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Testimony Before The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Miami, Florida September 21, 2010, William K. Black Jan 2010

Testimony Before The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Miami, Florida September 21, 2010, William K. Black

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"Control frauds" are seemingly legitimate entities controlled by persons that use them as a fraud "weapon." (The person that controls the firm is typically the CEO, so that term is used in this testimony.) A single control fraud can cause greater losses than all other forms of property crime combined. Neo-classical economic theory, methodology, and praxis combine to optimize criminogenic environments that hyper-inflate financial bubbles and produce recurrent, intensifying financial crises. A criminogenic environment is one that creates such perverse incentives that it leads to widespread crime. Financial control frauds’ "weapon of choice" is accounting. Neoclassical theory, which dominates law …


(Mis)Understanding A Banking Industry In Transition, William K. Black Jan 2007

(Mis)Understanding A Banking Industry In Transition, William K. Black

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The U.S. financial system is, again, in crisis caused by huge numbers of defaults among subprime mortgage borrowers and mortgage derivatives; and, massive losses for the holders of new-fangled investments comprised of bundles of loans of varying risk, including many of those subprime mortgages. The largest financial institutions have followed business practices that were certain to produce massive losses - so imprudent that they have created a worldwise financial crises. To even begin to understand events in the U.S. and global banking industries, you have to look back at the seismic shifts in the industry over the past 30 to …