This article by William K. Black on the complete failure of the Obama administration to punish those responsible for the financial fraud that led to the collapse of the housing market is essential reading. The contrast with the 1987 savings and loan crisis is even more damning.

"The Obama administration’s record of prosecuting elite financial frauds is worse than the Bush administration’s record, which is a very large statement. This fact is demonstrated by a November report by Syracuse University’s Transitional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), “Criminal Prosecutions for Financial Institution Fraud Continue to Fall.” The truth is that neither administration has prosecuted any elite CEO for the epidemic of mortgage fraud that drove the ongoing crisis, in contrast to over 1,000 elite felony convictions arising from the Saving & Loan debacle in the 1980s. Yet today's ongoing crisis caused losses more than 70 times greater than the S&L debacle, and the amount of elite fraud driving this crisis is also vastly greater. Bank CEOs leading what I call "accounting control frauds” now do so with impunity. They become wealthy through fraud, and even if they are sued civilly they almost invariably walk away wealthy with the proceeds."

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