From MSNBC's Morning Meeting, Dylan Ratigan talks to author and former managing director for Goldman Sachs Nomi Prins about this week's article in the UK Times I'm doing 'God's work'. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs.
See the video here
(sorry, no embed at this this time)
Financial innovation is Wall Street's new 'soul sickness'
ReplyDeleteCommentary: New mutant American capitalism has no moral compass
"Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and Nobel-Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz warn: We need a new Glass-Steagall to rein in Wall Street. Or prepare for a new meltdown. At a Senate hearing last summer financial-innovation pioneer Richard Bookstaber, author of "A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds & the Perils of Financial Innovation," said: "Derivatives are the weapon of choice for gaming the system." They are "vehicles for gambling ... side bets on the market."
Get it? Derivatives put all markets, investors and taxpayers at risk. These "side bets can pose risks that extend beyond the losses to the person making the bet," because they actually "change the behavior of the market." In short, financial innovations only serve the interests of Wall Street's insiders, not the public interest, not Main Street investors, not American taxpayers, and not retail banking customers. Without transparency and regulation reform, a new meltdown is guaranteed. "
"That means Wall Street's blind "anything goes" obsession with financial innovation is totally consistent with the rules of the new American capitalism. Morals, ethics and the public good are irrelevant in the rules of Wall Street's new mutant American capitalism.
Wall Street's only restriction is to obey the 11th commandment: "Thou shalt not get caught." And when you compare the number of indictments from the 2008 meltdown to earlier ones during the Enron-era scandals and the S&L frauds (plus add in the $23.7 trillion debt those same "too-greedy-to-fail" crooks scammed from American taxpayers), you can easily see why Wall Street is clearly living within the rules they created for the new mutant American capitalism. "
http://tinyurl.com/ye3qeh9