Economy
Related: About this forumSEC Prosecutor Says SEC Top Brass Are Corrupt
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/sec-prosecutor-says-sec-top-brass-are-corruptSEC Prosecutor Says SEC Top Brass Are Corrupt
By Eric Zuesse
April 11, 2014 | Bloomberg News reported, on April 8, that a Securities and Exchange Commission prosecuting attorney, James Kidney, said at his recent retirement party on March 27, that his prosecutions of Goldman Sachs and other mega-banks had been squelched by top people at the agency, because they "were more focused on getting high-paying jobs after their government service than on bringing difficult cases." He suggested that SEC officials knew that Wall Street would likely hire them after the SEC at much bigger pay than their government remuneration was, so long as the SEC wouldn't prosecute those megabank executives on any criminal charges for helping to cause the mortgage-backed securities scams and resulting 2008 economic crash.
His "remarks drew applause from the crowd of about 70 people," according to the Bloomberg report. This would indicate that other SEC prosecutors feel similarly squelched by their bosses.
Kidney's speech said that his superiors did not "believe in afflicting the comfortable and powerful."
Referring to the agency's public-relations tactic of defending its prosecution-record by use of what he considered to be misleading statistics, Kidney said, "It's a cancer" at the SEC.
djean111
(14,255 posts)closeupready
(29,503 posts)Little people get screwed, elites make out like bandits, rinse, repeat.
billhicks76
(5,082 posts)That's in honor of Michael Ruppert RIP. He committed suicide the other day. There was a lot of pressure on this man. Check out the movie The Last Party starting him, Robert Downey Jr and Bill Clinton about the 1992 Democratic Convention. Kudos to all those fighting everyday for peace, justice and civil rights like Michael did every day of his life.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Now Jamie... Jamie... no, we can't fire him, he's retired... oh that kind of fire!? Can't do that, already getting enough whining from Those On The Left about the Freedom Dunks the CIA gave to prisoners... er Lloyd, just wiring all of the money out of his bank accounts might undermine trust in the banking system... stop laughing guys... and wiring it to your account would look unseemly... I don't care what Geithner handed you for being a counterparty damaged by AIG, this fellow isn't AIG... yes, "snatch the kidneys from Kidney" is clever, but... no he's not on Elizabeth Warren's payroll...
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Tsiyu
(18,186 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)No matter what our resident liberal lawyer says that doesn't have a day job.
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1105575-s-e-c-officials-retirement-speech.html
BuelahWitch
(9,083 posts)phantom power
(25,966 posts)ErikJ
(6,335 posts)to do as they wish. No oversight during Bush term. Feds nullifying state mortgage laws etc.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)ErikJ
(6,335 posts)Spitzer wrote:
Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders. . . . These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets.
Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers. . . . [A]s New York attorney general, I joined with colleagues in the other 49 states in attempting to fill the void left by the federal government. . . .
Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye. . . . The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). . . . In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal governments actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules. But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.
Less than a month after publishing this editorial, Spitzer had been exposed, disgraced, and was out of office. Greg Palast pointed to the fact that Spitzer was the single politician standing in the way of a $200 billion windfall from the Federal Reserve, guaranteeing the toxic mortgage-backed securities of the same banking predators that were responsible for the subprime debacle. While the Federal Reserve was trying to bail them out, Spitzer was trying to regulate them, bringing suit on behalf of consumers.3 But he was quickly silenced, and any state attorneys general who might get similar ideas in the future would be blocked by the federal oversight then being imposed on state regulation.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/not_too_big_to_jail_eliot_spitzer_is_wall_streets_worst_nightmare_20130819
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Republicans? Not so much...
merrily
(45,251 posts)Vitter, of course, was not among them.
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)they'll get honest and stay.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)K&R
emsimon33
(3,128 posts)chknltl
(10,558 posts)cheapdate
(3,811 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Republican Religion (...bow yer heads, ya heathens...) demands that the POOR and Democrats are to blame for THAT.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)current administration is too worried. I suspect that neither the leading Democratic candidate nor any Republican candidate will pledge to fix it either.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)SEC's enforcement ability has been neutered by sorry right wing appointments.
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)progressoid
(49,991 posts)stage left
(2,962 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)indepat
(20,899 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)A once great nation...gone.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Doesn't fit their perfect narrative. No doubt Kidney will be thrown under the bus in due time.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)"Doesn't fit their perfect narrative." That must be it, but it is hard for me to believe that politically liberal posters could delude themselves to this level. Maybe that shows how naive I am.
Rex
(65,616 posts)up and YES it is totally coordinated. And NO, not in the group most people are thinking of. They found a nice place to go and hide and talk about what to do next.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Sad.