Lesson 9: Crime and (no) Punishment on Wall Street
December 8, 2023
Review:
- Housing Market Collapse and Foreclosure Tsunami
- Exam 2 on Mon Dec 11
Presentation:
- The Untouchables
- Mortgage Crisis Fraud
- Wall Street Banks selling MBS and CDO securities
- Subprime Loan Originators pushing ARMs and other non-traditional loans on low-income borrowers
- Countrywide Financial
- Rating Agencies issuing AAA ratings on low quality MBS and CDOs
- Moody’s
- Standard and Poor’s
- Fannie and Freddie
- Purchasing subprime loans in the secondary market
- Providing liquidity for ongoing subprime lending
- Why was no one punished?
- Obama Administration DoJ did not aggressively pursue
- Excessive greed everywhere but difficult to prove criminal fraud
- No consequences = incentive to repeat
- Too big to fail & Too rich to jail
- Review for Exam 2
Assignment:
- Study for Exam 2