his unit imploded, to the $263 million in compensation that former Lehman chief Dick "The Gorilla" Fuld conveniently failed to disclose. Yet not one of them has faced time behind bars.
Instead, federal regulators and prosecutors have let the banks and finance companies that tried to burn the world economy to the ground get off with carefully orchestrated settlements — whitewash jobs that involve the firms paying pathetically small fines without even being required to admit wrongdoing. To add insult to injury, the people who actually committed the crimes almost never pay the fines themselves; banks caught defrauding their shareholders often use shareholder money to foot the tab of justice. "If the allegations in these settlements are true," says Jed Rakoff, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, "it's management buying its way off cheap, from the pockets of their victims."
Please continue reading at Rolling Stone...
Aug 17, 2011 at 2:22 PM
Reader Comments (14)
" Blankfein, a lifelong Democrat, probably falls into the camp of Masters of the Universe who will quietly continue to support the president but won't make many public comments or host big fundraisers. "
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=2A8140B2-C586-FED2-2F5B406630C0DD88
Bought & Paid For - Charles Gasparino
and Jamie Demon may fake outrage but he told the PRESIDENT how to talk to bankers - get it? He's still visits he's his favorite banker
Jamie Dimon Politely Told Obama Not To "Denigrate" Wall Streeters And To Be More Like President Lincoln
http://www.businessinsider.com/jamie-dimon-abraham-lincoln-obama-dont-be-so-mean-2010-12#ixzz1JPjyJ42N
Obama, Dimon Met at White House to Talk Economy, Official Says
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-08/obama-dimon-met-at-white-house-to-talk-economy-official-says.html
“As the recession continues, President Obama has chastised the “fat cats” who feast off government bailout money while unemployment remains high and smaller businesses struggle.
But according to Gasparino, Obama is faking his outrage, and his calls for new policies to rein in banks that are “too big to fail” are just pabulum. In reality, Obama has climbed into bed with Wall Street CEOs, giving them what they want so they will support his liberal, big-government agenda. As a result, the big banks responsible for the credit crisis get rescued, while small businesses and ordinary Americans get crushed by higher taxes and irresponsible spending.
Gasparino draws on interviews with dozens of key CEOs and political players to trace the roots of Wall Street’s twisted love affair with one of the most liberal presidents in American history. He shows how, for decades, big banks and big business have colluded with big government, thereby laying the groundwork for today’s shady dealings, and how the same bankers Obama now publically reprimands have supported him-not because he promises change, but because he promises business.
Written in Gasparino’s characteristic smart yet no-nonsense style, this book is both an exposé and a wake-up call to all Americans to strike back against the people and policies that are ruining our country.”
http://preview.tinyurl.com/24kcj4z
The great bank heist of 2010
Commentary: Wall Street wins, Main Street pays — again
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-street-wins-main-street-pays-again-2010-12-21?pagenumber=2
Expect a high-ranking banker to leave the U.S., become an expatriate, and become a "whistleblower" in 3,2,...
They talk.
And talk.
And talk.
The "leftwings talk.
And the "rightwingeds" talk.
Centrumoriented Talk.
Freemarked hooligans talk.
The experts in whatever talk.
The news and media sites talk.
And.
The main object is preserved and locked.
Status Quo.
Talk is infact cheep, it costs nothing and the gains are going to where they always have gone.
To the robber barons on Top.
And the People.
All they do is Talk.
And talk.
And the main goal is reached, nothing happens.
Hallelluja.
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Richard
SiriusNews