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The Washington Times reports that,
“The Wall Street financial crisis of 2008, which led to the deepest recession since the Great Depression, might have been prevented if not for business and regulatory corruption, according to the most extensive congressional investigation to date. The 635-page report, “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse,” was released Wednesday and blames financial firms for taking advantage of their clients and investors, credit rating agencies for inflating the market with high-risk securities, and federal regulators for turning a blind eye.”
(Note that there’s no mention of corruption or blame attributed to Congress.)
“According to Senator Carl Levine, the report . . . tell[s] ‘the inside story of an economic assault that cost millions of Americans their jobs and homes, while wiping out investors, good businesses, and markets.’” Senator Tom Coburn said a lack of ethics led to the fall of Wall Street. “The free market has helped make America great, but it only functions when people deal with each other honestly and transparently. ‘At the heart of the financial crisis were unresolved, and often undisclosed, conflicts of interest.’”
Indeed. Curiously, the Congress (whose principle political campaign contributors have been Wall Street financiers) is happy to talk about Wall Street’s lack of ethics and Wall Street’s “conflicts of interest”—but sees no “conflict” in congressmen taking “political campaign contributions” (bribes) from Wall Street to pass laws that empowered Wall Street to rob Mainstreet.
