Former TARP Watchdog: ‘We’re Headed Toward Another Financial Crisis’

[G_j]

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/09/13/tarp-watchdog-banks

Here we are five years later, and the biggest banks are 30 percent larger than they were in 2008.
–Neil Barofsky

--
Neil Barofsky is the former inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
He told Here & Now there is a “deep frustration that those perhaps most responsible for the crisis not only weren’t punished, they were rewarded for their conduct.”
--
“In 2009 it would have probably been a bad idea to indict one of these companies and face undoing all the hard work that was done to save them in the first place,” Barofsky said. “It’s not just, it’s not fair, but it’s the reality.”
--
Barofsky finds it distressing that the rules and regulations that resulted from the financial meltdown do not address the fundamental problems that brought it about in the first place.

“It leaves intact these giant financial institutions that are still too big to fail,” Barofsky said. “Here we are five years later, and the biggest banks are 30 percent larger than they were in 2008. Even when all the rules are done, it doesn’t get to the core of the problem.”
--
“We’re headed toward another financial crisis, I believe, because we didn’t fix the fundamental problems and the perverse incentives and the too-big-to-fail problem that was present in the last one.”

[Rex]

1. Of course we are! It is part of a plutocracies core.

If not for the cyclical failure by the banks, the country would not be so well divided between the Haves and Have Nots. That is why I keep repeating we live in a plutocracy now and not a capitalist state by any means. Regulated capitalism is based on successful overtures, whereas a plutocracy is based on the continuation of failure by the monetary system. Of course with guaranteed bailouts, after said failures.

It is the main reason we have the highest disparity between the rich and poor on record and why that gap will continue to grow. Also, if you will not write laws to protect the middle class from the governing plutocrats - you will not have a middle class for very long. Notice how ours is evaporating before our very eyes.

[99th_Monkey]

2. Max Kaiser & Jim Rickards (author of Currency Wars) are sounding the alarm bells as well

Here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=145725

I'm left wondering -- after "the big one" does it's damage -- if I'll still get my SS and VA
disability checks from Uncle Sam

[Egalitarian Thug]

3. It's only a question of when. K&R

This was a bipartisan, political, national, and industry-wide failure on a scale that dwarfs even the collapse itself. It was a betrayal worse than that of Benedict Arnold.

[liberal_at_heart]

4. Well we saw how the people rejected another war. Maybe when the next financial crisis hits they will

reject another bank bailout too. The people are getting fed up. There is only so much they can take. There is only so far they can be pushed. Let the bastards fall and send the TARP checks to the people of America, not the banks.

[Squinch]

13. Problem with that is that all those crappy assets are so embedded in pensions and savings and

mortgages of regular people that they are the ones that will be hurt worst by it.

The only thing that actually won't screw the rest of us is a careful unwinding, and absorption of the derivatives crap.

And reinstatement of Glass Steagall.

[LiberalAndProud]

5. We only delayed the inevitable with the bailout.

Legislators handed over our money over our objections, telling us that it was all for our own good. The ramifications of doing otherwise were simply too dire. Still the blade of the guillotine hovers over our head so that we will be held up again and again.

When it happens, (and it will) let the blade fall. I would rather let the market forces work than continue the criminal path we are on.

[magical thyme]

16. handing over the money would have been fine *if*

1. the too big to fails had been taken over, broken up, cleaned up, and re-sold.
2. the criminals sent to jail as a lesson.
3. the banks receiving money forced to use it as intended, eg to loan to businesses, etc versus paying themselves gigunda bonuses and continuing gambling on derivatives
4. reinstating Glass-Steagall
5. did I mention the criminals sent to jail?

[LiberalAndProud]

18. If.

More consolidation was in fact the aftermath, with absolutely no resistance. The banking industry is only one industry in which this has been the unremitting trend.

It might have been fine if there had been some remediation. There wasn't.

[gopiscrap]

6. this is so fucked up

we either need to have a huge revolution or a major depression

[socialist_n_TN]

20. It'll probably be both, with the former following the latter.....

Dig out those dusty copies of the original Marx, NOT the ones the Stalinists used, but the originals.

[gopiscrap]

22. Yup and btw: I am becoming more and more a Socialist

everyday

[socialist_n_TN]

24. Welcome to the club comrade!...

Most folks are, at least on the left reformist side. Come on over to our Socialist Progressives group here on DU. Lots of education about socialism going on there.

[gopiscrap]

25. Thank you

I think I am in the group

[socialist_n_TN]

29. Cool. Thanks for joining.....

POST more there!

[gopiscrap]

30. sure, my pleasure!

[Thor_MN]

7. Damn it, why do we have to keep learning the same lesson over and over?

Monopolies = bad.

All the bullshit "Small business" programs where 95% of the benefits go to major corporations... Time to limit corporate "persons" to the same contribution limits that real, living persons face. Get big business out of politics, make programs phase out with company size, stop "trickle down" supply side nonsense that has never worked.

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. none of us should be at all surprised.

[Cryptoad]

9. The kinda changes needed

to fix "the fundamental problems" is going to required that us Democrats to have control of Congress and the SCOTUS plus the White House!

