In Case You Missed This... And You Should Not... 'Wall Street Wins Again' - Salon
I Am So Fucking Tired Of Being Duped, Misled, Deceived, And Lied To, By New York And Washington, D.C.***************************************************************
Wall Street wins again
The secret truth: There never was a “task force” dedicated to ferreting out mortgage fraud
BY DAVID DAYEN - Salon
WEDNESDAY, FEB 13, 2013 09:26 AM PST
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon (Credit: Reuters/Yuri Gripas)
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A year ago, President Obama gestured toward the first lady’s box at the State of the Union address at Eric Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York. Schneiderman had just agreed to co-chair the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities working group, an initiative between state and federal law enforcement officials and bank regulators, designed to investigate and prosecute fraudulent Wall Street activity that led to both the creation of the housing bubble and its collapse. In exchange, Schneiderman dropped his objections to a settlement over some of the banks’ fraudulent post-crash activity, particularly around fraud in foreclosure processing.
Recent profiles of this event have called last night’s State of the Union the “anniversary” of the formation of the working group. But you can’t really have an anniversary of something that never existed in the first place. There never was a Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities working group, never a so-called task force dedicated to ferreting out Wall Street fraud — the deceptive origination of mortgage loans, sale of worthless mortgage-backed securities for huge sums, and subsequent unloading of toxic debt to unsuspecting buyers. The working group fails to exist as a tangible entity to this day. What does exist is the same years-old Financial Fraud Enforcement Group that serves as a conduit for press releases about investigative actions already in progress.
Schneiderman’s “task force” (a generous appellation) was merely a politically motivated shell organization grafted onto that public relations strategy. This was evident almost from the moment of the announcement, but the coalition of self-proclaimed bank accountability advocates, who had backed the administration into a corner over the lack of prosecutions, decided to align with Schneiderman and his kabuki task force, losing whatever leverage they may have had. If those same groups who feel “betrayed” and “lied to” had stayed on the outside and shamed those in power into action, we would probably have more accountability today.
Within a few months of the State of the Union announcement, a hearing in the House Financial Services Committee confirmed the essentially invisible nature of the task force. Maxine Waters, then a senior member of the committee and now the Democratic ranking member, asked Robert Khuzami, then the head of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission, whether the entity had sufficient resources to investigate. Khuzami replied that the agencies involved – the SEC, the New York AG’s office and the Department of Justice – were supplying the resources. No new dollars were dedicated to the effort. When Waters asked when the task force would hire an executive director, Khuzami said they hired a “coordinator” to facilitate inter-agency activity. Specifically, he uttered this incriminating evidence: “We hired a coordinator, but most of the investigative work being done here is not really being done by a staff that belongs to the task force, it’s being done by the individual investigative groups that make up the task force.”
This is the key point. There are no offices, no phones and no staff dedicated to the non-task force. Two of the five co-chairs have left government. What “investigators” there are from the task force are nothing more than liaisons to the independent agencies doing their own independent investigations. In the rare event that these agencies file an actual lawsuit or enforcement action, the un-task force merely puts out a statement taking credit for it. Take a look at this in action at the website for the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, the federal umbrella group “investigating” financial fraud. It’s little more than a press release factory, and no indictment, conviction or settlement is too small. The site takes credit for cracking down on Ponzi schemes, insider trading, tax evasion, racketeering, violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act (!) and a host of other crimes that have precisely nothing to do with the financial crisis. To call this a publicity stunt is an insult to publicity stunts.
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More: http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/wall_street_wins_again/
And we were so happy at the time: http://www.google.com/search?q=eric+schneiderman&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com
= new reply since forum marked as read
He has self-identified as a Blue Dog Democrat. Some have called him an Eisenhower Republican. (I'd almost agree with that, but he is smarter than Eisenhower) There are some who insist he is the most progressive since FDR. It's like the man has multiple personalities. As long as money controls campaigns we are going to have to live with this reality. Obama's much envied donor list was only about 4 million people...so I don't expect any improvement soon. Out of almost 208 million eligible voters, only 150 million registered to vote. Out of 150 million about 72 million identify as Democrats...and only 4 million could bring themselves to contribute. People get the government they pay for...unless you were a republican billionaire in 2012. 
I may have been confused, but what I was trying to get at was that unless we have serious campaign reform, like publicly funded campaigns and making Wall Streets involment illegal, it doesn't matter how much money we contribute as individuals. I hope I haven't confused things 
but I don't think we need to sit around and wait for it. In fact if we do, it may never arrive. That's why I donate what I can. If everyone just did that it would make a difference, slowly but surely.
Why don't Retail Businesses want that ???
It's really not that difficult to understand. Wall St screwed everyone, not least of all the retailers and it goes back decades. I'll try to explain. In 2009 HBO ran a documentary "Schmattas: Rags to Riches to Rags" It chronicled the NYC garment industry, which was once a thriving force to be reckoned with. They interviewed the owner of Russ Togs, before it went public. Russ Togs was the first manufacturer to come out with 'coordinated separates' which meant you could buy 4/5 garments and have 3 or 4 different outfits. I loved Russ Togs... In any case, like most successful businesses, when it came time to consider further expansion the Wall Streeters convinced them to "go public" with tales of huge IPOs and vast riches. So they went public and the owners went from wealthy to filthy rich. Okay. But eventually the investors want a healthy return on their money as well and the easiest way to squeeze out profits is to squeeze labor. In 1969, 95% of all clothing worn by Americans was manufactured by Americans, by 2009 that was down to 5% and still shrinking. But things got worse, eventually Russ Togs filed for bankruptcy in 1991. A downturn in retail that the company couldn't handle because it was always feeding the investor maw and didn't have the funds needed to plow into the business.
That story has been written about 1000s of companies, some end up loaded down with debt from private equity takeovers, only to end up in bankruptcy anyhow. Retailers are in the same bind. Investors always want dividends, ROI. Business schools, for 3 decades, have been preaching/teaching that investor equity is the be all and end of of any business. The retailers are between the rock of investors wanting ROI and shoppers wanting the best prices...and the the hard place of wages.
I don't see anyone in the wings with the political will nor the political power to change the basic dynamics of capitalism....and that's what t will take. That or a catastrophic collapse that makes this last one look like a picnic, or a revolution. 
Nah...you've only seen me at my best.
So obnoxious and disgusting!
From OP Link.
Maxine Waters is awesome. I adore her. I didn't get to watch Warrens grilling.
you would have posted that.
What you said.
I remember being so impressed by Schneiderman and now it appears he is no better than the rest. wow
How fucking sad.....more lies to placate the peons. 
