It was
an artful if devastating performance. In just seven minutes,
Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts signaled the
arrival of what appears destined to be a powerful force
on Capitol Hill. At the influential Banking Committee,
Senator Warren exposed profound weaknesses with current
market conduct and prudential regulation paradigms. She did
so by focusing on two apparently simple but interlinked (and
exceptionally complex) questions associated with the
governance of major financial firms: can or should too
complex institutions be broken up?
First,
she asked, when was the last time a major Wall Street bank
was successfully litigated against to a conclusion?
Gary Edwards on 13 May 11Matt Taibbi continues to track the dusty trail of Banksters and criminal politicos. What an amazing story! intro: They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it. Thanks to an extraordinary investigative effort by a Senate subcommittee that unilaterally decided to take up the burden the criminal justice system has repeatedly refused to shoulder, we now know exactly what Goldman Sachs executives like Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Sparks lied about. We know exactly how they and other top Goldman executives, including David Viniar and Thomas Montag, defrauded their clients. America has been waiting for a case to bring against Wall Street. Here it is, and the evidence has been gift-wrapped and left at the doorstep of federal prosecutors, evidence that doesn't leave much doubt: Goldman Sachs should stand trial.
