Working Life

Just to close the loop on a farce I’ve written about a couple of times recently (here and here), please try not to be too impressed by the optics of the publicly announced $1.37 billion fine agreed to by Standard & Poor’s to settle charges of inflating mortgage ratings. It’s rubbish. And it means the day is coming soon when the new financial industry scandal/scam will unfold and screw millions of hard-working people.

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Well, gee, no surprise here. A big CIVIL penalty for a major financial scam but no banker is heading to jail. Yet. Or probably never.

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No one is going to be surprised by this news. It was pretty evident by the facts on the ground: The Justice Department has not been telling the truth about its mortgage fraud investigations and prosecutions. This pretty serious allegation has considerable weight given that it comes not from some blogger or analyst but directly from the Department’s own Inspector General.

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   It would be an interesting exercise to add up all the dollars spent by the Justice Department prosecuting Roger Clemens and John Edwards–it’s got to be in eight figures easily–compared to the ZERO spent prosecuting Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, or for that matter, a whole host of his co-horts.    I mention Blankfein, […]

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   Over the past few months, I’ve written a number of pieces about the ludicrous spectacle of anyone taking Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s seriously anymore. When S&P downgraded the U.S. rating, it underscored how entirely corrupt the system has become.     Joy and celebration: maybe S&P even broke the law.  The investigation is […]

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    I think Carl Levin knows the dance underway. His investigation into the financial meltdown is over. He has forwarded his findings to the Justice Department for civil or criminal action. And, now, I suspect he thinks there will be an attempt to bury the whole mess–and the specific role Goldman Sachs played in the […]

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You break the law. You hide your money. You abandon any pretense to having any loyalty to your community. And, now, you sue to keep all the quiet. That’s what a group of rich Americans are doing.   I caught this in The New York Times and have yet to see it elsewhere but this […]

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