Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton Each Prosecuted Financial Crime More Aggressively than Obama
Top economists and financial experts agree that our economy will never recover unless Wall Street fraud is prosecuted. See this and this.
But the government has more or less made it official policy not to prosecute fraud, and instead to do everything necessary to cover up for Wall Street.
Indeed, Business Insider writes today:
A new study out from Syracuse University shows that the number of federal prosecutions for fraud at financial institutions has been steadily decreasing since 1999. [via ThinkProgress]
This is particularly interesting given that in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, public sentiment towards banks and other financial firms have been generally negative and prone to suspicion.
Alexander Eichler at the Huffington Post points out:
The falling number of fraud prosecutions is striking given what many claim is a strong pattern of financial-sector misconduct in recent years, culminating in a housing crisis characterized by alleged rampant mortgage fraud and improper foreclosure, as well as the weakening of the national and global economy.
Barry Ritholtz notes:
In such a target rich environment,. how on earth is it possible that Bank Fraud prosecutions are dropping? It is an outrage!
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I bitched about this when George W. Bush was President, and I will continue until we get someone in the White House who understands what the RULE OF LAW actually means . . .
There were also many times more financial prosecutions under President Reagan than there are currently.
No wonder Occupy Wall Street is demanding:
Enforce the Laws for the 99%
No wonder top financial crime expert Bill Black says that we have to fire Eric “Place” Holder and all other government officials who are blocking prosecution of the criminals who caused the economic crisis.
It’s clear, Obama’s got to go, he’s nothing but a frontman for Wall St. crooks like Geithner and Summers. The entire system is rotten to the core and needs to be gotten rid of.
The trendlines clearly seems to have changed at a specific year, 2001. We all know what happened that year. So it seems reasonable to suppose that the focus of federal investigative agencies shifted from crimes like financial fraud to terrorism. Fortunately for crooked bankers, financial fraud is not as terrifying as terrorism. I don’t expect the public or politicians will care about the facts posed here while the media continues to sensationalize the Islamic extremist threat.
while the media continues to sensationalize the Islamic extremist threat…
at whose instigation?
A culture of crooks: http://goo.gl/f4pXo
AyexeM – You are just plain wrong. If you wish to fit such a trend line, then 1999 is the appropriate turning point. Try looking at the data with your eyes open instead of fitting it to what you want it to fit to.
Kind of like the way good ol’ George Bush made his case fit for the Iraq war, ignor the facts that there were no weapons of mass destruction, which of course were never found.
What seems obvious to me in looking at the above bar graph is that prosecutions have basically flat-lined in years 2009–2011, the years Obama has been in office. The decline began in 2000 and fell sharply from over 3000 to well below 2000 during the years 2000–2008. Those are the facts according to the above information. What you read into those facts is subjective and easily used to make political judgments. One could interpret the above data that the failure to prosecute has declined at a slower pace since Obama became President or at least since 2009.
Mr. Kennedy, one could interpret the data to reflect that the failure to prosecute has declined under Obama. In our nations history, has there ever been a known and documented time frame that exhibits more financial and corporate fraud than the last ten years? That’s not to say this activity hasn’t been going on for quite some time, under both republican and democratic leadership. But the consensus no matter where you stand politically, is that more needs to be done today. Obama has done little to step out and hold those accountable to a higher standard of ethical conduct.
Regardless of who is the president now or in the future, more needs to be done to hold those who abuse the current system, accountable.
Linwood Kennedy is right on. Take your political preferences out of the picture and compare the percentage of decline during W’s tenure (around 50%) to Obama’s (around 6%.)
Bank Fraud = Frank Dodd (Barney & Chris)
What prosecutions?
This makes it seem as if there are somehow more than exactly ZERO meaningful cases being brought. Anything that’s being counted here is strictly small potatoes. There have been NO prosecutions at all related to the gigantic all pervasive fraud that riddles every single aspect of mortgage backed securities market.
Goldman gets Paulson to handpick the mortgages he wants to bet against and then promotes that package to customers, while calling the contents *%#@. Oh, the DOJ can overlook that. And then Lloyd Blankfein perjures himself in testimony before Sen. Carl Levin’s subcommittee. Again, no problem. JPMorgan bribes government officials and peddles deadly swaps deal to Jefferson county. Are key Morgan execs going to jail? Nope. Gonna get proecuted? Nope. Even indicted. Sorry, no. Nothing is done.
And now, Corzine STEALS customer funds and he walks with impunity.
You can’t look at the trends without looking at what’s really being measured. The justice department is on permanent holiday, because when they’re actual operating, they’re a damn pesky nuisance to the people who own and run the government, namely Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and the rest of their kleptocrat pals in the inner circle. So, they had them shut down. Obama and Holder have been most cooperative.
It’s handy to own a government, don’tcha know?
Interpret the chart any way you wish, but it very clear that Pres. Hope and Change has not done either.
If you think that the Republicans are the good guys and the Democrats are the bad guys you are a fool.
