"It began quietly, gained momentum, turned into a torrent, and was soon generating millions--billions--in profit. It was so successful it seemed it couldn't be stopped, regulated, or contained. Investors were lured by its siren song: higher profits with lower risk...The rich prospered and the gulf between them and the poor widened dramatically. Government reaped the growing tax revenues and otherwise did little or nothing...And then it all came to a halt. Experts turned out to be wrong. Once again, investors were reminded that higher returns are always accompanied by higher risk. The soaring values were illusory, simply the manifestation of another of history's economic bubbles..."
James Stewart could have easily been referring to the mortgage crisis that shook our economy, destroyed investor confidence and caused giant financial institutions to crumble in 2008, but he wasn't. This excerpt comes from the author's new introduction to his 1991 tome "Den of Thieves" that chronicles the rise of junk bonds in the 70s and 80s and the ensuing insider trading scandals. Now, one cannot argue with complete fairness that the insider trading scandals of the 80s that implicated dozens of high-powered Wall Streeters and their institutions wouldn't have happened without the rise of junk bonds, but just as we saw in our modern crisis, it's much easier to cheat when there's so much money to cover one's tracks (ahem, Madoff) and much more tempting to do so when so much is at stake (ahem, Goldman Sachs).
Just as the as the 2000s were filled with investors and institutions who threw their weight behind high-risk mortgage securities, so the 80s were filled with investors clamoring for high-yield bonds. The man who pioneered the junk bond craze (and ultimately lead to the downfall of his firm, his friends and his company) was the one and only Michael Milken-- a charismatic and focused figure that Stewart chronicles in his 600-page, brilliantly reported book. Much like subprime-mortgages, these below-investment-grade bonds proved to be a house of cards that eventually collapsed. We ignored our modern history and were therefore doomed to repeat it.
What became clear in this book and in our current reality, is that no matter how institutions suffered or how cheats were forced to give back the money they stole, the American taxpayers were the victims of all the financial crimes and all the risky bets.
In both scenarios, there were warning signs: Madoff had too-consistent returns, Dennis Levine (a ring leader in Stewart's book) made uncannily-timed trades. The SEC was reportedly on to both long before any charges were brought. But the regulators were hamstrung. It's hard to prove foul play, especially when the institutions you're up against have unlimited funds and the best minds in the business. The government will never be able to compete monetarily for the best business minds, but it can offer something else: prestige.
One of the heroes of Stewart's book is Rudy Giuliani--a man who took on mob bosses and Wall Street bankers alike. He wanted a career in public office, he wanted to climb the ladder. If we as a country decide our regulators are our most important figures--ones who can protect us against catastrophes like oil leaks in the Gulf and being cheated by ponzi schemers--then we can decide to give them the power they deserve. We can make regulators revered positions like those in the U.S. Attorneys Office. We can give them access to major politicians and clout within their communities. This wouldn't work if these people were just waiting out their regulatory positions until they could be a lobbyist in the private sector, but if we recruit hungry watchdogs who want a life in public sector they can apply the broken window theory to Wall Street--cracking down on the small crimes that lead to the large ones.
It has become abundantly clear that regulation is a major if not the major issue in America. It's no coincidence these crises took effect after deregulatory dynasties--those of Reagan and Bush. What is clear in "Den of Thieves," clear in the Gulf and clear in our economy, is if our regulators aren't as important, educated, and hungry as the people they're regulating, Americans don't have a chance.
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Bob Cesca: Sarah Palin Demands Hardball Regulations and a Takeover of BP
Yes, seriously. Sarah Palin is in favor of the federal government planting its gigantic boot on the throats of energy companies. She put it in writing.
Barbra Streisand: Corporations Won't Self-Regulate
We can't assume that companies like BP and Halliburton will spend the time and money to ensure environmental safety, just like we have learned the hard way that Wall Street will not safeguard our life savings.
Chris Weigant: Wall Street Reform Conference Committee Membership Announced
The Wall Street reform effort enters a new phase on Thursday, as the conference committee between the House and Senate will meet to begin hashing out the differences between the House and Senate versions which have already passed.
Poll: Support plunges for offshore drilling; regulators blamed for Gulf spill
CORPORATE AMERICA & WALL STREET... SUCK
CORPORATE AMERICA & WALL STREET... SUCK
CORPORATE AMERICA PAYS LITTLE TO NO FEDERAL TAXES IN AMERICA!
