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Monthly Archives: May 2011

Jeffrey Goldberg, the Intelligent Observer: The Middle East Speech, President Obama and Charles Krauthammer

By corporate observer guest on Posted in Weekend Edition

The shocking part of President Obama’s May 19 Middle East speech wasn’t the speech itself, which was vintage Obama: professorial, reasonably eloquent and ultimately inconsequential.  The real shocking part was the prelude to the Obama speech, with the White House promising an important, groundbreaking statement on the world’s most troubled region.  Here’s a bit of… Continue Reading

Transparency in Government: Bring on the Big Screen Televisions

By Steven Berk on Posted in Consumer Protection

When a member of a Senate or House Committee has the floor at a hearing, picture a large television monitor (think the size of the screen in the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium) airing commercials of the member’s top 5 political contributors. Big HD screen with stereo sound. It’s a win-win. The political contributors get some nice promotional placements and watchdog groups get a quick view of what might be a motivating factor in the member’s questioning and at times (too often) grandstanding for the cameras. In sum, everyone’s allegiances are in the open for all to see.

Featured Comment from Judge Bobby Peters

By Steven Berk on Posted in In the Courts

There are two things in life a person must do alone, die and testify. Once dead, you are dead. Once on the stand, your all alone without a lifeline, and you can’t call a friend or stop the proceedings to get legal assistance on how to form your answer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Will Likely Pull Another “Madoff” When Imposing New Rules Upon the Credit Rating Agencies

By Steven Berk on Posted in Banks and Financial Services

It’s a conflict of interest at its simplest. And guess what, if a BofA bondholder wants to sue the rating agencies after the bonds default, good luck. The rating agencies have a “get out of jail card” at the ready. “We were merely exercising our First Amendment right to render an opinion.” Wins every time in court.

Second Circuit Ruling Provides Another Free Pass to Credit Rating Agencies

By Steven Berk on Posted in Banks and Financial Services

Often what we say is different from what we do. Day-to-day life provides us plenty of examples: “amateurism” in college athletics, the “reality” of reality shows, and Fox News’ “unbiased” political coverage being just a few that come to mind. Yesterday, Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Reena Raggi fell victim to a lesser-known fallacy: the “mere opinions” of the credit rating agencies (CRAs).

Killing Osama bin Laden, Legal, Ethical and Moral

By Steven Berk on Posted in Weekend Edition

I don’t often stray beyond domestic policy and as most readers of this blog know, if I have a strength, it is my commentary on the plight of consumers and how they are too often manipulated by more organized and focused forces representing big business — particularly banks and financial services companies. But discussion in Washington and throughout the country (if not the world) has focused on the killing of bin Laden, so I thought I’d take on a slightly different take on the issue.

Department of Justice Finally Files Criminal Charges: Deutsche Bank Subsidiary, MortgageIT, Charged with Fraud and Reckless Lending – Wall Street Beware?

By Steven Berk on Posted in In the Courts

Lying to the government instead of actually doing the proper due diligence, handing out insured loans with no regard to the borrower’s ability to repay ; A Better symbol of the myopic corporate greed that plagued Wall Street for the past decade cannot be found. Imagine the thought process: “Will these borrowers be able to repay the loans?” “Heck, who cares, we’ll just have the government (taxpayers) insure them while we make a few hundred million in a week. ”