If you live in the Washington-Wall Street power corridor, what do you think is the essential first task to reviving the economy? Repealing some of the very few protections against fraud in the market that were put in place after the multiple crises of the past decade. Only in the Washington, D.C. echo chamber -- the same one that brought you the deregulatory spasm that led to the bubbles and inevitable crises in the first place -- could repealing these protections be seen as a step to reviving a moribund economy. Even as the Volcker Rule -- the single most important element of the minimalist reform agenda that was approved -- is being killed through death by a thousand cuts, the voices of entrenched Wall Street have succeeded in turning back the clock.
The root causes of Wall Street's violations are really quite simple to catalogue: conflicts of interest built into business models that promote violations of fiduciary obligation; easy access to "OPM" -- other people's money -- coupled with fee structures that reward selling bad products because others are left holding all the down side risk; and the certainty that institutions that are too big to fail will get bailed out when things really get tough, again insuring the socialization of risk while gains are privatized and held by the fortunate few who are properly situated to take advantage of the aforementioned conflicts and fee structures.
The almost fraudulently named JOBS bill -- passed last week in a rare showing of bi-partisan fervor -- perpetuated all of these problems, recognized none of them as structural issues to be dealt with, and once again left the investing public with the mere cold assurance that we shouldn't worry: Wall Street has learned its lesson and would not repeat its prior errors.
Some of the targets of the bill's repeal were somewhat personal to me: it was while I was Attorney General of NY that I had sought and obtained the structural separation of underwriting and analytical work for IPO's and other offerings. This was an absolutely necessary step to bring even a modicum of honesty back to the world where investors were being sold stocks with all sorts of false assurances about the quality of the company. That Congress could repeal many of these protections for a significant percentage of new offerings without having a serious conversation about the impact on the broader integrity of the capital markets is astonishing. That so many Democrats and the White House would go along suggests a simple brain freeze when it comes to an understanding of what ails the capital markets.
Those who still think that excess regulation caused the housing bubble and led IPO's to migrate to Europe and Asia are in serious denial. The macro-economic issues leading to vigorous growth in much of the world while we see relative stagnation here must be tended to -- through serious investment in educations and R&D, serious enforcement of our trade treaties, and a raft of other policies that are tough and require genuine sacrifice. Simply passing a bill designed by the Chamber of Commerce and the banks is a cheap move to appease donors and those whose economic theories have been proven wrong at every turn over the past several decades. But that is, unfortunately, what we have come to expect.
Tonight I'll be part of a conversation about the economic crisis with Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone), Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind, Van Jones, Heather McGhee and OWS activist Jesse LaGreca.
Blueprint.fora.tv - Live Stream LINK at 7:00 EDT Tuesday March 27th, 2012
Tickets are still available if you are in D.C.: Email: lannan@georgetown.edu or call Lannan Center at (202) 687-6294 to reserve your complimentary seats to this event.
Sen. Jeff Merkley: The Wild, Off the Mark Arguments Against the Volcker Rule
Worrying about a few regulations right now is like worrying about the exact placement of a few sandbags during the time period within the eye of a category 5 hurricane. When the backside of the strengthening storm comes through, those sandbags won't matter all that much.
http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/currencies/china-the-dollar-and-the-return-of-the-triffin-dilemma
Until the American people see this fundamental fact for the grotesquery that it is, the offenses will continue. Violation of fiduciary responsibility became the mantra of a deregulated system bent on acquiring wealth no matter what. This was, and is promoted by a right wing that sees the the risk of getting caught as the only negative to the entire charade. Thus is honor among thieves.
Ha! Where?
Europe is a basket case and Germany cannot bail out everyone.
China's bubble economy is the same as or worse than ours was and is about to burst.
The Canadian housing bubble is about to burst. Ditto Australia and NZ.
Mr. Spitzer is an intelligent man who has seen a lot, done a lot, but he is blinded by the same "perpetual growth" fantasies that inflict nearly all economists and all politicians.
And there was me thinking it was unbridled avarice. Some say that if something cannot continue, it won’t. Similarly, this is rapidly coming to resemble Kind Midas. In reverse.
"Wall Street has learned its lesson and would not repeat its prior errors."
Western Union: Urgent!... Send more Muppets… Can’t… Stop.
"a simple brain freeze"
Apropos that. The Ben Bernanke lectures constitute a prime example. Hint: If you want to hoodwink people, pulling wool over your own eyes won’t do it.
"what we have come to"
Give us leverage of manageable proportions. Then with wealth appropriately applied to it, we will lift the world out of recession.
Sure I understand what other commenters have to say about his past track record but the reality is he knows how the game works and thats a powerful thing in todays environment.
He is a known voice that understands the game standing against the establishment. There are so few voices that we should really be happy to see as many on board as possible in this crusade. We should not cut off our nose to spite our face.
Mr Spitzer - do all the naysayers wrong. Step up and show us all that you can make a dent. Remember - redemption is a powerful thing.
The Republican Operative that worked to get Mr. Spitzer elected Gov did it to get him away from Wall Street. So they could place inexperienced people at the SEC and get away with it.
Sptizer letter to the Washinton Post was a bomb and they had to retailate to make him look bad or the Banking Crash could not have been covered up for over 3 years by money from the Fed.
I live in New York City. Your main gifts to us were:
1) An over-hyped and highly politicized series of prosecutions of Marsh & McLennan executives, nearly all of which were overturned on appeal or never succeeded in court in the first place (Note to Eliot: if you wanted to go after the slimy Greenbergs you could have done so without damaging so many innocent people. But you knew you would never get the "Big Fish" so you contented yourself with bullying and ruining a bunch of "little fish" who proved to be innocent at the end of the day, not that it did them any good). Great headlines, though. Who cares how many lives were ruined.
2) The diminishing of a once great company along with the subsequent loss of thousands of jobs as a result of those bogus prosecutions.
3) And, finally, your last, great "gift" to the people of New York of your designation of the inestimable David Paterson to run as your Lieutenant Governor, who succeeded you after your "dalliances" were made public and became a laughingstock as Governor of our State (talk about "executive judgment!!!".
Haven't you done enough for one career?
Couldn't you, please, just go away?
Much like a Commander say go and take that hill can say " I did not tell you to break the laws", Mr Spitzer was taken away from Wall Street so the crash of 2008 could happen.
The Federal Reserve could not have hidden the $15.3 Trillion Dollars they created in several progeams to hife the Banking crash from the Summer of 2005 to Nov of 2008 from Spitzer.
The Rertirement Funds of millions of Americans could have been saved not to mention all the money stolen from the Stock Market Crash.
He legitimately and successfully prosecuted a couple of mid-level people who had exceeded their authority out of greed and he then used their malfeasance to bully top management into ruining a business that was legally following accepted practices. He tried to convict a broad swath of mid-level employees, but most of those cases either never got to court, lost when they got there or ended with convictions overturned on appeal.
Eliot Spitzer, despite his protestations after the fact, was as oblivious as any regulator to the errors, illegalities and excesses that led to the crash of 2008/09. There is no evidence that he attempted to go after the perpetrators or core causes of that crash, even though he now claims he did.
Spitzer was trying to bully his way through the Governor's mansion to a place on a National ticket or in the Cabinet when he got sideswiped by his own arrogance and indiscretion. He is now desperately trying to make himself relevant again by convincing gullible folks that he could have been their savior.
You seem too smart to buy that.