Crossposted from Common Dreams

Isaiah Poole

Four people who have been at the center of some of the nation’s biggest Wall Street scandals have come together to send a message to the 2016 presidential candidates: Pledge to stand against Wall Street fraud and corruption – not just with words, but with the kind of actions that Americans have long expected but have yet to see.

The four veterans of battles with banksters – Gary J. Aguirre, William K. Black, Richard M. Bowen III and Michael Winston – on Thursday called on the candidates to not take contributions from financial companies or officers that have been charged with fraud, particularly related to the 2008 financial meltdown. They have also outlined a set of actions that they say will “restore the rule of law” on Wall Street. They have formed a new organization, Bank Whistleblowers United, to move that agenda forward.

“We…

Daily Kos:

Morris Pearl, chairman of the Patriotic Millionaires lobbying group, is unlike many of the wealthy plutocrats that many of us justifiably rail against. To be clear, he is a capitalist. But he’s a capitalist with a conscience, and not an oligarch. In fact, his aim is to prevent the slide toward oligarchy that many believe is occurring—or has already occurred.

Pearl was a managing director at BlackRock, one of the largest investment firms in the world. He worked on the Maiden Lane transactions, and assessing the government’s potential losses from the bailouts of Citibank and AIG. Prior to BlackRock, Pearl enjoyed a long tenure on Wall Street where he invented some of the securitization technology connecting America’s capital markets to consumers in need of credit.

Mr. Pearl was not born poor. His parents were middle-class small business owners of six small clothing stores in upstate New York. He went to public schools and the University of Pennsylvania…

Tune into television coverage of the presidential campaign and undoubtedly you will hear from various pundits described as “former campaign strategists” and “political contributors” explaining the latest developments of the race. But in many cases, these pundits — though introduced as neutral experts on campaigns or party politics — in fact have financial ties to the candidates they praise on the air.

Several consultants who work at firms retained by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and her affiliated Super PACs appear regularly on the major television networks, frequently touting Clinton.

A review of pundits on the major networks and cable news also found one prominent pundit who often praised Jeb Bush without the network revealing her relationship with his campaign.

“Journalism 101 teaches that reporters and TV news hosts must properly identify their sources and analysts,” says Jeff Cohen, an associate professor of journalism at Ithaca College. We reached out to NBC, CBS, CNN, and ABC News, but did not hear back.

That is the question…

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton again refused to release transcripts of her paid speeches to big banks, telling a CNN town hall audience Tuesday night that she will only release her transcripts if her Republican opponents release theirs.

“Earlier tonight, I asked Senator Sanders: Will you give your transcripts of speeches?” said host Chris Cuomo. “He said he doesn’t have the bank speeches. If he can find any of the speeches that he did give for money, he will gladly give the transcripts up. So: Will you agree to release these transcripts? They have become an issue.”

Clinton replied: “Sure, if everybody does it, and that includes the Republicans.”

She continued: “Because we know they have given a lot of speeches.” She then went on to offer a defense of her Wall Street regulatory plan.

Read on.

Collateralized Debt Obligations, Credit Default Swaps, Securitization Food Chain, AIG, The failure of AIG, Sub Prime Mortgages