So Obama says the banks didn't actually break any laws?

[Xicano]

Advance this audio link and play from 51:10 - talks about fraudulently induced loans, fraudulent credit default swaps and the negative bets the fraudsters made against the financial institutions they sold those fraudulent credit default swaps to.

http://archives.kpfa.org/data/20101229-Wed1300.mp3

[aquart]

1. Is that what Geithner and Holder told him?

[vets74]

37. COMMON LAW FRAUD remains local jurisdiction. Only use of mail or equivalents escalates to Federal.

So likely these perps were able, quite easily, to avoid the obvious/hammer-and-nails actions that define breaking Federal law. That goes for banking regulations, SEC directives, US Code, et.al. (For mail fraud, see below.)

The Manhattan prosecutors office is what matters.

Simply, USAO would have to take over the Manhattan prosecutors office. There is precedent. It has happened. Don't hold your breath.

Manhattan stopped prosecuting institutional crime decades a go. In 2008-2009 they stopped effectively prosecuting the Wall Street top level when they allowed George Anderson to serve 16 days and pay a $350 fine for his admitted DUI hit-and-run killing of Florence Cioffi (January 25, 2008). For this top level of income and wealth, that office is utterly corrupt.

If you want to know about Summers, research google with summers-harvard-goldman-sachs. For Geithner, he opined that his job running the NY Fed was not a regulatory job. By law, in fact, that's the core tasking. Self-serving for a blind spot ??? -- that's generous.

Of course, Treasury could force retribution on the individuals who carried out the Credit Default Swap "Big Short" frauds -- all it took was one vampire squid email to go to Jersey or Connecticut to establish the mail fraud application.

Geithner wouldn't want to see/hear/say anything/do anything about that....

[aquart]

42. They sold those mortgages across state lines.

It damn well is a federal offense.

[ClarkUSA]

2. When did he say that? Quote? There are many false narratives being propagated on a daily basis.

[PETRUS]

8. Press conference in the last couple of weeks.

I think he was responding to a question from Jake Tapper.

[Tx4obama]

14. See comment #13. n/t

[PETRUS]

17. Thanks, I was just going from memory. nt

[dkf]

3. Who is this person and what are their credentials?

Is that you perhaps?

[Xicano]

5. That would be Bonnie Faulkner of KPFA Berkeley, CA (Pacifica Radio) interviewing Max Keiser

n/t

[Gamow]

4. I'm less concerned about the laws they broke, more concerned about the laws they wrote

and the ones they might yet write.

[PETRUS]

10. That's it! +1

Although it wouldn't hurt to start by enforcing the present laws.

[Scuba]

32. +1

[DirkGently]

40. Bingo. Or repealed. Or blocked. Or rendered toothless.

[girl_interrupted]

6. I know our NYAttorney General EricSchneiderman feels they did

and has refused go along with a tepid settlement offer being pushed by the White House and its attorneys general, which would let the banks that destroyed so many families and communities off the hook for a mere $20 billion. With 14.6 million homeowners owing $753 billion more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, how far does the administration think $20 billion would go? Funny you can't keep up with your mortage payments, you get foreclosed, a bank can't and it gets a bailout. Hard to believe when Obama says he is going after Wall Street.

[phleshdef]

7. He said a lot of them didn't break any laws. He didn't say that none of them did.

And he is correct. Although some of these financial institutions have employees and CEOs that engaged in some illegal behavior, a lot of the problems were because people were allowed to engage in practices that they shouldn't have been allowed to engage in. You can't send someone to jail for doing something that SHOULD have been illegal.

[dkf]

9. Or the people that committed the crimes were front line employees.

Not the higher ups.

Proving crimes by CEOs requires that it was defacto company policy to add fradulent information or encourage fraud on the part of people taking out the mortgages.

[a simple pattern]

12. You sound a little worried.

Don't worry, nobody's going to take your fortune away. Or throw you in the jail.

[dkf]

22. Worried? No I'm just a little less than patient with some of the assertions made.

[tama]

25. Should not be difficult

In the latest Max Keiser vid a guy is interviewed who is studying how whistle-blowers in banks were treated. By rule those who did their job and blew whistle on fraudulent actions got harassed and sacked.

