Friday, March 30, 2012

Financial Malfeasance


Three Major Banks Prepare for Possible Credit Downgrades
By SUSANNE CRAIG and PETER EAVIS

[excerpted] "Some of Wall Street’s biggest banks are bracing for fallout from a possible cut in their credit ratings.

Moody’s Investors Service, one of the two big ratings agencies, has said it will decide in mid-May whether to lower its ratings for 17 global financial companies. Morgan Stanley, which was hit hard in the financial crisis, appears to be the most vulnerable. Moody’s is threatening to cut the bank’s ratings by three notches, to a level that would be well below the rating of a rival like JPMorgan Chase.

Bank of America and Citigroup may also fall to the same level as Morgan Stanley, but those two are helped by having higher-rated subsidiaries...."

Majia Here: Matt Taibbi's new rant is instructive in relation to the NYT's coverage of Bank of America's potential credit downgrade:

Matt Taibbi: BofA: Raging Hurricane of Theft and FraudBy Matt Taibbi, Foreclose The Banks
29 March 12
http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/10693-focus-bofa-raging-hurricane-of-theft-and-fraud 

[Excerpted] "Here are two things every American needs to know about Bank of America.

The first is that it's corrupt. This bank has systematically defrauded almost everyone with whom it has a significant business relationship, cheating investors, insurers, homeowners, shareholders, depositors, and the state. It is a giant, raging hurricane of theft and fraud, spinning its way through America and leaving a massive trail of wiped-out retirees and foreclosed-upon families in its wake.

The second is that all of us, as taxpayers, are keeping that hurricane raging. Bank of America is not just a private company that systematically steals from American citizens: it's a de facto ward of the state that depends heavily upon public support to stay in business. In fact, without the continued generosity of us taxpayers, and the extraordinary indulgence of our regulators and elected officials, this company long ago would have been swallowed up by scandal, mismanagement, prosecution and litigation, and gone out of business. It would have been liquidated and its component parts sold off, perhaps into a series of smaller regional businesses that would have more respect for the law, and be more responsive to their customers....

...The inevitable result of that new form of corruption is this bank, whose continued, state-supported existence should naturally outrage all Americans, be they conservative or progressive..."

Read Taibbi's entire rant. I love his work!

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