Goldman fraud charges trigger prospect of wider crackdown

[beowolfe]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Top Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs has been charged with financial fraud in a move that raises the prospect of a wider crackdown on firms that bet on the collapse of the housing market.

The civil suit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday accused Goldman of "defrauding investors by misstating and omitting key facts" about a financial product based on subprime mortgage-backed securities.

The securities were a key contributor to the financial crisis that peaked in 2008 because many contained risky mortgages.

The charges are believed to be the first brought against a Wall Street firm for speculating on the collapse of the housing market, which is still struggling to emerge from the worst financial crisis in decades.


Goldman fraud charges trigger prospect of wider crackdown - Yahoo! News


Now, maybe we'll finally find out what the hell was going on.

 

[rdean]

Now this is absolutely hilarious.

Republicans deregulated the housing industry early in the Bush administration. Freddie/Fannie used to control more than 70% of the new mortgages. Due to deregulation, those new mortgages moved to Wall Street where they suddenly controlled more than 70% of the new mortgages. Freddie/Fannie required you to have a job and prove that you could pay for the mortgage. Not so Wall Street.

Wall Street passed them out like candy corn to anyone who could hold a pen, bundled them together, and sold them to unsuspecting buyers overseas as "securities".

That is the entire basis of the collapse.

I've written about this before and Republcians have called me nuts. They insist the entire financial meltdown came from "Barney Frank" and "Freddie/Fannie".

So, what happens to their fantasy as news about Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs hits the airways? It's just anther Republican lie that's been debunked. Time to move on to the next one. I think I already know what it is.

Republicans are going to say, "If Obama is allowed to regulate Wall Street, it will be Armageddon. It will be the beginning of the end. He will take over the world".

If every one of their lies is debunked, what will they have to run on in November?