William K. Black Talks To Bill Moyers (VIDEO)

Bill Moyers interviewed William K. Black, the former Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention, on Sunday. Black, author of "The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One," now teaches Economics and Law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He was a key whistle blower during the savings and loans crisis and has a lot to say about the current economic environment.

He speaks bluntly to Moyers about the fraud that took place on Wall Street, and took aim at President Bush. The "Bush Administration essentially got rid of regulation, so if nobody was looking, you were able to do this with impunity and that's exactly what happened," he said of corporate fraud.

At one point, Moyers asks:

So you're suggesting, saying that CEOs of some of these banks and mortgage firms in order to increase their own personal income, deliberately set out to make bad loans?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Yes.

BILL MOYERS: How do they get away with it? I mean, what about their own checks and balances in the company? What about their accounting divisions?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: All of those checks and balances report to the CEO, so if the CEO goes bad, all of the checks and balances are easily overcome. And the art form is not simply to defeat those internal controls, but to suborn them, to turn them into your greatest allies. And the bonus programs are exactly how you do that.

Black received so much feedback from the interview that he responded on his blog here.

WATCH:

Comments

[noesis]

This should be the leading story for the next month!!!

[vippy]

All of this did not happen overnight. It was planned and if so, we will never recover. I wonder what
will await us next? What was really said at the G20 Meeting?

[TremoluxMan]

Too many people in power subscribe to the B-movie principle of withholding the truth from the public 'to prevent panic'. Baloney. Yes, the truth may be shocking at first, but unless the scope of the problem is understood, correcting it is impossible.

Think of it as cancer treatment. The type of cancer must be determined, aggressive treatment options and regimens discussed and decided upon, and everything must be done expeditiously. Careful monitoring is essential to make sure the course of treatment is effective and if not, adjustments made.

Hiding the scope and extent is patronizing, insulting, dishonest, and self-serving. It rewards the guilty and punishes the innocent.

[JScott]

As alluded to in other comments, so far the MSM doesn't have the guts to cover this in their news reporting....Hey '60 Minutes' I'm apalled!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!! Hey Rachel and Olbermann and even (ugh!) Little Sean wtf RU with this?????????????

[Sundialsvc4]

Plain words: "crime."

"Usury."

"Swindle."

"Fraud."

"Stealing."

When you dare to use plain words instead of comfortable euphemisms, then the rose-colored glasses fall off your eyes and you are no longer afraid to do what must be done.

"It will be the end of the world as we know it! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!!" Uh huh, according to YOU... but... who are YOU, and what personal incentive do you have to be saying now what you now say?

"Just one more swindle. The biggest swindle of all. Let me swindle the entire United States Treasury and then I shall leave the table... Plenty of money in it for you, I promise. Just let me do it... Swindle the entire goddamn country and then we can all retire to Dubai. No extradition treaties there, you know. Just let me do it... we'll be rich... rich..."

Compulsive gamblers are disgusting, there at the last, aren't they?

[KCFreedom]

This was an excellent show and I had to watch it twice.

I then did a web search for it using "Bill Moyers William (and Bill) Black" and got no hits from the mainstream media.

Obviously there must be some real truth there if the MSM won't give it any legs.

[MetalCanuck]

Of course its true, the bankers are sicko's and so is the government who are helping them.

[drkazmd65]

Exactly KCFreedom,

Much like Dennis Kucinich's Presidential campaign - the MSM doesn't want us to hear the truth, so they chose to ignore it, hoping we do also.

If you marginalize the message, or marginalize the messenger, then often the immediate problem will continue to go unnoticed by the public,.... at least for long enough for the 'bad' guys to get out of our sight.

[noesis]

sent to my senators and rep.

[iridium53]

Perhaps some journalist will pick up on this and ask Geithner and Holder some questions.

But, I'll not hold my breath...

[MetalCanuck]

That would career suicide. MSM is in the pocket of government and big business.

[Seamus45]

The actual interview:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html

[aFlyoverPerson]

Thanks for the link - I'm spreading it.

[joebhed]

We all owe a lot to William Black.

There were two incompatible truths expressed.
In one, Geithner is in the denial mode.
As an officer of the FED and the head of it's most powerful institution, Geithner denies that he had any role in determining what the policies of the FED and the government SHOULD BE in order to be certain to achieve the goals of economic stability and full employment.
If he was NOT a regulator, then he had no role in recommending policy actions to the government or in assessing the likely effectiveness of the policies then in place.
So, this looks like a job description thing.
You always gotta watch those job descriptions.
If William Black is correct, then Geithner should join Summers and others - we know who they are - on the gallows of the guilty.
If Black is wrong, he should be sued.
Your move, Geithner.

