Settlements for 3 Wall Street Banks Hold a Silver Lining

“I am extremely disappointed by the C.F.T.C.’s actions in this case,” Oh, my goodness, Kara. I went to Yale Law School, too, and I could do better than that. "Extremely disappointed"? That's the best you could do? "Erica Elliott Richardson, a spokeswoman for the C.F.T.C., said granting the waivers lets the agency reach settlements with the banks more quickly." What's the rush, Erica? Oh, I forgot, you're just another stooge who'll do anything for a paycheck.

The best way to rob a bank is to own it.

We cheat the other guys and pass the profits on to ourselves. Business as usual.

According to Ms Richardson, the longer it takes for the CFTC to get a waiver from the SEC, for a financial institution who has broken the law, the quicker that major financial institution can get back to selling securities. And that is supposedly good for us because the CFTC can collect on the penalties. Ms Richardson says it "has taken up to nine months" to get a waiver. Now that’s a long time for a big bank to have to wait to make millions in security sales. Compared to the profit of selling commodities on mass scale, the penalties seem like nickels and dimes. Let's say the average middle class family is renovating a house, a modest affair. Unfortunately our taxpaying family is kept in the starting gate for nine months while the Department Of Buildings works out the details with the architect and an expediter. All this is costing the family money. Not penalties for doing wrong, but simply the cost of doing business with a local government agency. But that is not the end of it. The permits are issued but the neighbor doesn't want the new family to go on their driveway to fix one side of the house. So the family goes to court in order to get a license to go on the neighbor’s property. But the local court is overloaded and the taxpayer has to wait another year before the license is granted. All they wanted was to renovate a house and move in but 2 years have passed. Can the family get a waver? You know the answer as well as I do. It pays to be big.

1. Commit crime. 2. Promise a percentage of the take to federal regulators in exchange for the regulators not investigating the crime. 3. Profit! What a great system we have, eh?

I went to the link in the first and discovered that there had been 8 individuals criminally charged in this case. I also found out that the markets being manipulated were those in precious metal futures contracts. Repeating those facts here would have made this a more balanced report. I'm still ignorant of the way the fake quotes were used to turn a profit.

Given that the waiver is granted by the SEC, the CFTC should work with them to coordinate these waivers. One agency should not have the right to unilaterally issue waivers to the other's rules. The CFTC over-stepped its authority, plain and simple, politics aside.

When banks get caught a few things should happen: 1. The bank gets suspended for a year. 2. The people who actually committed the crime go to jail. 3. The bank MUST admit their wrong doing. 4. Fines must be paid and restitution made. 5. Execs are banned from the banking business for life. That should at least put a dent in this kind of activity. You'll never get them to be completely honest.

No one should have expected this to end any other way then the literally dozens of other bank malfeasance cases have...banks pay a fine paid for by the shareholders and the senior executives responsible for oversight avoid any criminal liability and continue to collect nice salaries and bonuses without repercussion. This has been the case since the Great Recession regardless of which party was controlling the White House or the Legislature.

I guess that when the reporter writes "market manipulation", she means "fish market"? No, "stock market". Or "bond market". Or "derivatives market". "Market" covers a lot of territory.

I guess it never occurred to these thieves that if they didn't try to make money illegally they wouldn't need a waiver. I imagine that is asking too much.

"Punishment"? Come on. Call it what it is - another handout. Nobody goes to jail, they write off the measly amount of money they are fined, and go right back to breaking the law. We have no hope of fixing what is wrong with this country unless we restore justice.

Rob a bank - 75 years in prison Bank robs you - bank pays 5% in damage, gets a government bailout if needed, and goes on with business as usual

This is how plea deals work, it's legal extortion. Agree to pay the money or else. Prosecutors use the same tactic whether for corporations or for petty criminals. However, corporations can't be put in jail so the sentence involves taking their money. They held a larger sentence over their heads to get them to agree - quickly - to pay the money. Business as usual. It works the same way at the SEC, their objection was just about turf wars.

I'd like to write some screed blaming this on the republicans, but let's be honest, 8 years of Democrats selling out to the bankers has cost the rest of us dearly -- it costs us with minority unemployment, it costs us with stagnate wage growth, and it cost us with handing the election to Trump. Time to take our party back from Wall St. bankers.

And also hats off and many thanks to that genius of a president Bill Clinton who removed all regulations in the first place. Here we go again and I look forward to the next huge recession... The world's largest casino aka The Market - profits from which are tax-advantaged.. should be allowed to operate only three days a week... so that all of that labour could be used on the other two days of the workweek to do something useful -- cooking healthful meals for people who are without, cleaning houses for old people, tutoring children, taking old people et al out for walks and other exercise, and my favorite cleaning and repairing subway stations... (Of course it's illegal now to remove the dirt and chewing gum in the subway system because some politicians and his friends are plotting how to make lots of $$ doing this... OHwell. Planting and tending flowers in parks (dig up every other parking space and make a garden?!) A bit ofimagination please.

Trump: “I know Wall Street. I know the people on Wall Street. ... I'm not going to let Wall Street get away with murder. Wall Street has caused tremendous problems for us.” Jan. 9, 2016 campaign speech in Ottumwa, Iowa. Trump. “I don’t care about the Wall Street guys... I’m not taking any of their money.” same speech.

Some “punishment,” $47M between three of the world’s largest financial institutions isn’t even a rounding error on their balance sheets. And these settlements routinely contain denials of wrongdoing and prevent their use in any other proceeding. What is the diminutive of “watchdog”? Watch puppy?

Boy...such a huge fine....$47 million is probably less than a day's profits for these banks. Banks 1, Citizens 0.

Why do these banks get to “settle” charges without admitting guilt? Is this available to other types of criminal activity? If I rob a bank and get away with 1 million, could I just settle with the Justice Department for $100,000 and have the charges dropped?

It is a bottomless well of corruption and because we only have one effective political party it will continue indefinitely. The Republicans have no opposition. They will continue to win all elections that matter and do as they please. So long as Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are the face of the Democratic Party the Dems will continue to lose on the national stage. And this is the kind of governance we will get.

What a bizarre headline, but typical of the NYT business pages. A silver lining for the defrauded investors? No, for the TBTJ banks, of course. And just for the record, these banks are net drags on the economy, putting money to non productive use, in much the same way casinos make money. Nothing of value is produced, the odds favor the house and their captured regulators and our bought and paid for Congress. Meanwhile, with the exception of Senator Warren and Senator Sanders, the democrats stand by their fainting couches, whispering muffled befuddlement and chagrin while grabbing bankster money with both hands. Yes, Senator Schumer, you are standing at the head fainting couch, and as usual from you, dead silence. It takes concentration to count all that money after all.

Here is a conspiracy theory: the three banks were given this deal as part of a secret agreement to disclose money laundering by American businesses.

Make 2008 Great Again: Trump-GOP 2018 It's always amazing the number of American peasants who cheerfully support the Reverse Robin Hood party.

Surprised to see HSBC having to resort to market manipulation when money laundering for drug cartels is so easy and profitable. Guess some people are just never satisfied.