3.24.10
Karl Denninger, known for many good rants (he’s often p.o.’ed) wrote a good piece on fraud in the world of business. He points out that part of the housing fraud problem was mortgage bond ratings of AAA on stuff that was not triple A. Therefore, he points out, the whole argument about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is off base:
One interesting note he points out – contrasting the fate of a convicted store robber with a law-breaking executive – specifically he writes (in regards to illegal actions by Pfizer):
Why? Because the fine levied against the firm for that felonious conduct was a mere one percent of it’s market cap and nobody went to prison. Oh, and Jeff Kindler, who was Pfizer’s general counsel during the first prosecution and later became CEO? He now is a board member at The Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Great to know how things really work isn’t it? Read more of Karl at the link above – warning – he gets super fired up so be prepared for fire breathing when you go to his site…one more thing, I’m glad to see that we have the right people steering our Reserve banks!