[girl_interrupted]

11. His actions speak louder than words unfortunately

By trying to settle with the banks, Obama is deliberately putting heat on state attorneys to just settle, and not investigate these banks, and that's something state attorneys want to do. To say some, but not all, without an investigation, is baloney. Investigations should be allowed to proceed and if needed prosecutions should follow. But trying to hush everything up, settle, and not investigate, is dishonest.

[pacalo]

18. I agree. Focus on who writes these laws.

And that includes the corporations who made their corruption legal by helping to write the laws. That in itself should be against the law.

[girl gone mad]

19. Every systemically dangerous institution broke laws.

Fraud is against the law.

[Tx4obama]

13. That is NOT what Obama said. The OP should have provided the actual quote. Quote below

SNIP

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first, on the issue of — on the issue of prosecutions on Wall Street, one of the biggest problems about the collapse of Lehman’s and the subsequent financial crisis and the whole subprime lending fiasco is that a lot of that stuff wasn’t necessarily illegal.

SNIP

http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/obama-thinks-wall-street-didnt-break-the-law/

---

Edited to add: Obama did NOT say that none of it was illegal. Reading comprehension is our friend :)

[PETRUS]

16. That's true.

Both in terms of what he said and in terms of the facts. Maybe the people and their representatives should write the laws, and not the lobbyists and think tanks of the one percent.

Oh, and the other "problem" - apart from much of the activity being legal - is the destruction of the evidence collected by the SEC.

[girl gone mad]

20. But that statement is not true..

and it misrepresents the reality of what was going on behind the scenes at these banks before and during the crisis.

[coalition_unwilling]

23. Talk about how many angels can dance on the head of a friggin pin. You

stretch ingenuity to its limits and could give the Jesuits a run for their equivocating money. Obama implied that too much of it was simply immoral and not illegal and that, as a result, there would be no investigations or prosecutions.

But you keep spinning away mightily, as OWS leaves you and yours in the dustbin of history.

[Tx4obama]

26. Why are you making things up ?

President Obama did NOT say and he did NOT imply that there would be no investigations or prosecutions.

Read what he actually said!

" ... one of the biggest problems about the collapse of Lehman’s and the subsequent financial crisis and the whole subprime lending fiasco is that a lot of that stuff wasn’t necessarily illegal."


He is talking about ONE OF THE PROBLEMS - he did not say there that wouldn't be investigations or prosecutions.

There most likely will be investigations and prosecutions, but it will be MORE difficult to find and to prosecute since a lot of what was done was done legally an or via loopholes. Just means that the investigations will take longer to find the illegal stuff.

[eomer]

27. He chose to talk about things not to prosecute.

He very well could have spoken about things he believes were illegal and that should be and would be prosecuted. He could have described them and talked about how important it is to go after them. He didn't. And the reason he didn't is that he and his Attorney General have shown little interest in pursuing investigations and prosecutions. They obviously prefer to put back the status quo and sweep any illegal activity under the rug, since it was committed by people who funded his campaign.

Here is a more complete excerpt of the questions and answers:

TAPPER: Thank you, Mr. President. Just to follow up on Jackie’s question, one of the reasons why so many of the people at the Occupy Wall Street protests are so angry is because, as you say, so many people on Wall Street did not follow the rules.

But your administration hasn’t really been very aggressive in prosecuting. In fact, I don’t think any Wall Street executives have gone to jail despite the rampant corruption and malfeasance that did take place. So I was wondering if you’d comment on that.

