Blog Archives

Journalist Joris Luyendijk After Interviewing 70+ Investment Bankers: “The problem really is exactly as bad as the ‘banker bashers’ believe”

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Jon Ogden — 2 Comments ↓

Joris Luyendijk, a journalist for the Guardian, has been running a banking blog since summer 2011. As part of the project, he’s interviewed over 70 people in the financial sector. Before he started interviewing financiers, he knew almost nothing about the…

Tagged with: Scandals, Too big to fail
Posted in Break Up the Banks, Wall Street Reform

Geithner’s Kickbacks, Bank of America’s Twitter Bot, and More About the Foreclosure Fiasco

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Jon Ogden — No Comments ↓

Note: We haven’t been posting as much recently because we’ve been creating an ebook that will explain exactly why too big has failed. It’ll be an awesome exposé of Wall Street. Look for a release by the end of July. In…

Exposing Corruption on Wall Street: Lawrence Lessig, Matt Taibbi, The Daily Show, and Netroots Nation

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Jon Ogden — No Comments ↓

Lawrence Lessig exposes the roots of corruption on Wall Street in his recent article in the Daily Beast. Specifically, Lessig shows how when Dodd-Frank was first signed into law in 2010, politicians were boasting that it would put Wall Street…

Tagged with: Scandals, Too big to fail, Wall Street Reform
Posted in Scandals, Too Big To Fail

Bank of America Gave Bonuses, Gift Cards To Foreclose On Homeowners

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Jon Ogden — 1 Comment ↓

Bloomberg News and ProPublica have the story: Bank of America gave bonuses and gift cards to employees who met quotas for putting homeowners into foreclosure, incentivizing employees to figure out inventive and illegal ways to closed accounts. It’s a story…

Tagged with: Scandals, Too big to fail
Posted in Scandals

Financialization (or: This Party Is For Wall Street, Not You)

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Jon Ogden — No Comments ↓

Have you heard of the word financialization? It’s an ugly word that basically means an economy has become over-reliant and over-run by a bloated financial sector. To see an example of financialization, look at the United States right now. The…

Tagged with: break up the banks, financialization, GDP, Too big to fail
Posted in Too Big To Fail

The Rise of Too Big To Fail, In One Chart

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Jon Ogden — No Comments ↓

This chart shows that “too big to fail” is a relatively recent phenomenon in the United States—one that only really surfaced over the past 15 years with the slow erosion of Glass-Steagall (among other factors). It’s a chart that shows…

Tagged with: break up the banks, glass-steagall, Too big to fail
Posted in Too Big To Fail

50% Favor Breaking Up the Big Banks, 27% Undecided

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Jon Ogden — No Comments ↓

More than four years after the 2008 financial crisis, a report from Rasmussen shows that 50% of US adults say they favor breaking up the big banks, while 27% are undecided. The report comes after years of scandals and after megabanks have grown by…

Tagged with: break up the banks, Too big to fail
Posted in Break Up the Banks, Too Big To Fail

These 3 Laws Would Actually Reform Wall Street, and They Deserve Your Support. See Why.

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Jon Ogden — No Comments ↓

Sometimes Wall Street reform seems completely hopeless. After all, it’s been over four years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and we still haven’t seen much change. However, there’s good reason to keep up the fight. Right now there are…

Tagged with: break up the banks, glass-steagall, Too big to fail, Wall Street Reform
Posted in Wall Street Reform

Jimmy Wales Quote - “Too Big To Fail Is An Abomination”

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Jon Ogden — No Comments ↓

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales spoke bluntly and boldly in a speech given at a conference of community bankers this morning. He also called too big to fail an “abomination,” and he said ”if you run a company into the ground and…

Tagged with: Jimmy Wales, Scandals, Too big to fail, Wall Street Reform
Posted in Too Big To Fail

Is The New Yorker Wrong About What Makes a Bank Risky?

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Jon Ogden — No Comments ↓

“The fundamental problem with banks,” writes James Surowiecki in The New Yorker, “is what it’s always been: they’re in the business of banking, and banking, whether plain vanilla or incredibly sophisticated, is inherently risky.” On the surface, Surowiecki’s assertion makes sense. Banking has…

Tagged with: megabank, new yorker, Too big to fail, Wall Street Reform
Posted in Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Jail