Let the Perp Walks Begin

I have desperately been trying to find the positive about the economy and our new administration.

Here's what I find:

Obama taps range of experts for advice on economy
The Experts include Paul Volcker, which is good. As Fed chief from 1979 -1987 he beat stagflation. By raising interest rates. A novel idea.

Robert Wolf, Chairman UBS - Bad. Over the last 7 years, UBS has made billions teaching wealthy Americans how to create overseas accounts to hide profits, and thus avoid paying taxes.

Jim Owens, Chairman of Caterpillar - Bad. Owens has made his fortune with a company that is at the forefront of the anti-environmental movement. He is a director of the Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, a director of FM Global Insurance Company in Rhode Island, a member of The Business Roundtable in Washington, DC, and the Global Advisory Council to The Conference Board in New York. All of these organizations supported, through money and ideology, the people that created this current financial mess.

Anna Burger, Secretary-Treasurer for SEIU - Decent. Burger has been at the forefront in battles to keep unions relevant. To her credit, she has limited unions penchant for ridiculous benefits, while fighting for better wages.

Penny Pritzker, Former Finance Chair for Obama's presidential campaign - Very Bad. Just Google Superior Bank/Pritzker. Penny is the mother of subprime lending. There is not enough room here to convey how much she deserves jail time.

William Donaldson, Chairman SEC under Bush II - Bad. Was responsible for oversight of Wall Street as they began the "let's rob the world of trillions of dollars before they know what's happening" episode. Donaldson was warned the models Wall Street was using for derivatives insufficiently calculated risk. Before the SEC, he also ran the NYSE. Old, worn out, disreputed guard.

Martin Feldstein, Economist - Very Bad. An economist, Feldstein served in the Reagan administration. He is a leading advocate of privatizing Social Security (can you imagine what would have happened had that passed in 2005?). He has served on the board of Eli Lilly, you know, the company that advertises penis hardening drugs during what are supposed to be "family" shows like the Super Bowl! More importantly, he serves on the board of AIG, and was instrumental in the oversight of derivative contracts. AIG had to be taken over by the government to meet its obligations. Yeah, that's advice we want.

OK, not much for the warm fuzzy there.

Let's look here:
Employers slash 598K jobs in Jan., most since `74

Pass, let's move on:
Americans' doubts grow over stimulus bill

Nope. And over in this corner....
Million Dollar Home Sales Plummet in California

How about here:
Fannie Mae to Loosen Rules for Home-Loan Refinancing
More of what got us here. Where's the hardest wall I can find......

Oh, what's this:
TARP Shortchanged Taxpayers by $78 Billion, Watchdog Panel Says
Great, more thievery. For God's sake...

Open this door:
Deutsche Bank posts first loss since WWII
Still looking

Maybe here:
The Dubai real estate crash
Yeah, yeah, we already know it's global.

YES! Here is the best news of the morning:
Let the Perp Walks Begin

"...workers want to know when miscreant Wall Street executives will get arrested, the officials who went berserk cranking out fraudulent, dangerous securities and who, in the process have flattened the world’s largest investment metropolis and sent the U.S. banking system still lurching around in a hospital gown, despite a year of being in detox."

"Wall Street’s derivatives managers are in the FBI’s bulls’ eye, as they were supposed to be selling securities backed by actual assets–not imaginary assets."

"This hocus pocus then got Triple-A rated by the credit rating agencies, hungry for fees, a rating that denoted that they were safe.......When they weren’t."
"The notion that tranches backed by completely rotten subprime mortgages could be rated Triple-A, notably in the CDO squared products, is jawdropping, given that these loans defaulted right and left, loans given by reckless lenders to reckless people without even a credit check or income verification."
“Collateralized debt obligations can be backed by any combination of debt: credit derivatives, asset-backed securities, mortgage-backed securities, other collateralized debt obligations, hedge fund loans, credit card loans, auto loans, bonds, leveraged corporate loans, sovereign debt, or any kind of combination of actual or notional debt man can imagine and create.”

“Just because you disclose serious conflicts of interest, it does not protect you if you fail in your duty of care to investors. You lawyers can’t give you a license to kill,”

Finally, some real change. This is good news that people are focusing on the fraudsters. And, this is from FOX News, of all places, go figure.

Until level3 accounting rules are eliminated and all debt based derivatives are cleared from our financial system, no bottom can be reached, and any money spent will be 100% wasted. The first step to doing that is recognizing that the companies, and their people that created and sold them, committed heinous crimes against all of humanity. The "Bad Bank" idea is a joke. All it does is take the derivatives that will be a 100% loss, and transfers those losses from the banks to the taxpayers. The US does not have enough money, and we cannot sell enough Treasuries, to cover the tens of trillions of dollars in losses the "Bad Bank" will generate. Besides being impractical, it is morally repugnant.

The next step is in regards to restoring confidence. The only way that can happen is if those that committed these crimes pay for the crimes. If these guys are not thrown in prison, it sends the message that the US will allow liars and cheats to prosper. If you are managing a sovereign wealth fund today, would you give the sellers of CDO's $10 Billion to manage?

It is good to see the eye of scrutiny start being placed where it should be. Maybe these guys will see bars, after all. Drag those scumbags out and hang 'em by the toes.

Ahhh, it warms the cockles of my heart.