Editor's note:
MY hypocrisy meter konked out last week.
It started acting up on Wednesday, spinning wildly as executives from the nation’s leading credit-rating agencies testified before Congress about their nonroles in the credit crisis. Leaders from Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch all said that their firms’ inability to see problems in toxic mortgages was an honest mistake. The woefully inaccurate ratings that have cost investors billions were not, mind you, a result of issuers paying ratings agencies handsomely for their rosy opinions.
Still, there were those pesky e-mail messages cited by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that showed two analysts at S.& P. speaking frankly about a deal they were being asked to examine.
Read more: www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/business/26gret.html?ref=gretchen_morgenson
This week’s announcement that Larry Summers will be stepping down as director of President Obama’s National Economic Council may have been most notable for the passionate reaction it prompted from his critics. “Good riddance,” wrote the Progressive’s Matthew Rothschild, adding that “Summers has a resume of disaster.”
The outpouring shouldn’t have been surprising. If nothing else, Summers, in his stints at Harvard, the World Bank and in two presidential administrations, has emerged as an accomplished lightning rod for controversy. As he prepares to decamp Washington for Harvard Yard — he’s going to be a professor — we remember the 10 most shameful moments that Larry has brought us.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/2010/09/25/larry_summers_top_ten_blunders/
By Jerry White
US Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin resigned Wednesday after more than six years of directing the Clinton administration's economic policy. Rubin's tenure has been identified with policies that contributed to an unprecedented rise on the US stock market--with the Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring from 4,000, when he became Treasury Secretary in 1995, to over 11,000 today.
Investors shuddered Wednesday morning on the news that Rubin was resigning and the Dow fell 200 points. But share values quickly recovered as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan praised Clinton's choice as a successor, Lawrence Summers, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, who has long been groomed by Rubin to replace him.
Read more: http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/may1999/rub-m14.shtml
In its exhaustive report released on Thursday, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission lambastes an alphabet soup of federal regulatory agencies – including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve. The report blames the agencies for missing the mortgage bubble and for turning a blind eye to Wall Street’s excessive risk taking that threatened to topple the economy.
Read more: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/harsh-words-for-regulators-in-crisis-commission-report/
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is releasing its report Thursday.
The New York Times has a preview of the report, which shows that the Commission will slam the right people for causing the financial crisis.
Barry Ritholtz gives a good summary of the Times' article:
Read more: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/financial-crisis-inquiry-commission-slams-greenspan-bernanke-geithner-paulson-summers-sec-ra
MY hypocrisy meter konked out last week.
It started acting up on Wednesday, spinning wildly as executives from the nation’s leading credit-rating agencies testified before Congress about their nonroles in the credit crisis. Leaders from Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch all said that their firms’ inability to see problems in toxic mortgages was an honest mistake. The woefully inaccurate ratings that have cost investors billions were not, mind you, a result of issuers paying ratings agencies handsomely for their rosy opinions.
Still, there were those pesky e-mail messages cited by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that showed two analysts at S.& P. speaking frankly about a deal they were being asked to examine.
Read more: www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/business/26gret.html?ref=gretchen_morgenson
The Larry Summers hall of shame
His tenure in the Obama White House was just like the rest of his career: Full of controversy
This week’s announcement that Larry Summers will be stepping down as director of President Obama’s National Economic Council may have been most notable for the passionate reaction it prompted from his critics. “Good riddance,” wrote the Progressive’s Matthew Rothschild, adding that “Summers has a resume of disaster.”
