According to Merrill Matthews; Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Innovation, “We do not think a U.S. recession is imminent, but the threat is very real; the caution flags are waving. Nor do we think recessions are inevitable. Rather, they are almost always the result of misguided policies — sometimes exacerbated by the Federal Reserve Bank,… [Read More]
WE’RE BACK! …The corporate debt bubble strikes again!
Inflated bond ratings were one cause of the financial crisis and it looks as if we haven’t learned from that experience. Here we are ten years later and we’re heading down that path once again. People are concerned right now about an imminent recession for just cause. So how did we circle back? This… [Read More]
The Whistleblower Newsroom; Is This a Conspiracy?
This last week I had the honor of being interviewed for The Whistleblower Newsroom, a podcast by whistleblowers, for whistleblowers, developed and hosted by journalists Celia Farber, TruthBarrier.com, and Kristina Borjesson. Although I had visited with Ms. Borjesson several times on the phone over the last three years, we first met last November at the… [Read More]
The Fed Has a Concern? Really?
And if they are concerned, shouldn’t we be worried as well? For some time, many experts, including William (Bill) D. Cohan, a former investment banker and author of several books, including the most recent, Why Wall Street Matters, have been warning us about the dangers of the corporate debt bubble. Lest we forget, the Federal… [Read More]
Richard Bowen on WRVO, Syracuse University
In November I had the honor of visiting Syracuse University for the Robert Shetterly and the Americans Who Tell the Truth: Models of Courageous Citizenship portraits celebration. This was following the Washington, D.C. unveiling of five portraits of people honored as whistleblowers by the Government Accountability Project (GAP) where I was honored to be one of them. The week… [Read More]
So it’s about bank mergers, stupid!
The world’s largest bank merger in more than a decade has been proposed, and poses concerns many are saying we need to pay attention to. This proposed merger, with BB&T Corp purchasing SunTrust Banks Inc. for $28.2 billion combines two regional lending powerhouses and creates the sixth-largest U.S. retail bank in the U.S. This is… [Read More]
Should the Big Banks Be Nervous?
Will the new scrutiny House Financial Services Committee chairwoman Maxine Waters proposes prevent another financial crisis? Last week Ms. Waters pledged that this committee will keep an eye on the larger banks and pay closer attention to whether regulators were trying to weaken the safeguards and regulations enacted after the last financial crisis. What some… [Read More]
Brigham Young University: Practicing What They Preach
It is always a privilege to be invited to speak at a University to accounting and business students and their faculty. This last week I had that honor- of presenting to Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management and Wheatley Institution, to these groups on ethics and how important integrity is in the business world…. [Read More]
Pulitzer Prize Winner Benoît Bringer Documents the Financial Crisis of 2008!
Award-winning French investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker, Benoît Bringer, and his cameraman, Mathias Denizo, recently spent an afternoon around my kitchen table where they interviewed me regarding my role as a Citigroup whistleblower. Benoît, or Ben as he prefers being called in the US, is based in Paris, France. He was part of the International Consortium of… [Read More]
The Fannie and Freddie Credit Merry-Go-Round
Remember the merry-go-round we rode when we were kids? You went round and round and tried to catch the prize, a brass ring. If you didn’t catch the brass ring – you wanted to get down but the merry-go-round kept going. Fannie and Freddie remind me of that merry-go-round as once again they appear to… [Read More]