If you think that the Democrats are the good guys and the Republicans are the bad guys you are a fool.
To a very large extend we have a one party system: an oligarchy, where directly through campaign contributions and indirectly through K Street contributions and gifts our whoring politicians are bought and payed for.
Nothing will change until we elect people who are hated and feared by the bosses, their political parties and their media. That means Ron Paul.
We have been conned. Obama was trained to be a mole who could run for the Democrats as the first black president. This was designed to give the impression that 50% of the voters had an alternative to the Republicans. We don’t. The 1% run the USA.
i am torn between the canidates myself . i know ron paul has the painfull answers to set america straight and make it prosperous again but being a canadian i know if someone else gets in i will make a killing shorting the american dollar as china cuts up your credit card. and the us looses its reserve currency status. all i know is if someone other than ron paul gets in i will short the american dollar and will probabley be able to retire from it as all the other canidates will let the fed print print print.
Short the dollar? Over what time frame? Good luck with that strategy.
Although I’m actually in favor of RP.
You hit the nail on the head! The PTB perpetuate the illusion of opposites to keep the flock divided over petty issues while they are looting the kitty. Ralph Nader had it right in 2000, there is no difference between the Republicrats and the Democlicans! Ron Paul in 2012!
He continues to do nothing but disappoint. but he is a receiver appointed to oversee the orderly liquidation of an empire who is merely favoring those secured creditors [and bribers, errr campaign contributors] over the mere employees who voted for him.
This is a fire I will happily throw gasoline on, by way of referring interested parties to Matt Taibi’s articles in Rolling Stone, particularly I recent one(I apologize for not having links or citations handy) regarding revelations that SEC staff were instructed (in violation of records laws,as it turns out) to purge files of investigative materials of cases where no indictments resulted! Whether this was the intent, it makes it impossible to construct timelines or repetitive incidences, when factual evidence now relates to only ONE point in time. We have left first-world democracy in the rear view mirror, and third world kleptocracy is approaching in the windsheild.
Proving & prosecuting financial crimes can take years. This isn’t some doofus robbing a 711 while the crime is recorded on the store’s video camera; these scoundrels employ high price talent to skirt the law & cover up their crimes. This blogger doesn’t appear to realize he/she is comparing apples & oranges. When Clinton lost Congress to the G.O.P., lobbyists were rewarded with writing the bills that served their interests. With Bush, regulators were obstructed by lack of funding & inept administration by political cronies. The first year of President Obama’s administration, vacancies had to be filled before existing laws could be enforced. It’s naïve to compare prosecution numbers. Also, because the G.O.P. & lobbyists weakened federal laws, state attorney generals are pursuing prosecutions for violating the laws in states where the miscreants are licensed.
I just read they’re going after some small fry in the robosigning affair, but don’t worry, no one central to any “systemically important institution” will be inconvenienced in the least.
Goldman uber alles.
Today’s corporate fraud does not receive prosecution but bailout instead!
Ron Paul in 2012!!! get the facts at infowars.com
Who can you trust? Are we as a nation on the way out? In five years?
Sad. Sad.
Help us Lord.
Even this group cannot be trusted.
Looking at a data series which appears to have some statistical variation and claiming a particular trend *clearly* began a specific year is a bit foolish. There’s only one significant trend line and it happens to coincide with the shifting of FBI resources toward terrorism. This isn’t a guess as the FBI tracks agent utilization. Do a few searches on the interwebs as there are many available reports.
With a seemingly unlimited number of cases the FBI *could* investigate from the credit bubble, it’s not much of a commendation to say the trend has stopped going down. That still suggests regulatory capture.
Politicians never prosecute the people they have asked to do illegal things on thier behalf. Common sense would say banks don’t make loans to people who can’t pay it back. So how did all this start?
One guess.
I can see from the amount of “gotcha” comments on how this column has used the subject statistical charts to match their political leanings, that there’s a smarter than the average crowd reading and evaluating your column.
It’s rather comforting to know that there are people who aren’t locked into right-wing silo think, and can observe, interpret, and evaluate information. I’m dismayed at a number of friends that have fallen into lockstep with the Fox Lemming mentality, whose reporters discount the egregious pepper spraying of non-violent protesters at UC Davis, by saying that the Pepper Spray was simply, “a food product, and probably watered down”… is another example of the mischaracterization of information that is going on in the media and this column.
Instead of making disingenuous comments, and derogative comments about our President, instead, why not INSTEAD, point out that those responsible for Wall Street’s financial abuses (NAME NAMES) should be prosecuted, and what your readership can do to encourage this.
