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Jagchosis posted:to be honest; from a legal standpoint I don't think the government even had the evidence to convict these motherfuckers, let alone go China on them and summarily execute. Yes, I have read the emails, and Yes, I have seen the Levin hearings (they're fantastic). To put more bankers in jail for the poo poo they pulled in 08 would require a substantial revision of securities laws. I completely agree that Wall Street executives who marketed mortgage backed securities that led to the crash are robber baron motherfuckers, and that it would hilarious if Bill Clinton gave Lloyd Blankfein a Colombian Necktie, I just don't think that a criminal prosecution of a top executive under our current laws would result in anything other than an acquittal, or a guilty plea if he is a dipshit, unless there was a paper trail that literally said "hey, let's do this fraudulent thing to defraud investors fraudulently." More controversially, I am also p. sure the DOJ looked into this as best they could, and did not find sufficient evidence to prosecute, because that is how prosecutors do. I do believe that civil charges may have had more luck because of the lower burden of proof, but there is still a lot of plausible deniability for higher ranking folk. Catching up with the thread and just want to point out that this post is factually incorrect. SEC regulations, Securities law '33, etc, puts the onus on not misleading investors, not establishing intent. Its slam dunk stuff, its why 1110 people were prosecuted for the S 'n' L scandal, why Enron and Arthur Anderson got reamed, etc. Lack of prosecution is a lack of prosecutorial will and balls, never forget that.
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# ¿ May 9, 2014 20:24 |
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# ¿ May 22, 2024 17:32 |
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Radish posted:
AFAIK, its not one individual's choice here. You have a noxious combination of factors, lack of skilled and knowledgeable prosecutors and staff (versus some of the best law firms and legal maniacs known to have ever been birthed out of a noxious money pit), an unmatched economic crisis throwing raining down hellfire and promises of immediate doom, centralized bureacractic mandates and institionalized fear (from the withering attacks on prosecutorial discretion post Enron, pre Recession by politicos, bureacrats, and the media), the unreleting avalanche that is modern day securities litigation (I mean, discovery itself takes years these days, diving into literally millions and millions of docs in harddrives and the like, not even including the level of specialization and deep expertise to decipher a trading culture whose murky nature and impossible to understand mechanics was seen as a virtue). But it comes to a cultural lack of will and a fear of possible consequences by most everyone (including regualar joes, afraid of government overreach), something only remedied (hopefully) when this all happens yet again.
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# ¿ May 9, 2014 21:19 |
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Kiwi Ghost Chips posted:The M part of MBS didn't come out of thin air. Syntethics are bets on whether actual securitized mortgages are going to do well or not (or price within a certain range or not). Its not something you want to call solid, if I were you.
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# ¿ May 9, 2014 21:23 |
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Jagchosis posted:This is true of some civil violations, criminal penalties do require "willful" violation though, or conspiracy, etc, so whatever man. To nail the fatcats the government would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the fatcats knew that the asset backed securities were complete garbage, and were actually involved in it. Things like the AAA credit ratings from "independent" agencies, presumably shielding themselves from liability by limiting actual involvement and knowledge to low and mid-level thugs (see, Levin's "lovely Deal" hearings), as Mafia leaders did in the past. The government has been trying to nail Steven A. Cohen for 10 years for basically building a fortune entirely from insider trading, and have failed to get a strong enough case to prosecute him even though they (a) loving hate him and (b) 11 or so of his staff have been sentenced to prison. I don't think we're necessarily arguing different points here. As underwriters (mostly done by investment banks and the like, who also tend to put these assets together into mortgage pools, to be divied up by a trustee and sold to some poor fools), the fact they signed on to and said these deals were actually good counts as willfully misleading investors, not necessitating the discovery of intent. Which goes along with the '33 act, "or any person who willfully, in a registration statement filed under this subchapter, makes any untrue statement of a material fact or omits to state any material fact required to be stated". This is what the government has tried to do in going after these guys so far, though unfortunately with no luck so far. That doesn't necessarily mean that should hold in the future, considering the blatant nature of the evidence that has leaked to the public about the malicious nature of how some of these bankers worked. Look at the Federal Crisis Inquiry Commision, fraud was used more than a hundred times in the report. I'd recommend reading this article by an actual federal judge on the matter: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/jan/09/financial-crisis-why-no-executive-prosecutions/
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# ¿ May 10, 2014 06:42 |
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Oh and the most right wing thing I've done I suppose was earnestly and childlishly (because I was 13) believe in trade deals and open markets and Clinton WTO deals as the answer to the world's problems. The Friedman Unit....was me.