And then, just as a separate question, as you’re watching the Solyndra and Fast and Furious controversies play out, I’m wondering if it gives you any pause about any of the decision-making going on in your administration, some of the emails the Democrats put out indicating that people at the Office of Management and Budget were concerned about the Department of Energy, some of the emails going on — and with the attorney general saying he didn’t know about the details of Fast and Furious. Are you worried at all about how this is — how your administration is running?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first, on the issue of — on the issue of prosecutions on Wall Street, one of the biggest problems about the collapse of Lehman’s and the subsequent financial crisis and the whole subprime lending fiasco is that a lot of that stuff wasn’t necessarily illegal, it was just immoral or inappropriate or reckless. That’s exactly why we needed to pass Dodd-Frank, to prohibit some of these practices.
You know, the financial sector is very creative, and they are always looking for ways to make money. That’s their job. And if there are loopholes and rules that can be bent and arbitrage to be had, they will take advantage of it.
So you know, without commenting on particular prosecutions — obviously, that’s not my job; that’s the attorney general’s job – you know, I think part of people’s frustrations — part of my frustration was a lot of practices that should not have been allowed weren’t necessarily against the law, but they had a huge destructive impact. And that’s why it was important for us to put in place financial rules that protect the American people from reckless decision-making and irresponsible behavior.

--snip--

TAPPER: Are you satisfied with how aggressive your administration has been when it comes to prosecuting this? I know a lot of it was legal, but a lot of it was not -

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right, and — well, let me say this. The president can’t go around saying prosecute somebody. But as a general principle, if somebody is engaged in fraudulent actions, they need to be prosecuted. If they’ve violated laws on the books, they need to be prosecuted. And that’s the attorney general’s job. And I know that Attorney General Holder, U.S. attorneys all across the country — they take that job very seriously.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/wall-street-corruption-solyndra-and-fast-furious-todays-qs-for-o-1062011/

[coalition_unwilling]

39. You're begging the question: how in the world could Obama

know or opine that "a lot of the stuff wasn't necessarily illegal" without an investigation having been conducted? Unless, that is, he and his administration have made the ultimate outcome of any supposed investigations a foregone conclusion.

It's no longer enough for me and many like me to say "there most likely will be". We got suckered once (2008) and now all we want to hear is that there "is currently" (not "likely will be").

[Petrushka]

24. Without knowing how Obama, as a lawyer, would define "illegal", we can't know what "necessarily

illegal" IS . . . with or without a Black's Law Dictionary! Is it, perhaps, "unlawful"?

Of course, we all think we know what "necessarily" means. Right? Especially if we imagine
we understand what "a lot of that stuff" means.






:hide:

[Fumesucker]

28. Of course if a corporation does happen to break the law the law can always be retroactively changed.

You know, the way Obama voted to let the telecoms off the hook for spying on Americans with the FISA vote.

[piratefish08]

35. so he is implying that they know SOME was illegal, but still no arrests, prosecutions, etc.......

okay. that's much better.


gotta protect those campaign donors!!

[JVS]

15. Can we get them on aggravated panhandling for asking for a bailout?

[Bluenorthwest]

21. Obama does not even know right from wrong

Nt

[GoCubsGo]

34. He knows legal from illegal.

That was the point of the statement, not whether or not it was morally correct (i.e., right or wrong). Executions of prisoners are legal. It doesn't make them right.

[lunatica]

29. When murderers write the laws they won't be breaking the law either

when they kill someone. It's a stretch, but I'm trying to make a point.

[Evasporque]

30. Republicans passed laws that made their thievery legal...nt

[Scuba]

31. He also said Bradley Manning did break the law...

...when will he learn that he is NOT judge, jury and executioner?

[bigtree]

33. he never said that

here's the quote:


. . . on the issue of prosecutions on Wall Street, one of the biggest problems about the collapse of Lehmans and the subsequent financial crisis and the whole subprime lending fiasco is that a lot of that stuff wasn’t necessarily illegal, it was just immoral or inappropriate or reckless….

That's why the President embarked on a campaign to reform the laws regulating Wall Street.

[Marrah_G]

36. I think the only campaign he has embarked on is one for re-election

I no longer trust anything he says after all the lies. Boy who cried wolf and all the jazz.

[Nye Bevan]

38. I hate when DUers make up stuff that Obama never said, in order to make him look bad. (nt)

[meow2u3]

41. Mr. President, do you mean to tell me foreclosure fraud is not a crime?

Since when is forgery legal? When the banks decided that the law gets in the way?

Banks still fabricating documents in foreclosure fraud

http://financialservices.house.gov/Media/file/hearings/111/Levitin111810.pdf

:wtf: