I’ll excerpt what I feel are key points of this editorial, but please read it in its entirety…
“Citibank sold a package of toxic mortgage-backed securities to unsuspecting customers… and, with the other hand… bet millions of dollars that they would go bust… [They]… settled the case without admitting or denying any wrongdoing.”
“In settling its fraud charges for $550 million last year, Goldman was accused by the S.E.C. of being the middleman in a similar deal… Last Thursday, the U.S. District Court judge overseeing the case demanded that the S.E.C. explain how such serious securities fraud could end with the defendant neither admitting nor denying wrongdoing.”
“Our financial industry has grown so large and rich it has corrupted our real institutions through political donations… Our Congress today is a forum for legalized bribery. One consumer group… calculates that the financial services industry… spent $2.3 billion on federal campaign contributions from 1990 to 2010, which was more than the health care, energy, defense, agriculture and transportation industries combined. Why are there 61 members on the House Committee on Financial Services? So many congressmen want to be in a position to sell votes to Wall Street.
