wall street's role in the financial crisis ...

Heist of the century: Wall Street's role in the financial crisis

Wall Street bankers could have averted the global financial crisis, so why didn't they? In this exclusive extract from his book Inside Job, Charles Ferguson argues that they should be prosecuted

Charles Ferguson
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 May 2012 20.00 BST

"...It is no exaggeration to say that since the 1980s, much of the global financial sector has become criminalised, creating an industry culture that tolerates or even encourages systematic fraud. The behaviour that caused the mortgage bubble and financial crisis of 2008 was a natural outcome and continuation of this pattern, rather than some kind of economic accident.

This behaviour is criminal. We are talking about deliberate concealment of financial transactions that aided terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation and large-scale tax evasion; assisting in major financial frauds and in concealment of criminal assets; and committing frauds that substantially worsened the worst financial bubbles and crises since the Depression.

And yet none of this conduct has been punished in any significant way."

The full read is at http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/20/wall-street-role-financial-crisis

My comments:
Seems the word about Wall Street and its banksters is getting out and becoming more mainstream, which of course The Guardian very much is.

The current JPMorgan disaster - of which I suspect we have just seen the tip of the iceberg - will keep the pressure on.

By the way, how many folks listened to the numerous comments on CNBC telling us that the underwriters to the float were there in the market bidding to prevent Facebook falling below the US$38.00 issue price on its poor opening day. Not once did I hear anyone suggest that this was blatant share price manipulation. Seems they take it for granted - except for gold - which of course is not manipulated/suppressed.

Pathetic!