William K. Black, a law professor and former deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement, wrote a thoughtful commentary on the DOJ’s recent lawsuit against Bank of America: “The DOJ’s Pathetic Suit against BofA Might Be the Most Pathetic in History.”
The DOJ either deliberately aims to miss, or may be among a large crowd of incompetent (and oddly proud of it) lawyers. At this late stage there is too much information–and too many well-argued examples–for the DOJ to be excused for this shoddy work.
On Thursday, I spoke with Yahoo! Finance‘s Lauren Lyster about the too-little-too-late lawsuits being brought by the DOJ. Five years after the financial crisis, the statute of limitations is running out: VIDEO: Wall Street Banks and Executives Skate.
If you look in the “Articles” section of my web site, hundreds of phony RMBS, CDOs, and CDO-squared deserved investigation along with relationships with mortgage lenders and servicers. Structured finance shook the foundations of the global financial system. That doesn’t count problems in commodities, foreign exchange, equities, and credit derivatives. The list is long, and our regulatory system is a failure.
Campaign contributions have produced the highest ROI of any Wall Street or corporate investment. Meanwhile, savers’ portfolios continue to feel the dent of artificially low interest rates that help subsidize banks that employ phony accounting to appear well-capitalized while paying huge bonuses.
What do you do when obstruction of justice is being done by the Department of Justice? There’s been an epic failure to investigate and prosecute.
Sovereign debt was never meant to be perpetual interest-only debt. The Troika’s War on Reality is squeezing the Eurozone’s periphery. I’ll have more to say on this topic later. It’s not front page news, but it should be.