Can a Future Financial Crisis Be Prevented?

The fifth of a sixth part McCuistion TV program series aired recently (watch it here). The series, a collaboration with the National Center for Policy Analysis Financial Crisis Summit, featured two of my Bank Whistleblowers United colleagues, William K. Black, Michael Winston and me.

The lineup of guests on this program included:

Richard Ebeling, PhD – Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Free Enterprise Leadership at the Citadel;

Marianne M. Jennings, J.D. – Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University Ethical and Legal Studies, author of The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse;

Peter J. Wallison – Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute, former member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Author: Hidden in Plain Sight;

and, via prior taped interviews, Cary M. Maguire of The Maguire Center for Ethics at Southern Methodist University and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, (R-TX) Chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

The guests believe that we blame the 2008 financial crisis on the private sector and let government off the hook. Yet both were at fault. Overall the consensus was that if we keep repeating the same mistakes as in the last crisis, another debacle is assured.

Lowering interest rates, and the Fed is already pressuring Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA to significantly lower underwriting standards, reinforcing the too big to fail and too small to matter policies, well we’re headed down the same road once again. Too many government policies are repeating history.

And yes, the government enabled a crisis, yet the banks took advantage and leveraged their profits, committing wide-spread fraud. As Marianne Jennings pointed out, the banks should have been allowed to fail, bankers should have been held accountable, “capitalism without failure is like religion without sin”, you have to have both. By not allowing banks to fail, and not holding bankers accountable, we are allowing things to run amok.

Seems we do not learn from history. We’re headed down the same path unless we speak up and demand “transparency, accountability and regulatory reform.”