S&P Settles for $1.375 Billion Over Fraudulent AAA Ratings on Junk Mortgage Securities, While Moody's Pays $864 Million, Exposing 'Issuer-Pays' Conflict of Interest Model Where 73% of 2006 AAA-Rated Securities Were Downgraded to Junk by 2010

On February 3, 2015, the Department of Justice, 19 states, and the District of Columbia reached a $1.375 billion settlement with Standard & Poor’s (S&P) over allegations that the credit rating agency knowingly inflated ratings on risky mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt …

Holder Testifies Some Banks Are Too Big to Jail

During a critical congressional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 6, 2013, Attorney General Eric Holder revealed the Department of Justice’s emerging doctrine of ’too big to jail’, acknowledging that prosecuting certain financial institutions could …

DOJ Criminal Division Chief Lanny Breuer Resigns After PBS Frontline Documentary 'The Untouchables' Exposes 'Too Big to Jail' Policy Resulting in Zero Major Bank Executive Prosecutions Compared to 900+ Convictions in 1980s S&L Crisis

On January 29, 2013, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer announced his resignation as head of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, just one week after PBS Frontline aired “The Untouchables,” a damning documentary exposing how the Obama Justice Department had …

GAO Audit Reveals Massive $16.1 Trillion in Secret Federal Reserve Crisis Loans

The first comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve revealed it secretly provided $16.1 trillion in emergency loans to major financial institutions during the 2008-2010 financial crisis, far exceeding the $700 billion TARP program. The audit exposed unprecedented scale of financial sector bailouts, …

SEC Charges Goldman Sachs with Fraud Over ABACUS 2007-AC1 Synthetic CDO Deal Where Hedge Fund Manager John Paulson Selected Mortgage Securities to Bet Against While Goldman Sold Package to Investors, Resulting in $550 Million Settlement but No Criminal Charges

On April 16, 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Goldman Sachs and Vice President Fabrice Tourre with securities fraud related to ABACUS 2007-AC1, a synthetic collateralized debt obligation (CDO) tied to subprime residential mortgage-backed securities. The SEC alleged that Goldman …

Robo-Signing Scandal Exposed Systematic Foreclosure Document Fraud

Investigation reveals major banks systematically falsified foreclosure documents through ‘robo-signing’, affecting 3.8 million homes. Employees at major lenders signed thousands of foreclosure affidavits without verifying information, creating a massive documentation fraud that …

Obama Admin Prosecutes Zero Wall Street Executives Despite Crisis Fraud

Despite widespread evidence of fraud in the 2008 financial crisis, the Obama administration prosecuted zero major Wall Street executives, contrasting starkly with the Savings and Loan crisis when 1,706 bankers were sent to prison. Instead, the DOJ pursued civil settlements totaling tens of billions, …

Federal Reserve Provides $85 Billion Emergency Loan to AIG, Eventually Growing to $182 Billion in Total Taxpayer Commitments to Bail Out Insurance Giant That Gambled on Credit Default Swaps, Followed by $165 Million in Executive Bonuses Paid to Employees Who Caused the Crisis

On September 16, 2008, just one day after allowing Lehman Brothers to file for bankruptcy, the Federal Reserve provided an $85 billion two-year emergency loan to American International Group (AIG) to prevent the insurance giant’s collapse and contain spreading financial contagion. In exchange …

Lehman Brothers Files Largest Bankruptcy in U.S. History with $639 Billion in Assets After Government Refuses Bailout, Creating Arbitrary 'Too Big to Fail' Enforcement Where Bear Stearns and AIG Were Rescued But Lehman Was Allowed to Collapse, Triggering Global Financial Panic

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 15, 2008, declaring $639 billion in assets and $613 billion in debts, making it the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. The firm’s assets far surpassed those of previous bankrupt giants including …

Bank of America Completes $4 Billion Acquisition of Countrywide Financial After Predatory Lending and Fraud Schemes Targeting Minorities Caused $50 Billion in Losses, with CEO Angelo Mozilo Paying Only $67.5 Million SEC Settlement and Facing Zero Criminal Charges

Bank of America completed its acquisition of Countrywide Financial on July 1, 2008, purchasing the nation’s largest mortgage lender for approximately $4 billion in a Federal Reserve-approved transaction that would ultimately cost Bank of America and its shareholders at least $50 billion in …

Bear Stearns Collapse and Federal Reserve-Facilitated Fire Sale to JPMorgan with $29 Billion Taxpayer Guarantee Establishes 'Too Big to Fail' Precedent with Zero Criminal Prosecutions Despite Fraud-Driven Collapse

Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest investment bank in the United States with $400 billion in reported consolidated assets, collapsed in March 2008 after its liquidity pool plummeted from $18.1 billion on March 10 to just $2 billion on March 13. The firm had leveraged its capital up to 35 …

Argentina Declares Largest Sovereign Default in History on $100+ Billion Debt After IMF Austerity Collapse

President Adolfo Rodriguez Saá announces Argentina’s default on its foreign debt obligations to the International Monetary Fund and private creditors—the largest sovereign default in world history at that time, exceeding $100 billion. The default comes three days after the fall of President …

Argentina Imposes 'Corralito' Bank Account Freeze Under IMF Austerity, Triggering Mass Protests

