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Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The fix to all this is dispensing some good solid jail time. Ah yes, incarceration, the solution to all of American's problems. How many of these fines are even criminal, let alone worthy of prison time?
Why is this question almost only asked about rich criminals, not poor criminals? Maybe if rich people had more skin in the game, we'd see real incarceration reform.
As Nassim Taleb observed, the problem here is no skin in the game. Bankers keep the upside, but shareholders have to carry the can. It's an agency problem. The fix to all this is dispensing some good solid jail time.
My other suggestion is that to practise banking, one needs a license, which can be revoked. Now that I think of it, Taleb's suggested that banking should be a civil servant job. So, no financial engineering or bonuses, just boring paperwork. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 (IIRC), the role of regular banking and hedge fund activities was split in two. The idea is, of course, that if all the fancy derivati…
That's slightly true already with SEC sanctions, but it doesn't really matter. If I make my millions in bonuses but then I can't practice banking anymore? Oh well nbd.
Moral of the story: don’t bank with Wells Fargo.
Some of us don’t have a choice. I got a mortgage from a local bank. One week after we closed I got a letter that WF now owns my mortgage, and I can send future payments to them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My other suggestion is that to practise banking, one needs a license, which can be revoked. Now that I think of it, Taleb's suggested that banking should be a civil servant job. So, no financial engineering or bonuses, just boring paperwork. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 (IIRC), the role of regular banking and hedge fund activities was split in two. The idea is, of course, that if all the fancy derivati…
> to practise banking, one needs a license, which can be revoked. Most banks are "too big to fail".
An interesting question is should the fed use that distinction at all? And if so should it be removed as a penalty for bad behavior.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"... so it isn't really their money either." Talk about perverse incentives. Their customers, meaning the people who are directly affected, are like the only ones who don't have any power to influence what happens. And everyone with power to influence the company just isn't affected and doesn't care ...
> Their customers, meaning the people who are directly affected, are like the only ones who don't have any power to influence what happens. They do, but they would need to actually change their spending. That's the other thing. After scandal after scandal after scandal, plenty of people still bank at Wells Fargo.
It’s not always exactly a choice. Wells Fargo bought my mortgage from a local bank. The only way to change your lender is to do a refinance, which incurs closing costs. Despite several serious WF fuck ups like double and triple charging my mortgage payment, failing to correctly maintain escrow, etc there is literally nothing I could do without losing tens of thousands of dollars until market conditions had changed and enough time made it feasible to re-fi, which I did promptly.
The problem with big banks is not just that they’re criminally fraudulent assholes, it’s that they will straight buy your customership on the backend in ways you are locked into. The same thing temporarily made me a Bank of America customer when they just straight bought a local bank chain. I’m now with a credit union and moved everything there, but it’s non trivial to do.
As Nassim Taleb observed, the problem here is no skin in the game. Bankers keep the upside, but shareholders have to carry the can. It's an agency problem. The fix to all this is dispensing some good solid jail time.
I like the idea of prison time but that's only going to happen with an impartial legal system that treats everyone the same; regardless of wealth, upbringing or Ivy League attendance among others. In the meantime how about fining companies so much that the bank will become insolvent if they don't give a crap and passing laws (if they don't exist already) to force a halt in trade for x-days/weeks?
Why? These inequities exist all over the US legal system yet prison time is handed out for many offenses anyway.
Is it fair to say Wells Fargo's business as usual is more damaging than FTX's collapse?
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found Wells Fargo violated the whistleblower protection provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Wells Fargo continues to show up with these headlines. The only way thats possible is if HR is facilitating this effort. Congress needs to expand whistleblower protection to result in criminal prosecution of those who facilitated the whistleblower retaliation.
Until then, these violations will continue.
Right now, HR is incentivized to thwart the investigations, and get rid of the whistleblowers. Nothing has changed.