“While nearly a billion people go hungry, Goldman Sachs bankers are feeding their own bonuses by betting on the price of food. Financial speculation is fuelling food price spikes and Goldman Sachs is the No 1 culprit.” ~Christine Haigh, World Development Movement  Some will point to ever increasing food costs as their proof of inflation caused [...]

 “The fix is very simple repeal the Commodities Futures Modernization Act and suddenly this becomes like every other financial instrument.” ~Barry Ritholtz, CEO at Fusion IQ  Chris Whalen, Senior Managing Director at Carrington, and Barry Ritholtz, CEO at Fusion IQ have a fascinating discussion about derivatives with Bloomberg Law; you should watch it.  Here’s the [...]

The Cayman Islands has been just one of a handful of countries which are primarily used for tax evasion by exploiting the tax code and the protections of foreign governments.  As a British territory – their laws are very much under the influence of what Britain does and doesn’t want.  Which makes it all the [...]

“The government has been saying, ‘We’re your friend, we owned and controlled you and we let you go.’ But A.I.G. doesn’t owe loyalty to the government.  It owes loyalty to its shareholders.” ~Confidante of former Chairman and CEO of AIG Maurice Greenberg  For years – Wall Street had free reign to do what it wanted [...]

Unfortunately – bankers continue to evade criminal prosecution as government agencies prefer to avoid costly litigation and instead have opted for a death by 1,000 cuts approach.  The fines keep adding up; in fact – Bank of America has paid over $43 BILLION in fines and settlements since 2010 (source).  That’s JUST B of A. [...]

 ”We think it’s a sad day for consumers of the metal.  We just think there will be less copper in the market, and we will see a significantly more volatile market.” ~Bob Kickham, senior vice president of procurement at Luvata, a copper-parts maker that had lobbied the SEC to block the ETF Copper is a [...]

“Every major institution, just about, has been wrapped up in some significant scandal.  Let’s recognize two things: that they are too big to manage and they are not too big to indict. [If] we agree on those two principles, then maybe we can begin to make them smaller, manage them better.” ~Former Governor Eliot Spitzer [...]

The importance of jailing more of the crooks involved with LIBOR which will turn out to be the biggest banking scandal of the decade IMHO can’t be over-emphasized. There are at least seven more banks in the DOJ crosshairs. Hopefully, many more indictments, many more convictions. Dear Mr. Attorney General: I note several instances recently [...]

Anyone think the brave conservatives in our Congress will stand up and applaud, encourage prosecution of this criminal fraud? Here we have an international conspiracy that manipulated rates affecting everything from student loans and mortgages to funding for corporate expansion. The investigating bodies accept as a premise they will not charge the management of these [...]

“We are cooperating with authorities in ongoing investigations.  The nature of any conversations is confidential.” ~HSBC spokesman  The Wall Street Journal is reporting that HSBC has come to a record settlement with U.S. regulators for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, the Trading With the Enemy Act and other U.S. laws.  If you don’t know HSBC [...]