It’s just a small step, but it’s at least a step in the right direction. I’m heartened by a recent call to action by Rep. Maxine Waters, (D – CA), the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, in an article published in the American Bankers magazine. This last February, federal prosecutors began a… [Read More]
History Repeats Itself… Congress Tries to Reinstate Controls on the TBTF Banks
In May, Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary, listed restoration of Glass-Stegall as a key Presidential candidacy criterion. Reich was in Iowa for the Raising Wages/Working Families Summit – the first of a national series – where he was the featured speaker. The reinstatement of Glass–Steagall is steadily gathering public support. A bipartisan group of senators… [Read More]
The D.O.J gets ready for the next round….lets see if the banks get away…again!
Looks as if the new U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, is taking over the so called pursuing of bank settlements along the same lines her predecessor Eric Holder did. Let’s hope that this time around the banks are held accountable and investors are finally compensated. The settlements relate to securities backed by residential mortgages that plunged… [Read More]
What Would You Do?
The room filled with almost 300 bankers plus was very quiet. The 60 Minute interview with Steve Kroft, which told about what I had experienced at Citi, had just finished playing. There was a collective sigh when the clip stopped and I asked, “What would you do?,” if you had experienced widespread fraud, corruption and… [Read More]
Were Bank Settlements Really Payments of Extortion to the Department of Justice??
Congratulations are in order to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which has managed to bring a case to trial against Nomura Holdings and the Royal Bank of Scotland, two foreign banks with little U.S. reputational risk. This relatively obscure agency oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Considering they have nowhere near the power of our federal regulators and prosecutors at our… [Read More]
Bernie Sanders Knocks Wall Street’s Casino-Style Gambling Tactics
Senator Elizabeth Warren applauds Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid, and says, “I think that Bernie Sanders is going to play out a vision for America and that it is important for people to hear what he has to say.” Progressive Democrats have been urging Senator Warren to make a bid for the presidency as well. However,… [Read More]
Unfinished Business and Financial Reforms with Elizabeth Warren
In a presentation Elizabeth Warren gave at the Levy Institute’s 24th annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, she asked: what are we to make of Dodd-Frank five years later? She asked us to go back to the Wall Street crash of 1929 and how the government responded to it. In response to the crash, our policy… [Read More]
The Dallas Morning News: An Unsung Hero
Every once in a while events happen that really get to you. In the last decade I’ve sure had more than my share of these, but I have to tell you, this last Sunday’s article in the Dallas Morning News Business section about the incidents at Citigroup and my role in them, both exhilarated and… [Read More]
