Crying Crocodile Tears for Standard & Poor’s | Common Dreams

Crying Crocodile Tears for Standard & Poor’s | Common Dreams
"S&P earlier this month was named in a Justice Department suit for its role during the financial crisis of 2008-09. The feds say the credit ratings company caused some banks and credit unions to lose $5 billion after they relied on its ratings of mortgage-linked securities. S&P gave those securities top ratings when, in fact, they were so risky that when they melted down a few months later they brought the country’s economy to its knees and lost billions for both institutional and individual investors who had trusted the firm’s ratings."

One Man's Story of What Wall Street Broke

One Man's Story of What Wall Street Broke
""100 Stories of What Wall Street Broke" is a project created by the Home Defender's League, which is collecting first-person accounts from homeowners around the country."

Cost of Financial Crisis Tops $22 Trillion - Truthdig

Cost of Financial Crisis Tops $22 Trillion - Truthdig
"The 2008 financial crisis cost the U.S. economy more than $22 trillion, a study by the Government Accountability Office published Thursday said."

Sen. Warren Questions Bank Regulators About Whether Wall Street Is ‘Too Big For Trial’

Sen. Warren Questions Bank Regulators About Whether Wall Street Is ‘Too Big For Trial’: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) used her debut on the Senate Banking Committee to question financial regulators about the lack of accountability for Wall Street banks’ role in the financial crisis, challenging them to name the last time a Wall Street bank was taken to trial over allegations of fraud and other crimes instead of [...]/p

Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail | Common Dreams

Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail | Common Dreams
"People may have outrage fatigue about Wall Street, and more stories about billionaire greedheads getting away with more stealing often cease to amaze. But the HSBC case went miles beyond the usual paper-pushing, keypad-punching­ sort-of crime, committed by geeks in ties, normally associated­ with Wall Street. In this case, the bank literally got away with murder – well, aiding and abetting it, anyway."

"Financial Crime"

Treasury Nominee Revives The Idea Of Taxing The Nation’s Biggest Banks

Treasury Nominee Revives The Idea Of Taxing The Nation’s Biggest Banks: During a mostly uneventful confirmation hearing today, Jack Lew, President Obama’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, revived the idea of implementing a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee. The fee, meant to be applied to the nation’s biggest banks for their role in the 2008 financial crisis, was proposed by the administration in 2010, but went nowhere. During [...]/p

The Economic Crisis Killed 67 Million Jobs Worldwide

The Economic Crisis Killed 67 Million Jobs Worldwide: According to a new report by the International Labor Organization, the global jobs gap — the gap between how many jobs there currently are and how many there would have been in the absence of the global financial crisis — has reached 67 million: As of 2012, the global employment-to-population ratio (EPR) – the share [...]/p

Surprise! Another Financial Meltdown on the Horizon

Professor Max Wolff, Economist/Instructor, New School University / Senior Analyst-Greencrest Capital joins Thom Hartmann. Surprise surprise! A new report out says the very banks we bailed out in 2007 and 2008 are behaving riskier now than those that didn't get the bailout. So - now that Wall Street is again up to its same old dirty tricks - is another financial meltdown on the horizon?

Democratic Senators Will Call For Stronger Rule Against Risky Bank Trades After Investigation Of JP Morgan Chase

Democratic Senators Will Call For Stronger Rule Against Risky Bank Trades After Investigation Of JP Morgan Chase: The Senate panel responsible for probing the $9 billion “London Whale” trading loss that shook JP Morgan Chase earlier this year will release its findings before the end of the year and will call for a stronger Volcker Rule, sources told Bloomberg. The rule is a piece of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law that [...]/p

Papantonio: Bankers Pose Massive Threat to American Democracy

When Jefferson told us that the banking institutions would be "more dangerous than standing armies," he had no way of foreseeing the TARP treachery that bankers have pulled off with $800 billion of taxpayers' money. But in 2008, Obama saw the beginning of that treachery when he watched America's most powerful bankers grovel like pathetic paupers begging for handouts. They had been piggish, incompetent, sociopathic failures, and they needed welfare tax money.

Study: Bailed Out Banks Kept Making Risky Loans After Receiving Taxpayer Dollars

Study: Bailed Out Banks Kept Making Risky Loans After Receiving Taxpayer Dollars: According to a new report from the Bank of International Settlements — which provides research to the world’s central bankers — bailed out banks in both the U.S. and around the world continued to be riskier than non-bailed out banks, even after they received taxpayer dollars during the financial crisis of 2008: We find no [...]/p

Uncle Sam Needs YOU for a Bailout: 6 Reasons Another Big Banking Crisis Is Coming Our Way | Alternet

Uncle Sam Needs YOU for a Bailout: 6 Reasons Another Big Banking Crisis Is Coming Our Way | Alternet
"Rampant financial crime and poor regulation can only mean another blowup, and guess who will be holding the bag?"

Uncle Sam Needs YOU for a Bailout: 6 Reasons Another Big Banking Crisis Is Coming Our Way | Alternet

Uncle Sam Needs YOU for a Bailout: 6 Reasons Another Big Banking Crisis Is Coming Our Way | Alternet
"Rampant financial crime and poor regulation can only mean another blowup, and guess who will be holding the bag?"

U.S. Told Banks To Make Contingency Plans For Collapse - 'And This Time, We Really Mean It'

U.S. Told Banks To Make Contingency Plans For Collapse - 'And This Time, We Really Mean It'
"They're assuming, of course, that the banks actually believe them. If I were in charge of a big bank, what reason would I have to believe that the U.S. government isn't going to come to my rescue if I bet the house again - and lose?"

CHART: The Explosion Of High Frequency Trading Makes The Case For A Transactions Tax

CHART: The Explosion Of High Frequency Trading Makes The Case For A Transactions Tax: This chart from the markets research firm Nanex shows the absolute explosion in high-frequency trading that has occurred over the last few years. This sort of trading, employed by large global firms like Goldman Sachs, allows for the churning up of quick profits, but with little economic benefit: As Reuters’ Felix Salmon noted, “The stock [...]/p

Trader Claims Rate Rigging Scandal Dates Back To 1991

Trader Claims Rate Rigging Scandal Dates Back To 1991: In the Financial Times today, a former trader for Morgan Stanley claims that rigging of the LIBOR rate has been going on since at least 1991. Revelations that LIBOR — a key benchmark for interest rates — was being rigged has caused a wide-reaching scandal in both European and American financial circles, and could lead [...]/p