The Argentine government enacts emergency measures known as the ‘corralito’ (little corral), freezing bank accounts and limiting cash withdrawals to $250 per week, triggering the final stage of a devastating economic collapse driven by IMF-imposed austerity. The freeze comes after four …

Clinton Signs Commodity Futures Modernization Act, Cementing Derivatives Deregulation

President Bill Clinton signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) into law on his last day before Christmas recess, completing the deregulation of the derivatives market that Brooksley Born had warned against two years earlier. The legislation, inserted into a 10,000-page authorization …

President's Working Group Recommends Exempting $80 Trillion Derivatives Market from Regulation

The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets issues a unanimous report recommending that over-the-counter derivatives be explicitly exempted from federal regulation, directly repudiating CFTC Chair Brooksley Born’s 1998 warnings about systemic risk. The report is signed by Treasury …

Lawrence Summers Becomes Treasury Secretary, Accelerates Derivatives Deregulation Campaign

The U.S. Senate confirms Lawrence Summers as the 71st Secretary of the Treasury, replacing Robert Rubin and continuing the aggressive deregulation agenda. Summers had spent the previous year as Deputy Secretary orchestrating opposition to derivatives regulation, including making an “irate …

Time Magazine Celebrates "Committee to Save the World" While They Block Derivatives Regulation

Time Magazine publishes its February 15, 1999 edition featuring Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Deputy Secretary Lawrence Summers, and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on the cover as “The Committee to Save the World,” celebrating their management of the 1997-1998 Asian and …

IMF Concludes Comprehensive Structural Adjustment in Southeast Asia

IMF completes its systematic economic restructuring of Southeast Asian economies, fundamentally transforming corporate landscapes. The intervention results in unprecedented foreign corporate access, weakened local economic sovereignty, and a permanent shift in regional economic power dynamics.

Key …

Russia Defaults on Debt and Abandons Ruble Defense: Largest Sovereign Default in History Caps Decade of Economic Devastation

The Russian government under Premier Sergei Kiriyenko announced a sovereign debt default, devaluation of the ruble, and a 90-day moratorium on commercial external debt payments, marking the climax of Russia’s most serious economic crisis since the 1991 Soviet collapse. Three days after …

Brooksley Born's Derivatives Regulation Warning Systematically Suppressed

CFTC Chair Brooksley Born issued a concept release seeking public comment on regulating the $29 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market, warning of systemic risks from unregulated trading. Within hours, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, and SEC Chairman …

IMF Imposes Radical Structural Adjustment on Indonesia

On October 15, 1997, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a comprehensive $43 billion bailout package for Indonesia during the Asian Financial Crisis, contingent upon radical structural adjustment reforms. The IMF mandated a 50-point reform program that included closing 16 private banks, …

IMF Imposes Harsh Structural Adjustment on Indonesia

IMF approves a $23-43 billion rescue package for Indonesia during the Asian Financial Crisis, mandating severe economic reforms including privatization, banking sector restructuring, and corporate reforms. The structural adjustment program fundamentally reshaped Indonesia’s economic landscape, …

FIRREA Signed: $160 Billion Taxpayer Bailout of S&L Industry Fraud

President George H.W. Bush signs the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), authorizing a $160.1 billion taxpayer bailout of the savings and loan industry—with $132 billion coming directly from taxpayers through higher taxes and fees. The legislation creates the …

Volcker Shock - Federal Reserve Raises Rates to 20%, Recession Begins

On October 6, 1979, Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker announced dramatic steps to combat inflation, fundamentally transforming monetary policy by switching from targeting interest rates to targeting the money supply. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in August 1979 to replace William Miller, …

Ford Refuses NYC Bailout, "Drop Dead" Headline, Austerity Era Begins

At the National Press Club on October 29, 1975, President Gerald Ford gave a speech refusing to provide federal assistance to New York City, which was on the verge of bankruptcy after losing nearly 600,000 jobs and hundreds of thousands of residents fleeing to the suburbs or Sunbelt. The New York …

Banking Crisis Accelerates with 2,300 Bank Failures in 1931 as Hoover Resists Federal Intervention

A second wave of banking panics erupts in June 1931 centered in Chicago, where depositor runs beset networks of banks that had invested in declining real estate assets, resulting in approximately 2,300 bank suspensions during 1931—significantly more than the 1,350 failures in 1930. The crisis …

Roosevelt Approves U.S. Steel Acquisition of Tennessee Coal & Iron During Panic, Exposing Reform Limits

On the morning of Saturday, November 2, 1907, during the Panic of 1907 financial crisis, J.P. Morgan convened a meeting at his library proposing that U.S. Steel—which already controlled 60% of the steel market—purchase stock in the insolvent brokerage firm Moore & Schley, which had borrowed …

Panic of 1837 Begins as Banks Refuse Specie Conversion, Triggering Five-Year Depression

Just two months into Martin Van Buren’s presidency, major New York state banks refuse to convert paper money into gold or silver on May 10, 1837, having exhausted their hard currency reserves. Other financial institutions across the country quickly follow suit, triggering the Panic of 1837—a …

Panic of 1819 Erupts from Second Bank Speculation and Baltimore Branch Fraud

The United States experiences its first major peacetime financial crisis as the speculative bubble in western land collapses, triggering the Panic of 1819 and a prolonged economic depression. The crisis directly results from the Second Bank of the United States’ reckless lending practices, …