A Conversation with Annie Navasky on Jailing Bankers for the Subprime Meltdown 2
Roosevelt’s Pecora commission investigation of the great Depression
Jailed 1000 bankers for investment fraud commission
Reagan during the S&L crisis launched an attack
That sent another thousand perps to jail with the help of William K Black*
Thanks to Clinton’s gutting of Glass Stiegel
And The Commodity Futures Modernization Act we see
An outright assault on our Democracy
And Bankers acting with flagrant impunity
Predatory lending –targeting the poor
Ninja loans signed on the hood of cars
Then diced and sliced and cut into small bits
And sold as triple A what was really dog shit.
For this to happen Bill Black* states out loud
Was the result of outright fraud
All this was in the Film The Big Short detailed
Including the fact that not one banker was ever jailed.
So Annie, you disagreed with me and stated
This happened to investors quite sophisticated
Who were given explicit caveats
About these transactions most complicated.
So I disagree with what you say—with dismay
And think the bankers should be jailed
Your brokerage House, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, I say
Has recently a huge fine been forced to pay.
No, Obama made a devil’s deal for Wall Street support
And Holder and the DOJ have found a way
With deferred prosecutions which cheapen the law
Sparing bankers from jail time … a glaring legal flaw.
No, the Bank pays a large but contextually trivial fine
Which spares the big boys any jail time
And establishes fraud as simply a business tool
Removed from any legal rule.
Clearly as long as Bankers avoid the perp walk
And are allowed impunity
These immoral practices proceed apace
And the financial system another meltdown will face.
Holder and Lynch have Wall Street connections
And Obama made major Wall Street concessions
Bernie could reform it easily in fact—
Appoint a real DOJ and bring William K Black* back.
Howard P. Charman, MD 5-7-2016
William K Black is a professor at the University of Missouri who assisted Ronald Reagan in prosecuting a thousand bankers for fraud during the Savings and Loan Crisis. He is the author of “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.” He and many other economists recently signed a letter backing Bernie Saunders’s economic programs. He discusses Control Fraud in a TED-talk UKKC. All of his talks are instructive—just google.