Out of Lehman's ashes Wall Street gets most of what it wants

[UpInArms]

Source: Washington Post

Wall Street's biggest banks, whose missteps caused a global financial crisis and economic slowdown two years ago, were more agile when it came to countering the political and regulatory response.

The U.S. government, promising to make the system safer, buckled under many of the financial industry's protests. Lawmakers spurned changes that would wall off deposit-taking banks from riskier trading. They declined to limit the size of lenders or ban any form of derivatives. Higher capital and liquidity requirements agreed to by regulators worldwide have been delayed for years to aid economic recovery.

"We continue to listen to the same people whose errors in judgment were central to the problem," said John Reed, 71, a former co-chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc., who estimated only 25 percent of needed changes have been enacted. "I'm astounded because we basically dropped the world's biggest economy because of an error in bank management."

The last two years have been the best ever for combined investment-banking and trading revenue at Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, 56, and his top deputies are in line to collect more than $100 million in delayed 2007 bonuses -- six months after paying $550 million to settle a fraud lawsuit related to the firm's behavior that year. Citigroup, the bank that needed more taxpayer support than any other, has a balance sheet 14 percent bigger than it was four years ago.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/28/AR2010122800322.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. "Missteps,"

How quaint.

[chill_wind]

6. A lot like "Mistakes were made." in the lying us into war. Shit just "happens" , you know?

Real live flesh human criminals, fraudsters and greedy pigs are never part of the equation.

[somone]

2. "The last two years have been the best ever"

and they hope nobody notices

[chill_wind]

3. The rich get richer

and the poor get poorer. And that's no accident. K & R.

[KoKo]

5. Some would say....."It's just the way things work out."

I would say: :sarcasm:

[KoKo]

4. ABSOLUTELY! Wall Street Got IT ALL...Put the Gun to Obama's Head...and Got It All!

EOM!......Sad to say...........

[DCKit]

7. If I thought it was going to last, I'd be buying their stock.

But it's not, and Karma's a bitch.

[KoKo]

8. K&R...WaP0 trying to get back into the ACTION? SHAMLESS..but K&R

for the Effort!

[Javaman]

9. Does this really surprise anyone?

They have the money, they have the influence, they have the power.

Did you really honestly believe that they would actually have to answer to their crimes? Come on, certainly you aren't that naive? Are you?

When the supreme court kicks open the door on corporate donations, who do you think writes the bills and various acts? It ain't our "elected officials". And if you believe that "we the people" still have a say in such matters, well, I have a bridge to sell you.

Folks, wake up, they don't listen to anything we want, do or say. They laugh at us. They live off our blood and sweat. They bank on our stupidity and our willingness to "go along" so as not to upset the apple cart.

All big business is a lie. They all rely on us. They try and keep us covered in bullshit so as to keep us ignorant. They know perfectly well we have the power. That we are the proverbial "sleeping giant".

They work hard to keep us sleeping.