[bvar22]

23. Ah, yeah. Cause "Democrats" like these are on OUR side?

[font color=white]...................[/font][font size=4]Paulson with Co-Conspirators

Now THIS is Bi-Partisanship!
Hahahahahahahahahahaha![/font]

At the time TARP was approved by Congress
the Democrats had Majorities in the House & Senate,
and (then Senator) Obama lobbied FOR and voted FOR Tarp.
(No Charge for the History Lesson).

It is past time to start holding OUR Party responsible for their actions and inactions,
instead of just blaming Republicans for all the ills.
We can't "fix" The Republicans, and blaming THEM for being Republicans serves no useful purpose.

They will continue to be exactly WHO and WHAT they are.
I don't vote for Republicans.
I don't campaign for Republicans.
I don't GOTV for Republicans.
I don't send my money to Republicans.
They have no reason to listen to me.
I expect them to behave exactly like Republicans.



I DO vote for Democrats.
I DO campaign FOR Democrats.
I DO GOTV for Democrats.
I DO send my Working Class Dollars to Democrats.
I EXPECT Democrats to ACT like DEMOCRATS by representing my Main Street Working Class ASS!

When they betray the American Working Class and act like Republicans through Bank Bailouts, Privatization of The Commons, and more "Free Trade",
I have damned well earned the RIGHT to express my disapproval.
I have EARNED the right to a VOICE in the Party of the Working Class.

Maybe if we all work together
we CAN "fix" The Democrats.
But if we do NOTHING,
then nothing changes.


[font color=firebrick][center]"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
I want a party that will STAND UP for Working Americans."
---Paul Wellstone [/font][/center] [center] [center] [/font]
[font size=1]photo by bvar22
Shortly before Sen Wellstone was killed[/center][/font]


You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS.[/font]

[Cryptoad]

26. works are lacking

Last edited Sun Sep 15, 2013, 08:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Funny on how hell bend the purist are on Hating Obama and never saying an ill word about the GOP.

Purge the D Party of the Moderates and Conservatives

Red Herring delight!

do tell us how any meaningful change will come other than how I stated .

got a clue?

Know your Enemy

[progressoid]

33. It goes without saying that the GOP is the enemy. We know that.

But if our party includes the very conservatives that were once polluting the GOP, gaining control of Congress, the WH and SCOTUS will be a hollow victory.

The enemy is also within our ranks.

[Cryptoad]

35. When you have,,,

a pack of Pit Bulls chewing on your ass,,you dont time to swat mosquitoes buzzing your head!

[bluedeathray]

36. ^^THIS^^ nt

[Stargazer09]

10. Sad but true

I'm not an economist, but even I see another crisis looming.

[Nay]

11. We could have saved them from collapsing by TAKING THEM OVER, firing the management, and

installing watchdogs and regulators to break them up in an orderly way. That's what we're going to have to do this next time, but it would have been nice to not have sunk billions into the coffers of the 1% first. God damnit.

[Jackpine Radical]

12. Interesting how the collapse was timed to coincide with the change in Administrations.

thereby preventing meaningful alternative responses. The Bushies set it in motion, and the incoming followed through with the plan. The banks walked away with our money, and everybody could blame someone else for the results.

[LiberalAndProud]

14. Call me a CTist.

Timed and by design.

[Jackpine Radical]

15. OK, you're a CTist.

Now, ya want me to call you a cab?

[G_j]

31. unsettling

kind of churns the stomach, never mind the
previous perfect storm crisis.

[magical thyme]

17. I think you meant to write that it would have been nice to not have sunk TRillions into the coffers

of the 1% first.

Tarp was a trick to make us think we loaned them $700B. As I recall, it worked out to closer to 14 or 16 TRillion back door money fed to their phenomenally greedy maws.

[Earth_First]

19. At what point are we finished trying their way?

When do we get OUR chance?

[socialist_n_TN]

21. Capitalism winding down. We've got a choice though........

socialism or barbarism.

[Hydra]

39. We are doing barbarism right now

So hopefully socialism is in the future, if any of us make it that far.

[eppur_se_muova]

27. Barofsky should be listened to ...

try reading his book. It's educational, however discouraging.

[Uncle Joe]

28. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, G_j.

[bhikkhu]

32. A good description of the problem we have:

Concentrating all the wealth at the top is like trying to balance a pyramid upside-down - on its point instead of on its base. Sooner or later it comes crashing down; usually sooner. I think there are some very smart people running the economy of the country, but I hope they look at the current inequality figures and realize they have to make changes, and quickly, regardless of what any economist or ideologue says is practical.

I hope the people of the country also realize the problem, and decide to make some changes at the ballot box next time around. If we had a democratic congress, there's a host of things that could be done on day one.

[snot]

34. K&R'd!

[Starry Messenger]

37. Capitalism is the crisis.

There's a film called that too.

The weak recovery we've had will make the next crisis even worse than the last. Years of austerity here and abroad are putting even more structural strain on the system. There is no way to fix the fundamental problems, and there is no political will to do what is needed to bring temporary relief.

[TBF]

38. I would love to see these big banks crash and burn -

most of us have credit union accounts ... let the big players take the hit this time. We in the working classes have taken enough.