June 16th marked the 85th anniversary of the Banking Act of 1933, known as the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment banking. The Depression-era bank regulation kept different types of financial institutions separate. But collective memories have waned as to why it was put into law in 1933 in the first place and why… [Read More]
The DOJ report: Another Political Hot Potato?
The Justice Department’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email scandal and other actions in advance of the 2016 election is already a political hot potato. The report has President Trump supporters saying “Told ya so” and the general public questioning how the DOJ and the FBI runs its departments. And rightfully so…. [Read More]
Crapo Spin: Too Big to Fail … Too Small to Succeed
Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, spearheaded a major rollback of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act: The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. The Crapo Bill was a recent topic of hot debate which had passed in the Senate, has now passed unchanged in the House, and has morphed into the Bank Lobbyist… [Read More]
The Fannie and Freddie Credit Merry-Go-Round
Remember the merry-go-round we rode when we were kids? You went round and round and tried to catch the prize, a brass ring. If you didn’t catch the brass ring – you wanted to get down but the merry-go-round kept going. Fannie and Freddie remind me of that merry-go-round as once again they appear to… [Read More]
Busting the Financial Regulations Myth! Anat Admati’s Take
The caption of the photo of a founding father facing the New York Stock Exchange caught and held me. It stated, “It takes a willful blindness to liken financial crises to natural disasters.” I was hooked. Wall Street, our government and politicians have repeatedly, willfully and wrongfully branded the 2008 financial crisis a natural disaster,… [Read More]
Do We Have Government by Goldman?
As a headline of an article by The Intercept suggests? A funny thing happened on the road to the White House. A President who had railed against Goldman Sachs and other TBTF and proclaimed, “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne… [Read More]
What an Honor to Present to SEACEN in Kuala Lumpur!
I recently spoke in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at a high-level conference on financial stability and supervision attended by top executives from the central banks of nineteen countries. The conference was sponsored by The South East Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) Research and Training Centre, based in Kuala Lumpur. SEACEN was established as a legal entity in… [Read More]
Are Regulations Killing Our Economy?
The fourth of a six part series airing on the McCuistion Television Program, which has been focused on the 2008 financial crisis, “Have Dodd- Frank and Other Regulations Been Effective?” (watch it here), featured my Bank Whistleblowers United colleague, William K. Black. William, a white collar criminologist and former financial regulator as well as the author of The Best… [Read More]
Silence is Deadly. Lessons Learned.
The audience was primarily internal auditors at my presentation this week at the 11th Annual Fraud Summit, held at the University of Texas at Dallas, where I teach, sponsored by the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and Information Systems Audit and Control Association. I talked about fraud and how as… [Read More]
Now We Know — The DOJ Ignored Two FCIC Citi Criminal Referrals!
Several items have recently hit the press regarding the financial crisis of 2008 which could lead to further investigation of what actually happened and who is responsible. One that has me excited is the National Archives releasing the first of many documents of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) which have been sealed for five… [Read More]