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# ¿ May 10, 2014 06:56 |
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At this point I think a separation of threads for people who want to read about politics and those who want to talk about themselves is called for. Anyway, political stories: Surprise, surprise, Rand Paul walks back his comments about Republicans, you know, not stopping black people from voting. quote:“In the course of that discussion, he reiterated a point he has made before that while there may be some instances of voter fraud, it should not be a defining issue of the Republican Party, as it is an issue that is perhaps perceived in a way it is not intended,” Stafford said in a statement Monday. “In terms of the specifics of voter ID laws, Senator Paul believes it's up to each state to decide that type of issue.” http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/05/rand-paul-was-right-about-gop-vote-suppression.html Tea party favorite in Nebraska set to win. quote:Conservatives are poised to declare victory on Tuesday in Nebraska, where their preferred Senate candidate, Benjamin E. Sasse, is well positioned to win the Republican nomination in a race that the Tea Party has made a priority in a year that so far has favored the establishment. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/us/politics/conservative-pick-set-to-win-gop-primary-in-nebraska.html?_r=0 How this is a symptom of a breakdown between national and local Tea Party groups quote:Ever since, Nebraska’s Tea Party members have been battling national Tea Party donor groups. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/13/us/politics/tea-party-activists-see-own-groups-among-washington-adversaries.html
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# ¿ May 13, 2014 21:14 |
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NY Magazine has been putting out great polital stories for years now, yes, in large part to Chait, but they've been pretty on point for the ACA, finance, the election, etc. Its worth bookmarking.
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# ¿ May 13, 2014 21:27 |
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Ben Sasse wins the Nebraska primaryquote:Republican Ben Sasse comfortably won his party's nomination for U.S. Senate in Nebraska Tuesday, handing the national tea party groups that backed him a much-needed victory headed into the heart of a congressional primary season offering few opportunities for success. Also of note quote:GOP attention now shifts to next Tuesday, a day that has long been circled on Republican calendars because of the number of contested primaries being held. Tea party candidates face an uphill climb that day. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/05/13/tea-party-backed-ben-sasse-wins-nebraska-primary-for-u-s-senate/
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# ¿ May 14, 2014 15:01 |
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Stultus Maximus posted:
Living in a lily white place growing up, my little brother's friend was shocked to see his cut hand one time. He was told that black people bled blue....so there's that...
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# ¿ May 14, 2014 15:36 |
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zoux posted:So all the non red states here then: Wait, NY is open carry?! EDIT: Or is green open carry? This thing is more confusing than Dadaism. Shageletic fucked around with this message at 14:31 on May 17, 2014 |
# ¿ May 17, 2014 14:28 |
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What have the Koch brothers been up to lately you might be asking. The answer is nothing good.quote:Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group supported by the Koch brothers, has launched an effort to torpedo a proposed settlement in the Detroit bankruptcy case, potentially complicating chances for completing the deal just as its prospects seemed to be improving. quote:Ten-year-old Americans for Prosperity, which plans to spend at least $125 million nationally helping conservatives in the midterm elections, is becoming more active in state politics. Its willingness to spend millions for advertising has made it a powerful player in political contests. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/koch-brothers-group-fighting-detroit-bankruptcy-deal Which then gives me the excuse to post this article, showing how Koch money trickles down to municipalities quote:The Tennessee Senate passed a bill last week that, if approved, would broadly ban mass transit projects in the region, an anti-transit effort that’s gotten some help in the state from Charles and David Koch. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/01/3421088/koch-brothers-tennessee/
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# ¿ May 20, 2014 20:27 |
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Tempest_56 posted:This actually came up in my office the other day - has the US ever gone nation-building overseas and not have it be a flop? The last time I could come up with was rebuilding Japan/Germany, and that seems only questionably being the US's doing. Catching up with the thread, but this caught my eye. Grenada. They even have a day for it. Cue someone shooting me down (over the skies of Grenada).
