Still Banking on Fraud

William K. Black | Wednesday 26 January 2011

A truly amazing thing has happened in banking. After the worst financial crisis in 75 years sparked the “Great Recession,” we have

• Failed to identify the real causes of the crisis
• Failed to fix the defects that caused the crisis
• Failed to hold the CEOs, professionals, and anti-regulators who caused the crisis accountable—even when they committed fraud
• Bailed out the largest and worst financial firms with massive public funds
• Covered up banking losses and failures—impairing any economic recovery
• Degraded our integrity and made the banking system even more encouraging of fraud
• Refused to follow policies that have proved extremely successful in past crises
• Made the systemically dangerous megabanks even more dangerous
• Made our financial system even more parasitic, harming the real economy

And pronounced this travesty a brilliant success.