ALL TRANSACTIONS PURCHASED ON WALL STREET ARE TAX FREE!
The government cannot afford to pay them more than the regulated can afford to bribe them.
NO prominent Democrat has had the spine to directly attack and attempt to dismantle the bizarre cult of personality that the right-wing has erected around Ronald Reagan and his corrosive, destructive policies.
Clinton adopted a conciliatory posture towards the right-wing on economic matters, as has Obama. Neoliberals to the core.
Until the whole ridiculous, cheerful facade built up around St. Ronnie is torn down and exposed for the utterly bankrupt and dangerous philosophy that it is, things will not change regarding regulation of the corporations.
Hard to do that, since his name is deified in all the public works named after him. He is advertised to millions every day, and using the word "venerated" to describe him is not pushing the definition of that word too far. I've seen people literally burst into tears when he is criticized. And some others put in a sort of breathless, near quivering awe when speaking of him.
Logic can't compete with that. We are up against what has become essentially a religious figure. And his ideas? Gospels, and therefore not particularly vulnerable to attack. His assertions have become so accepted that they don't even play as assertions anymore even to many liberals; no matter how strident, they are simply taken as fact.
Highly partisan political notions getting treated as both fact and gospel can be all but unassailable. They don't have to make sense or apply to have the same value every time they are cited, and exceptions to their rule barely count long enough to be dismissed.
America is going to be hard-pressed to vomit up the platitudes it has lived by so long and with so little question. Could we even come close?
Such ideas may be too deep to disgorge without violence. Is it possible for America to heal itself from these toxic ideas without the the prod of enormous suffering compelling it, and without bitter violence erupting as people panic at the loss of their dreams and certitudes?
I've heard many a Republican recite, almost automaton-like, all of the prepackaged and a bit-too-neat platitudes about Reagan:
- Single-handedly bringing down the Soviet Union
- Saving capitalism by firing the air traffic controllers
- Making the Iranians release the hostages on his Inauguration Day simply because they were so afraid of a "real man" as President
- Cutting taxes and spending to record lows (neither is true)
- Rebuilding our military and making America loved and respected as a "shining city on the hill"
It all sounds nice, doesn't it? I was only a kid in the '80s, and he seemed like a nice guy, like my grandfather. I was sad when my Mom told me he couldn't be our President anymore in 1988.
And then I grew up. And started to read (said in a Bill Maher voice).
These right-wingers are so child-like...it's like Reagan is their daddy, and you MUST NOT criticize daddy!
It's frightening. Thank the right-wing noise machine for turning Reagan into an American deity over the past 15 years.
Corporate legal teams aim immediately for the loopholes because they are only required to follow the letter. Courts must start enforcing the intent of the law.
Um, no, "we" didn't ignore it, Wall Street and their GOP sycophants did.
Instead of suggesting people invest in their local economies to help their neighbors- the powers that be have been able to inflence these people to send all their money to the new york stock exchange and help line the pockets of those insiders in wall street...
I agree with you though regarding 401k in general. Instead of the certainty a planned benefit provides, the push to switch companies to 401ks were a gift to Wall St and a stab in the back to middle America's retirement. How is anyone to know how long the money has to last?
The whole system is a fraud, all amendments in legislatures are a hoax. Simple because the Constitution has been made from paper-toilet...
Reason enough for them in Washington to say loudly, "We are a Country of laws" (parcial-laws)
The confessed torturers and war criminals are still walking free.
The primary Architects of the Fraud on Wall Street that gave us the Heist of History are still walking around free.
The United States Chamber of Commerce's Blankenship the murderer is still free.
BP, Halliburton and Transocean are all still held harmless.
There is no equal justice under the law in the United States and the Robert's Corporate Fascist Supreme Court will insure that.
Roberts effectively provided unlimited license to the Corporate Fascists to speak while also providing them twice the rights of the Biological Person. Biological persons own the Paper Person behind the Corporate Veil and yet their voices get doubled down by this ruling providing them in effect twice the rights.
This Paper Personhood of Corporate AmeriKKKa must be brought down. It originated from the margin notes of the Supreme Court Clerk in CA in the 1860s and is a foundation of fraud that Roberts used.
When Americans remove the Corporate Veil to expose the biological person behind the Corporate act we may begin to see some improvements. Until Americans demand this, demand that people like Blankenship be held personally responsible as every member of the board of directors and share holders will be, we are doomed to this Fascist Greed fest...