2016 Postmortem

99th_Monkey

(19,326 posts) Sat Feb 6, 2016, 03:49 PM Feb 2016

Bill Black: “Hillary, the Banksters Committed ‘Fraud,’ Not ‘Shenanigans’”

Bill Black: “Hillary, the Banksters Committed ‘Fraud,’ Not ‘Shenanigans’”
By bobswern * Saturday Feb 06, 2016 * Daily Kos

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in her debate with Senator Sanders minutes ago, said that she went to Wall Street and told them to stop their "shenanigans." The context was that she was being asked to respond to the complaint that she was too close to on Wall Street billionaires. She had every incentive, therefore, to demonstrate how tough she would be on Wall Street.

In that context, the best she could muster was the pusillanimous "shenanigans." Here is a typical definition of that word with examples.

1. : a devious trick used especially for an underhand purpose 2. 2a : tricky or questionable practices or conduct --usually used in pluralb : high-spirited or mischievous activity --usually used in plural

Examples of SHENANIGAN 1. students engaging in youthful shenanigans on the last day of school 2. an act of vandalism that went way beyond the usual shenanigans at summer camp.

Hillary cannot bring herself to use the "f" word in the context of Wall Street CEOs leading the largest and most destructive fraud epidemics in history - frauds that made them spectacularly wealthy. A few minutes later, Bernie said that "fraud" was Wall Street's business model.

There Is No "If" -- Systemically Dangerous Banks Pose a "Systemic Risk"
Hillary then said that we should end systemically dangerous institutions (SDIs) "if" they posed "systemic risk" and praised President Obama for supporting Dodd-Frank provisions that provide a convoluted process for doing so that a new president likely could not use effectively. There can be disputes on the margins as to whether the 25th largest U.S. bank is systemically dangerous, but there is no question but that the largest 20 banks in the U.S. pose a systemic risk. There is no question but that President Obama has not, and will not, force a single one of them to shrink to the point that they no longer pose a systemic risk.

I do not think that many people believe that Hillary will force even a single gargantuan bank to do so, but if that is her intent, the word she needs to use is "will" rather than "if." Hillary should say: "If I am elected President I will promptly require the roughly 20 largest banks to shrink to a size where they no longer pose a systemic risk."

Hillary Did Not Take on Wall Street in 2007 -- She Blamed the Victims for Being Defrauded
In the debate tonight, Hillary again claimed that in her 2007 speech to Wall Street she came down on them like a ton of bricks. Hillary's most pointed two sentences in her supposed takedown of the banksters were:

But finally, responsibility also belongs to Wall Street, which not only enabled but often encouraged reckless mortgage lending... Wall Street may not have created the foreclosure crisis, but Wall Street certainly had a hand in making it worse.

No, the banksters made millions of deliberately fraudulent, not "reckless" loans and they most assuredly "created the foreclosure crisis." Hillary went on to throw the victims of these frauds under the bus -- blaming the foreclosure victims for not understanding the loans the brokers pushed on them.

MORE: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/6/1480801/-Bill-Black-Hillary-the-Banksters-Committed-Fraud-Not-Shenanigans