'The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One'

15 years ago

Good old Bill Black. Another person (beside Martin Weiss) who is fully qualified to explain what the banksters are doing to our country and how they got away with it.

Huffington Post blogger Mike Frick asked:

"When will Americans wake up and hold the real criminals - Banksters - accountable for their actions, and pressure the government to enact systemic changes to prevent future abuses?"

How many more banks are going to be asking for tax subsidies and collecting huge bonus's while they watch the 'little people' lose their jobs, homes, etc?

I would like to see the taxpayers show up on the steps of the White House and ask our elected officials WHY we are being taxed without representation. Some bankers are complaining about populist rage. Too bad. They need a wake up call. They need to understand that it is NOT up to the taxpayers to pick up the tab for greedy fat cats who reward themselves when they fail.

Economist: US collapse driven by 'fraud'; Geithner covering up bank insolvency

Stephen C. Webster

April 4, 2009

In an explosive interview on PBS' Bill Moyers Journal, William K. Black, a professor of economics and law with the University of Missouri, alleged that American banks and credit agencies conspired to create a system in which so-called "liars loans" could receive AAA ratings and zero oversight, amounting to a massive "fraud" at the epicenter of US finance.

Black's most recent published work, "The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One," released in 2005, was hailed by Nobel-winning economist George A. Akerlof as "extraordinary."

"A single bank, IndyMac, lost more money than the entire Savings and Loan Crisis," reported PBS. "The difference between now and then, explains Black, is a drastic reduction in regulation and oversight, 'We now know what happens when you destroy regulation. You get the biggest financial calamity of anybody under the age of 80.'"

That financial calamity, he explained, was brought about not by mishap or accident, but only after a concerted effort to undermine and remove all regulations, allowing a creditor free-for-all that hinged on fraudulent risk ratings for bad loans.

Geithner's Stress Test "A Complete Sham," Former Federal Bank Regulator Says

Apr 06, 2009 by Aaron Task

The bank stress tests currently underway are “a complete sham,” says William Black, a former senior bank regulator and S&L prosecutor, and currently an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. “It’s a Potemkin model. Built to fool people.” Like many others, Black believes the “worst case scenario” used in the stress test don’t go far enough.

He detailed these and related concerns in a recent interview with Naked Capitalism. But Black, who was counsel to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board during the S&L Crisis, says the program's failings go way beyond such technical issues. “There is no real purpose [of the stress test] other than to fool us. To make us chumps,” Black says.

Links that might be useful:

rawstory.com/news/2008/Economist_US_collapse_

driven_by_fraud_0404.html

article/225897/Geithner's-Stress-Test

Comments (9)

User
15 years ago
So you keep proving you can cut and paste articles without any critical discussion.

What specifically is wrong with stress testing and why is it successfully used by bank's and their regulators in other countries? Please share some creative thinking, dreamgarden.
joyfulguy
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
It seems that dream garden is a quoter ... and a voter ...

... but not a financial common-tater (about which type of person I initiated a thread a few hours ago).

ole joyful
Related Discussions
Mad Diary of Zone Busting in Zone 3 ...The End is a Long Way Away
Q
Comments (7)
Oh my. What is a passionate rose lover like you doing in that glacial hell hole? Reading about your endeavors has exhausted me and I haven't even lifted a shovel. I admire your grit and determination, but would love to see you rewarded with thousands of blooms on your rose bushes for all your hard work. I bet they could use engineers in zones 7 to 10!
...See More
The way it used to be,the way it is now.
Q
Comments (3)
That is one of the reasons i tell people or posters to " send it out " and i mean a dealer. I've spent most of my time in a dealership and we are in school at least 10 times a year only on the cars we were working on. Our dealerships are divided into special sections. Mechanical, Transmission, body work, tune up, electrical, trim, and upholstery. Each tech goes to " school " put on by the factory for the specific area of repair for that perticular car the tech specializes in. When i'm finished with my A.C. or electrical repair and there is a break problem on the same car it leaves my stall and goes to the break department of the shop. Then it could go over to the transmission shop or what ever else has to be repaired. I've worked on cars sent to me by other dealers in Canada and the U.S. I've also worked in a private shop, one of the best ones around in the same cite. Many times i've had to phone over to the dealer where i worked and ask one of my tech friends that still worked there for help. The private shop is usually not supplied with factory up dates or information. The private shop will never get a car still under warranty. If they do the warranty is gone. One thing i love about working a dealership is the cars are clean with no rust no grease or dirt. All dealers i've worked for have different pay scales for their flat rate. the better you are the more you get payed on the flat rate. I did work for a Ford dealer that gave you 50% of the work order, parts and labour. There was always a lineup hoping to get a job there. Even some of our private shops will say send it to the dealer. Most private shops i know of are jack of all trades master of none.
...See More
Bank Owned Question
Q
Comments (14)
"My sister recently bought a REO property. They accepted the offer within a couple days. Then, they took MONTHS to close." The banks also like to put clauses in the contacts allowing them to back out if they decide at almost any point up to the closing table. I have seen them shop accepted contracts for months hoping for something better to come along while stringing along the buyer they 'accepted.' Do not sign a bank contract without an attorney going over it.
...See More
Bank owned, short sale, my neighbors are doing me in...
Q
Comments (23)
I am glad you have the possible renter, and someone you know and trust, at that. I have a nurse I know doing a rent-to-own in my old house. With the house across the street in foreclosure and for sale at $69.9K (no typos), I worry that she will walk away from our agreement at $139K. The house across the street is a third smaller and the lot smaller, but with all the vacant properties, bank foreclosures, short sales and a rotten economy, I can imagine her deciding that she can get more house elsewhere if the fall in values in Michigan does not slow. I hope it works out with the renters you have in mind. It sounds like the perfect solution for you. One thing to keep in mind is how much your home appreciated and how much value you added by improving it after you bought it. If you end up renting for three years or longer, you will need to be able to show what improvements you made to the house so that you can offset whatever increase in value the house had since you bought it. With the huge capital gains write-off we now get when selling a house, I would bet that people are not saving the receipts like we used to. If you never expected to rent out your home, your record keeping may not be up to par. If you don't live in a house two of the last five years before selling, though, you lose that capital gains write-off. Then you need the receipts to show your improvements so that you can increase the "basis" you have in the house. Best wishes for a low-stress transition to your new home!
...See More
C Marlin
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
It seems that dream garden is a quoter ... and a voter ...