The outpouring shouldn’t have been surprising. If nothing else, Summers, in his stints at Harvard, the World Bank and in two presidential administrations, has emerged as an accomplished lightning rod for controversy. As he prepares to decamp Washington for Harvard Yard — he’s going to be a professor — we remember the 10 most shameful moments that Larry has brought us.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/2010/09/25/larry_summers_top_ten_blunders/
US Treasury Secretary Rubin's legacy: the unfettered rule of Wall Street
By Jerry White
14 May 1999
US Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin resigned Wednesday after more than six years of directing the Clinton administration's economic policy. Rubin's tenure has been identified with policies that contributed to an unprecedented rise on the US stock market--with the Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring from 4,000, when he became Treasury Secretary in 1995, to over 11,000 today.Investors shuddered Wednesday morning on the news that Rubin was resigning and the Dow fell 200 points. But share values quickly recovered as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan praised Clinton's choice as a successor, Lawrence Summers, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, who has long been groomed by Rubin to replace him.
Read more: http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/may1999/rub-m14.shtml
Harsh Words for Regulators in Crisis Commission Report
The Congressional commission’s scathing account of the financial crisis casts regulators in a rather unflattering light, as the sheriff who didn’t stop Wall Street from becoming the Wild West.In its exhaustive report released on Thursday, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission lambastes an alphabet soup of federal regulatory agencies – including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve. The report blames the agencies for missing the mortgage bubble and for turning a blind eye to Wall Street’s excessive risk taking that threatened to topple the economy.
Read more: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/harsh-words-for-regulators-in-crisis-commission-report/
Financial Crisis Was Avoidable, Inquiry Finds
By SEWELL CHAN
Published: January 25, 2011
WASHINGTON — The 2008 financial crisis was an “avoidable” disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street, according to the conclusions of a federal inquiry.
The commission that investigated the crisis casts a wide net of blame, faulting two administrations, the Federal Reserve and other regulators for permitting a calamitous concoction: shoddy mortgage lending, the excessive packaging and sale of loans to investors and risky bets on securities backed by the loans.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/business/economy/26inquiry.html?_r=1
Read more: http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/201110140001
The commission that investigated the crisis casts a wide net of blame, faulting two administrations, the Federal Reserve and other regulators for permitting a calamitous concoction: shoddy mortgage lending, the excessive packaging and sale of loans to investors and risky bets on securities backed by the loans.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/business/economy/26inquiry.html?_r=1
Private Wall Street Companies Caused The Financial Crisis — Not Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Or The Community Reinvestment Act
October 14, 2011 7:28 am ET
In the four years since the housing bubble burst, triggering a collapse in global financial markets whose value had been propped up through the repackaging and trading of home loans via complex financial instruments, there's been plenty of blame to go around. The Occupy Wall Street protests have called new attention to the root causes of the crisis, and led Republicans to reiterate their claim that government-backed lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the primary villains. The facts about the subprime mortgage market prove that claim false: Private firms dominated the subprime market boom of 2004-06, and were not even subject to the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act some Republicans vilify. Thanks to decades of financial deregulation, capped by President Bush's decision to appoint Wall Street regulators who believed their job was to help banks rather than curb banking abuses, financial giants were able to turn the mortgage market into a high-stakes casino. As investigative reporters and Congress' Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission have all shown, it was deregulation mixed with irresponsible and potentially illegal practices by private firms on Wall Street that caused both the bubble and the collapse.Read more: http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/201110140001
Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Slams Greenspan, Bernanke, Geithner, Paulson, Summers, SEC, Rating Agencies and Big Banks for Causing Crisis
- Alan Greenspan
- Barry Ritholtz
- Ben Bernanke
- Chris Whalen
- Citigroup
- Comptroller of the Currency
- Credit Default Swaps
- default
- Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
- Housing Prices
- Lehman
- Meltdown
- New York Times
- Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
- Rating Agencies
- Recession
- Securities and Exchange Commission
- White House
Washington’s Blog
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is releasing its report Thursday.The New York Times has a preview of the report, which shows that the Commission will slam the right people for causing the financial crisis.
Barry Ritholtz gives a good summary of the Times' article:
Read more: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/financial-crisis-inquiry-commission-slams-greenspan-bernanke-geithner-paulson-summers-sec-ra
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