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Janet Travakoli
William K. Black, a regulator during the dark days of the Savings & Loan Crisis, gave the most sensible testimony about the financial crisis heard in Washington so far.* Fraud thrives and spreads in a regulatory free, highly paid, criminogenic environment. Cheaters prosper driving honesty out of the market.
"Firms such as Citigroup and Merrill Lynch [and others] were able to create complex securities backed by recklessly underwritten [often fraudulent] mortgages, knowing that they could pass the risk along to someone else who had less information about the underlying loans. [The] $62 trillion credit derivatives market allowed Wall Street to lend without having confidence in the men and women it lent to. Wall Street hedged away the risk of lending and in the process undermined the entire system."Confidence Game: How a Hedge Fund Manager Called Wall Street's Bluff, P. 295, Christine Richard (Wiley, 2010).
It's time to bring back Black and resolute regulators like him. Our proposed "financial reform" bill is a sham, and the health of our society and our economy is at stake. ("William Black Warns That Financial Reform Bill Won't Stop the Wall Street Crime Wave," Dan Froomkin, HuffPo, April 21, 2010)
President Obama: Bring Back Black
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