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# ¿ May 28, 2014 16:48 |
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Joementum posted:The US invaded Grenada specifically to stop nation building. It delayed the opening of the airport by about six months. I thought the Americans invaded to overthrow a military dictatorship staging a coup? Which is just odd enough to leave me open to changing my mind.
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# ¿ May 28, 2014 17:58 |
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Joementum posted:Which was overthrowing the previous military coup. The US involvement came because the government hired some Cuban construction workers to build the airport runway, which might have led to full Communism, and because Reagan needed to invade somewhere so he could look strong after the Beirut bombing. The airport contract was given to various European companies following the invasion. And democractic elections happened in 1984, after a post invasion government? I'm not trying to argue here, but it wasn't like the pre-coup military leaders held onto power afterwards.
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# ¿ May 28, 2014 20:31 |
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I have to say I'm glad to see something like this happen. We might all be traumatized by the conservative false flag of "streamlining" government, but years, decades, and centuries has left very useless, and sometimes very weird, laws and regulations percolating in the politosphere. This fantastic article on what the author terms "kludges", touches on it, and its definitely worth a read. It effectively shows how the layering of laws and subsequent complexity aids in obstifucation and corruption.
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# ¿ May 30, 2014 21:37 |
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Fried Chicken posted:No it isn't. This goes against my understanding of current laws and regulations regarding the power of shareholders to regulate trustees and CEO's. Yes, there has been a trend in the last three decades of "shareholders' rights", a philosophy emphasizing a short rate of return over long term profits bemoaned by the likes of Buffet and staid mutual funds and the like. But attempts to have shareholders have some say in executive compensation, golden parachutes, more direct accountability for CEO's, chairmen, and board of trustees for corporations, among other measures to assert more control, have consistently failed. Day to day and even long term strategies and tactics are decided in the executive boardroom, not annual or semi-annual shareholder concaves.
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# ¿ Jun 3, 2014 18:34 |
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GreyjoyBastard posted:This is a Good Post. God bless Florida. Don't y'all have the worst rates for pedestrian hit and runs, drunk driving deaths, and a whole heap of other awful automobile benchmarks? Doesn't seem like anyone has too good a handle on traffic over there.
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# ¿ Jun 4, 2014 19:17 |
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And we should go after white people due to how Mormons voted. So stupid.
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# ¿ Jun 4, 2014 19:20 |
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Paul MaudDib posted:So which demographic cross-tabs is it OK to make connections with voting trends over? Uh I can't believe I have to say this but you can't subscribe political views on people just based on their skin color. Yes, on one vote, at one time, after the strong mobilization by conservative evangelical Black churches, you have a majority voting for something regressive. But why is it so easy to say that black people as a whole are homophobic or anti-gay, but when you have white people overwhelmingly voting for regressive or plutocratic candidates (coughRomneycough), people just shrug and call out the regressive and discrete portions of those who voted? When you start ascribing political viewpoints to me just because people with my shade of skin vote a certain way, do you see where that ends up? Hint: nowhere good.
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# ¿ Jun 5, 2014 14:28 |
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# ¿ May 22, 2024 17:32 |
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Paul MaudDib posted:I'm not "ascribing political views" to anyone, they ascribe those political views to themselves when they vote (and answer exit polls). If we're not allowed to look at the way groups of people vote, we might as well throw out the entire field of polling, because that's all that field does. I'm going to be as delicate as I can here. You have a bigoted view of black people. I shouldn't have to defend myself because people whose only characteristic I share with is a measure of melanin voted a certain way. You don't see a black person, you see a representative of black people. And that is a cudgel that anyone familiar with history and any sort of empathy should stay well clear of.
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# ¿ Jun 6, 2014 00:42 |