Now you liberals please pay attention to this. This is what caused the financial crisis. It’s the story of how Barack Obama protected his pals on Wall St and stiffed the American people.
On Monday the “Justice” Department proudly announced a settlement with Goldman Sachs for its role in contributing to the financial crisis:
“Today’s settlement is another example of the department’s resolve to hold accountable those whose illegal conduct resulted in the financial crisis of 2008,” Benjamin C. Mizer, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement.
So exactly who was held accountable? Answer: investors. Those who actually committed the misdeeds- the obama supporters and those who paid Hillary those ridiculously exorbitant speaking fess- skated. No one is going to jail.
Goldman screwed investors and it knew all along what it was doing:
Goldman bought loans from mortgage underwriters such as subprime giant Countrywide Financial and repackaged them as supposedly safe securities — even though it knew many of the underlying loans were lousy, according to a statement of fact released along with the settlement.
And they were oh so smug about it:
“If they only knew,” Goldman’s head of due diligence wrote in a 2006 e-mail.
Yes, it’s the same Goldman Sachs that pays Hillary Clinton boatloads of cash. It’s not hard to imagine her cackling about how Goldman bankers escaped prosecution during one of those highly paid gigs.
It’s unbelievable. This was the house of cards that helped crash the economy. Way back in 2012 Obama made this covenant with America:
“I am asking my Attorney General to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorneys general to expand our investigations into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.”
“…hold accountable those who broke the law…” Sounds serious, doesn’t it? The Obama administration didn’t take it seriously. Take your pick:
The Guardian
Eric Holder didn’t send a single banker to jail for the mortgage crisis. Is that justice?
Yet, despite the Justice Department’s claims to the contrary, not one major executive has been sent to jail for their role in the crisis.
The department has put real housewives in jail for mortgage fraud, but not real bankers, saving their firepower for people who manage to defraud banks, not for banks who manage to defraud people.
The Atlantic
How Wall Street’s Bankers Stayed Out of Jail
Holder, meanwhile, along with his old colleague Lanny Breuer, has returned to the white-shoe law firm that he left in order to join the Justice Department—Covington & Burling, which counts among its clients Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. (The firm reportedly kept his office for him.) The sums Holder exacted from Wall Street banks earned him plenty of praise in the media. But without holding real people on Wall Street accountable for their wrongdoing in the years leading up to the financial crisis, the message that their behavior was unacceptable goes undelivered. Instead a very different message is being sent: for financiers, justice is just a check someone else has to write.
Forbes
Why DOJ Deemed Bank Execs Too Big To Jail
Rolling Stone
Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?
Business Insider
The Real Story Of How ‘Untouchable’ Wall Street Execs Avoided Prosecution
Worst of all, Obama justice officials both shielded and feted these Wall Street oligarchs (who, just by the way, overwhelmingly supported Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign) as they simultaneously prosecuted and imprisoned powerless Americans for far more trivial transgressions.
As Harvard law professor Larry Lessig put it two weeks ago when expressing anger over the DOJ’s persecution of Aaron Swartz: “we live in a world where the architects of the financial crisis regularly dine at the White House.” (Indeed, as “The Untouchables” put it: While no senior Wall Street executives have been prosecuted, “many small mortgage brokers, loan appraisers and even home buyers” have been).
Thus, in part, Holder and Obama refused to jail those who defrauded investors so that Holder would not jeopardize his future wealth. The big banks were assessed penalties but none of that comes from their own pockets. Once again, investors pay the freight. There is absolutely no personal accountability.
But Geez Louise, if you have an overdue library book…
Usually if you have an overdue library book — you’ll get a fine. But one Wisconsin woman got jail time!
30-year-old Tabitha Oost of Shawano won’t soon forget her recent visit to Green Bay.
Last month, the married mother of two crashed her car on Mason Street. She was rushed to the hospital.
“The air bags went off. I ended up having damage to my scalp, my forehead and my left eye,” Oost said.
While at the hospital, Oost saw a doctor — and a Green Bay police officer.
“I was still bleeding from my head. I was still on the stretcher when an officer came in to check if I was okay, how I was doing,” Oost said.
The doctor had good news. She would be released.
The police officer had some bad news.
“He told me that I had a warrant for my arrest for Shawano County due to overdue library books,” Oost said.
Back in 2011, Oost had checked out a bunch of items from the Shawano library — and never returned them.
$499 worth of stolen goods!
And in Texas
A Texas man who was arrested for failing to return an overdue library book ignited an online flurry of snarky comments and headlines about the Lone Star State extending its tough-on-crime bravado to books. But such cases aren’t unheard of, and many communities faced with shrinking budgets and rising costs have ordinances calling for fines or even arrest warrants when library property isn’t returned.
The Obama administration lesson here is clear. Steal a dollar and you’re a thief. Steal billions and you’re immune from prosecution.
The decision to protect banks instead of homeowners should be laid at the feet of the president and his administration, not one man in the Justice Department. But Holder certainly carried out the policy, even if he didn’t devise it.
The Atlantic again:
After the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s, more than 1,000 bankers were jailed.
(That would be “under Republican administrations”)
Overdue library books can get you arrested, but under this wretched and corrupt administration but guilty bankers are too big to jail.
Lastly- we are speaking of derivatives here and it was Bill Clinton who opted for deregulation of derivatives and put all of this in motion.
H/T Greta
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.