Many of Charles H. Keating's complex financial crimes were never heralded and now he has been released from prison on a technicality. The activities of Keating and Michael Milken should have warned Congress of the dangers of banking deregulation. Unfortunately, this may not be the case.
Rejoice, the housing market is back. Sandy Weill just picked up a humdinger of a wine vineyard estate in Sonoma for a record $31 million, so the foreclosure crisis - which the former CEO of Citigroup did so much to create when he successfully lobbied then- President Bill Clinton to sign off on radical deregulation of the banking industry - must be over. After all, Weill wasn't desperate for shelter, already being in possession of a 14-acre estate in uber-exclusive Greenwich, Conn., and a 120-acre spread in New York state's Adirondacks. Let's also not forget the penthouse that he bought for $42.4 million in New York City in 2007 as the banking collapse he helped engineer was fast developing. Not too shabby for a guy who ran Citigroup into the ground by trafficking in what proved to be to...
YET another wealthy private customer of the Swiss-based banking conglomerate UBS has admitted to criminal fraud in a growing parade of perp walks that could extend into the thousands. It is a case that threatens to ensnare former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who is vice chairman of UBS' investment banking business. Given the widespread involvement of UBS in what the Justice Department alleges were systematic efforts to violate U.S. tax laws, it must be asked: Did Gramm as a top executive have no inkling about what was going on? Perhaps, but for Gramm this has to be a moment that at the very least tests his ideological commitment to the radical deregulation of banking, which he championed during his 24 years in Congress.
Now the Clinton campaign shouts about "Nafta-Gate," pointing to a supposed conversation between a chief [Barack Obama] economic advisor and Canadian officials, to assure the Canadians that Obama's opposition to NAFTA was political posturing. The media made a big deal about it. But it was Bill Clinton who actually passed the legislation at stake (along with the disaster we know as welfare reform and deregulation of banking that contributed to the current mortgage meltdown). The Obama campaign should reveal what happened with the Canadians. But it will likely pale in comparison to the Clintonian backroom escapades during their tenure. Senator Clinton has also raised the Rezko land deal. At worst it looks as if Obama bought a portion of a vacant lot next door to his home from a dubious cha...
Chase Bank's recent litany of suspect practices exposes the dark side of banking deregulation. A few items from their recent corporate history are listed.
In 2007 [John McCain] told the Boston Globe, "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should." He has acknowledged that economics is not his strong suit. So he turned to people he has called "real strong economic minds"-people like Phil Gramm-for advice. Gramm was McCain's campaign co-chair and top economic adviser until he was forced to resign for his "this is a mental recession" and "we've become a nation of whiners" remarks. Gramm, the former Texas senator who pushed banking deregulation as chair of the Senate Banking Committee and then left for (surprise!) a top banking job, engineered the deregulated system that has fostered much of our current banking/housing meltdown. Deregulation and corporate consolidation also produced the savings and loan debacle,...
Reversal on deregulation FOOD, OIL RIGS, AIRPLANES, the environment and banking. Should we care about any of these? Do you eat eggs tainted with salmonella? Do you care if oil rigs pollute our waters?
One week ago on the page next door, occasional Tribune columnist and political denizen Terry Schlemeier wrote an excellent treatise on the history of banking regulation and deregulation in the United States. If you missed this piece of work, click here. Schlemeier has the great advantage of hindsight, but so do our esteemed politicians in any given age, who seem irresistibly disposed to ignore it. Schlemeier revisits the tumultuous economic period between 1929 and 1954, when finally the stock market regained the value it had at the beginning of the Great Depression. In answer to the trouble, a series of banking regulations was installed. Operating under these directions, the economy was stable and Americans prospered.
A generation ago, you couldn't find "zero-down" mortgages or car payments that devoured half of a person's disposable income. But that was before the late 1970s, when deregulation of the banking industry resulted in easy credit and high-interest-rate loans.
Re: "Don't change a thing," Sept. 23. The writer sounds very much like a homophobic, right wing, ultra-conservative, Christian fundamentalist, and not so clear on what it means to be a patriot. The belief that "Obama and the leftist Democrats don't love the United States and they are not patriotic" seems pretty extreme far right to me. I suppose all the Democratic men and women who have fought and died for this country weren't very patriotic. I take offense to that. Hands-off government seems to have not worked real well. With the deregulation of banking and Wall Street (ie: Big Business) the economy is staggering, not reeling. Staggering! The letter writer needs to pull his head out of the sand and realize the sad state of this union as it is today. If we don't make changes very soon w...
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