Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Criminal Activity in Financial Crisis

What did they know and when did they know it?

With the financial system in total meltdown, it is good that politicians don't focus on who is to blame. But in time, it is important to know who is responsible for this mess and how soon can we build a prison to house them.

Once the prison is built, we need to transfer this gentleman and some of his friends to be the first guests.  (Chris Rock has a funny skit on the same subject)

But I digress.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac helped create this mess through the invention of complex derivatives. The criminal investigation should focus on inflating profits by allocating revenue to income versus reserves and the executives who profited from false tax returns.  Secondly, the creation of credit default swaps and mortgage backed securities were sold as a risk free asset and we need to know if these securities were sold by promising the Federal Treasury would assume the risk. 

When something this big hits, fix the problem first and go after criminal activity hard. Whoever was responsible for these derivatives needs to spend some time in the big house.

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