... but not a financial common-tater (about which type of person I initiated a thread a few hours ago).

ole joyful

So... you're getting funnier every day!!
joyfulguy
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Though the Canadian banks have been somewhat more heavily regulated than many, so that they've been evaluated recently as among the strongest in the industriaized world ...

... I've held shares in one of them for 42 years.

"Value" (whatever that means ... I guess that I really mean, "price") per share about June 2007 - $107.00.

It appears that not only did that one have significant exposure to some of the rotten portions of the U.S. mortgage market recently ... but they were backing a mortgage insurance company, as well.

Price per share, last Nov ... $42.25.

Price per share, now ... $51.84.

It seems to me that, rather than being the "robb-er",

I'm more like the "robb-ee".

It sure feels like that, anyway!

What's that you say? ... I'm not alone? That others, not only some bank semi-owners, have suffered a similar fate?

Who's responsible?

Where does the lynch mob congregate?

What's that you say - that there's millions of us??

(Mainly found in mirrors?)

Oh, Lord!

What next??

Best wishes for learning to manage your life more effectively, ...

... most all of us.

ole joyful

P.S. Bought shares in a Canadian stockbroker quite a few years ago.

Later bought out by another Canadian stockbroker.

Later bought out by a U.S. stockbroker, Merrill Lynch. (Drat - all of our good stuff is being bought out by furriners ... making us hewers of wood and drawers of water ... in our own country!)!!

That, a few years later, having got itself into serious financial trouble ...

... was recently, as a pretty sick patient, "rescued" ...

... by a large (but nearly insolvent, itself), U.S. bank ...

... making me the bedazzled shareholder of a U.S. BANK!!

................

................

ole joyful (duct tape over mouth - more or less)
dreamgarden
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
ole joyful-"... but not a financial common-tater (about which type of person I initiated a thread a few hours ago)."

Where is this thread you speak of? (!)
joyfulguy
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi visionGarden,

It was over on the KT (Kitchen Table).

ole joyful

P.S. I found out the other day that putting quotation marks around the name of your link will erase whatever follows the quotation mark ... but it appears that an apostrophe will get the job done.

o j

Here is a link that might be useful: maybe ... plant a financial 'common-tater'
dreamgarden
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
patser-"So you keep proving you can cut and paste articles without any critical discussion."

And you keep proving that its easier to poke those you disagree with (who just might have a point) then it is to respond with an intelligent rebuttal of something other then criticism or indifferent, bankster-laced-pablum.

"What specifically is wrong with stress testing and why is it successfully used by bank's and their regulators in other countries?"

It is probably successful in other countries because they don't use corrupt regulators like Darrel Duchow, ex senior federal banking regulator who was removed in the IndyMac Probe. Care to venture WHY the Federal Government didn't hold the OTS responsible for allowing the IndyMac to falsify their reports?

William Black, a former senior bank regulator and S&L prosecutor SAID what he thinks of the stress tests and I agree. Right now the stress testing being done in the U.S. is nothing more than a smoke-and-mirrors show using false criteria to deceive us so that we will avoiding noticing those banks that are clearly hanging by a thread.

"Please share some creative thinking, dreamgarden."

Instead of focusing on what I'M not saying, perhaps you might care to venture a 'creative' explanation about why you think its OK to sound like an expert ("I know plenty about banking") on one hand, and then pretend you don't know the answer to a basic question ("WHAT massive failure?") on the other.
dreamgarden
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
ole joyful, thanks for the link. ;)
behaviorkelton
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
This is John Allison discussing the causes for this crisis.

http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reg_ls_financial_crisis

Basically, government intervention set the stage for the wreckless banking behavior.

Check here... The MC spends a good deal of time introducing John... I think he starts speaking at minute 3 or so.

He does an excellent job of explaining things.

'The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One'

Comments (9)

User

joyfulguy

Related Discussions

C Marlin

joyfulguy

dreamgarden
Original Author

joyfulguy

dreamgarden
Original Author

dreamgarden
Original Author

behaviorkelton

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

'The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One'

Comments (9)

User

joyfulguy

Related Discussions

C Marlin

joyfulguy

dreamgardenOriginal Author

joyfulguy

dreamgardenOriginal Author

dreamgardenOriginal Author

behaviorkelton

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

dreamgarden
Original Author

dreamgarden
Original Author

dreamgarden
Original Author