How Wall Street Thieves, Led by Goldman Sachs, Took Down the Global Economy

[Donnachaidh]

http://chelseagreen.com/blogs/lesleopold/2011/04/27/how-wall-street-thieves-led-by-goldman-sachs-took-down-the-global-economy-their-outsized-influence-must-be-stopped/

For all the damning evidence you’ll ever need about Wall Street corruption, take a look at the recent report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: An Anatomy of a Financial Collapse” (PDF). The 650-page indictment reveals the myriad of ways Wall Street lies, cheats, steals and defrauds on a routine basis. Arguably the report is as revealing as the Nixon tapes or the Pentagon Papers. Unfortunately, it’s too technical to get widely read. So here are the Cliff Notes.

This study, broken into four case studies, forms a biblical tale of how toxic mortgages were born, nurtured and spread like the plague throughout the land, making money for the financial philistines every step of the way.

The first case study focuses on Washington Mutual (WaMu), the nation’s largest savings bank, and its overt strategic decision to go big into selling high risk, high profit mortgages. Here you will find a detailed description of every type of dangerous mortgage foisted onto the public. Your blood pressure also will climb when you read how the bank used focus groups to help its mortgage brokers find better ways to sucker customers into risky mortgages even though the applicants had qualified for and wanted safer fixed-rate mortgages.

The report also details outright fraud committed by brokers – forging documents, making phony loans, stealing money – who then got rewarded again and again by the bank for their high sales records, even after they were caught! Nobody cared because the loans quickly were sold to Wall Street – the riskier the loan, the higher the interest rates and the more Wall Street would pay.

More at the link --

[marmar]

1. And they're not done yet.

nt

[nichomachus]

2. Reading a book right now

"All the Devils are Here" by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera which talks about the same things.

What's emerging a a whole lot of people -- many in competition with each other -- trying to make money and shove the risk off onto other people. In order to do that, they had to get some banking regulations voided and get other laws passed (most of which were passed very quietly) to allow them to gain a competitive advantage.

When banks stopped holding the mortgages they wrote, the whole thing started to go downhill, because they no longer had the risk. Then other companies found ways to securitize the risk and spread it thoughout the whole banking community. That's why, when the chickens came home to roost, it threatened the entire economy.

And it wasn't just Goldman. There is more than enough blame to go around. Lots of bad players.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Never mind the defrauding of billions, did they find any Marijuana on them?

Thanks for the thread Donnachaidh.

[eomer]

4. Right, and can't we please get back to what Donald thinks about where Obama wasn't born?

C'mon, people, focus!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. K & R