[MetalCanuck]

Giethner is NOT in denial mode, he is a crook. He was the head of the NY Fed, (you know the private company America gets all its debt from and pays interest on the debt to) he was the one that was suppose to be regulating this but he let it happen. The banksters knew what would happen years ago as a result of the big bubble they created.

Don't forget Obama refused to replace this guy, its as if he is the only one qualified....why does he replace him with a person who seen it coming for years. There are lots of those people who saw this coming but the government is run by the FED and has been since 1913.

[PhilipTaylor]

Geithner five fundamental misconceptions:

1. Trouble is banks aren't lending: Reality is Consumers/­Businesses are poor risks because of massive drop in equity. Consumers retrench so business must retrench exacerbating the cycle. Banks are lending very little at very high rates since securitization markets collapsed.

2. Banks aren't lending because balance sheets are loaded with mispriced "bad assets:" Reality is banks aren't lending because they fear future write-downs on old loans leading to loss of equity.

3. Assets are "bad" because market doesn't understand how much they’re worth. Reality is bad assets are worth less than banks say. House prices dropped 30+% nationwide creating $5+ trillion of losses in real estate so banks are afraid write-offs will wipe them out. Geithner/Banks doing everything possible to pawn losses off on Taxpayer.

4. Once "bad assets" are off balance sheets, banks will start lending. Reality - banks will remain cautious because housing market/economy still deteriorating. They'll say they’re lending while waiting for economic bottom.

5. When banks finally start lending economy will recover. Reality is Consumers’ are up to their ears in debt taking years to work off. House prices are still falling. Retirement savings have been crushed. Americans Savings rate must increase from 5% (was 0%) to 10%. Consumers have no equity left or room for debt even if banks Loan.

Geithner's plan is passing of debt from banks to taxpayers to sit until government admits it will never be paid back!

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

After the Wall Street political appointees mandate the bankruptcy of Chrysler and GM, expect some major write downs that will exacerbate the the banking crisis. The ripple effect of the governmet mandated destruction of the auto industry could lead to a bank panic starting in the midwest. Michigan Ohio and Indiana economies are headed for flat lining and almost all investments in business and real estate will go very negative.

[beaupritchard]

Really good interview ... really good insights. I hope this goes public enough to do some good.

[petridish]

this article is quite revealing as well.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/04/summers/index.html

Our elected representatives (dem and rep alike) are part of the debauchery.

[NYCMami]

This was an AMAZING interview (the second part on real jounalists was excellent as well).

This should be on the top of the business and media pages. Why isn'y HUFFPO promoting this remarkable, informative (and scary) interview??

[pfrogger]

"Now, going forward, get rid of the people that have caused the problems. That's a pretty straightforward thing, as well. Why would we keep CEOs and CFOs and other senior officers, that caused the problems? That's facially nuts. That's our current system."

"So stop that current system. We're hiding the losses, instead of trying to find out the real losses. Stop that, because you need good information to make good decisions, right? Follow what works instead of what's failed. Start appointing people who have records of success, instead of records of failure."

Common sense never sounded so good. Obama MUST put these troubled banks in receivership. Start with AIG, but take over the others who also defrauded the people. Fire the CEOs and corporate management. Find out what happened and what the real situation is. And then charge these thieves with fraud!

I know it won't happen, but it's a nice dream.
I don't blame Obama, he's just a politician, and better than most. But he's listening to Geithner, and making the same mistakes Paulson did - hiding the fraud and protecting the thieves.

[karen1p]

I blame Obama. We hired him for creating Change. Not much change happening. We hired him to bring a new way to run Washington. Looks like it's the same 'ol, same 'ol. And I'm getting pi$$ed. This is no way to run a country.

[Mixpixlix]

The man's been in office for 77 days and you blame him? Just how near sighted are you? This financial mess has been brewing for a decade and people have been buying, buying, buying with no thought about how they'd manage if they lost their jobs or if one of life's misfortunes landed on their doorstep.

The list of what President Obama has achieve in these 2 plus months is remarkable from getting the stimulus passed to improving our image around the world. May not seem like much now but we'll look back and see these early months as the recovery snowball that just kept growing and growing.

When will American's learn patience AND to make their elected officials understand that we voted for CHANGE and if they stand in our way ( and many are) change will include voting them OUT of office.

[vippy]

American People want change but not really that much change. Otherwise the people
would have voted for Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul.

[blood1]

I saw this Friday night and emailed everyone I knew. I was amazed that this did not hit the front page of every Sat / Sun news link.

What was the delay?

Maybe only Dems watch PBS as it was all over some of their most popular blogs with lots of responses!

I am still waiting for a response from the White House!

[joebhed]

we're all waiting.
that's the problem.