Just wondering what you would have had the police do instead. Is it peaceful to prevent others from using public private property? If someone was occupying your house/apartment what would you do? Funny how the TeaBaggers seemed to respect the laws that were created to allow peaceful expressions of protests, were not infringing on the rights of others to go to work, use a park, still got their message heard and an election landslide. Grow up folks. You don’t have to destroy to be heard, occupy to be heard. I don’t understand how you can say this is peaceful, when you destroy peace of mind for those who own or are otherwise entitled to use of a park, or UC campus? Why are you exempt from laws? Seems like the same attitude you are protesting, is it not? And as to the stats…well, let’s face it Obama has received more money from Wall Street than any candidate in history, right?
When your president took office, he had the house and senate. To do ,all he had promised to be president. But all he did was pussyfoot around and pretend he was doing something, like spending trillions of dollars on bailouts and wastes trillions of dollars more on the phony .”We have to get this country going, getting people back to work.” Which did not work. We are more than 20 percent unemployed. More money to his people that put him in office. And of course none to the ones who need it more. The unemployed. The Republicans, Democrats. One of the same. Both have the pleasure of destroying our great nation. They want to get rid of the middle class. Rich to get richer and the poor poorer. That is their agenda. The presidents best friend is the Fed Reserve. They are printing money at a alarming rate, that they are devaluing the dollar and spiking the inflation making products more expensive to buy. Get the book,” Aftershock.” And get the whole story.
Ron Paul, maybe. Only with Dennis Kucinich as a running mate.
who cares whether its 5o% less in the bush administration! He bbviously should have been prosecuting more, and the point IS Obama is doing even worse than Bush, with another drop in prosecutions and not flat lining but going down even further each year.what is important is the country doing the right thing, and insisting it’s leaders do the right thing! no excuses for any party lines. Bush did not do his job and Obama is doing it even worse in this respect.
Oh, one more thing you brilliant analysts forgot to consider….What is the missing stat, that is when were the crimes committed, came to light, etc. The huge “crimes” came to light in 2008….should be prosecuted and have not been. What is criminal and what is negligence, malfeasance? And should it be just the big fish and not millions of little ones, as I see it the housing bust is not one big fish folks, but rather:
. Home buyers who lied about their income to induce lenders to make loans they otherwise wouldn’t;
. Home buyers who gambled and bet home prices would continue to only go up;
. Home buyers who didn’t do their due diligence about financial products and accepted loans they shouldn’t;
. Lenders who didn’t verify incomes;
. Lenders who encouraged buyers to lie about incomes;
. Lenders who didn’t explain the risks associated with certain types of loans;
. Lenders who re-assured borrowers they could always refinance to get a better loan;
. Lenders who surreptitiously profited by selling bad loans when borrowers could have gotten better loans;
. Underwriters who approved loans they knew couldn’t be re-paid;
. Appraisers who could not forecast future events;
. Realtors who encouraged buyers to purchase homes they couldn’t afford;
. Realtors who told buyers home prices always appreciate;
. Realtors who encouraged buyers to lie about their income;
. Special interests groups (e.g., NAR, Home builders, Mortgage Bankers) who lobbied to keep taxpayers on the hook for FNMA and FHLMC losses (currently ~$150 Billion, so far).
. Politicians who chose to keep taxpayers on the hook for FNMA and FHLMC losses.
. Politicians who put pressure on lenders to make loans to borrowers they otherwise wouldn’t make;
. Politicians and regulators who ignored danger signs of credit default swaps;
. Rating agency (e.g., Moodys, Standard and Poors) that rated mortgage-backed securities AAA;
. Wall Street for creating mortgage products that assumed continuous home price appreciation;
. Mortgage Investors who relied on the Rating Agencies;
. The Federal Reserve under Greenspan for keeping interest rate too low for too long.
So maybe those who are innocent, can throw the first stone. Now we have students who borrowed money for college, but are protesting rather than working. My son just quit his job as an attorney in Alaska to go hope he can move to Canada and finding they have immigration laws there too. Amazing what a little world travel does for your perspective. Maybe quitting a job before you have another is not a wise decision but everyone wants to be bailed out for bad decisions, not just Banksters.
Obama is so beholding to his Wall St. campaign contributers, in order to get re-elected, it is no
surprise to me that his administration, and the current Attorney General are not following thru
with criminal investigations of Wall St and the “banksters”.
This clearly stands as an example as to why to the ill advised Citizens United united decision by the Supreme Court must be overturned in order to preserve the democratic election process in this
country and also, as to how the Democratic Party is really no better, or different than the Republicans are! Unfortnatey, with the system being the way it is, independant Third Parties with
viable and electable candidates are the only hope for the salvation of the democratic process in our
great nation and for the voices of “We the People” to be heard.
I think all these critics, today and tommorrow, the only thing they have as “Low CommonDenominator” is: “hate’ …..Because this.., because tha..t, because i think….. this only shows” hate’. No minimong sense. But, No one can tell the thruth that this admin had done
more than any other past 43 Presidents, deals with tons of hypocrecy in DC, get the Country
back from wars, and got bad guys death. We as Americans are ” Hammer Heads” Never Ever
Lean any lesson from any body. And Worst, Unhappy no matter what!!!! Thanks Rod