you weren't thinking about the import-export bank. it's a small government agency that tells you blendy about how government works in 2014, and it's the inside story. >> hello, i'm ray suarez. fights in washington often involve big binary questions about the future. axis, war and peace, healthcare. some washington fights go on below the public radar but carry with them the ability to explain a lot about how the u.s. government works and how the tug-of-war between the political schools of thought go on. we'll look at the debate over the export credit agency, the export-import bank of the united states. what it's for, how it works, and whether it should continue to exist at all. >> more small businesses are selling their goods abroad more than ever before. nearly 300,000 last year alone. we should be doing everything we can to excel rate this process, not stall it. >> a little known washington agency topped president obama's weekly address saturday. the bank provides loans and insurance to foreign purchasers of u.s. products. it gets com

the bank is just opening the doors.nyave any news negative reaction at this moment. >> will customers stick with the institution? >> there are hopes for everybody. the central from the to the other banks, industry will absorb the customers. if they do this they will move value to the bank. all that the industry gets reduction. there will be a transference from value from the new banks in the industry. the winners and losers. to increase capital. you have to give this to the customers and allow them to be stable and quiet as they used to be. >> how much value is there in this new bank? the portuguese are calling it a new bank whereas the europeans are calling it a temporary credit institution. the expectations from russell's is the new bank will be broken up to value returns back the government. understand, the idea is not to split the bank but to keep it in industry hands just for a while. to shareholders that want to. the bridge is a temporary bank. in terms of ownership and management, this is supposed to be short. ma

if the xm bank go away? will the private sector step in? it will only step in for a small fraction of the purchases, that's why the government got involved in the first place. the reason why the government can make money where a commercial bank can't because the government has built in systems and structures to know what the political risks are, do-to-deal with currency fluctuations that the private sector has to charge a large amount of money but not everyone wants to be in that arena. >> there are some things that the government does only because the private sector doesn't choose to do it. the governments of the mid 20th century were not rubbing their hands together excitedly saying let's build housing units in big american cities. the market police similarly was not supplying housing for working class people who were a big chunk of the population, so the government did it. it has problems with its legacy, but it did it because the private sector which now says yes we can do this wasn't doing it. >> they were doing it because people were

the u.s. products or guarantee a bank in the local country that lends the money to the buyer and the u.s. import-export bank can guarantee that loan. but it is the u.s. import-export bank that takes the risk. it's a calculated risk. in its total loss it has had more gains than losses and losses are less than 1% in terms of default. >> if people barrow usin using using this mechanism, they're likely to pay back. what is the problem? >> saying that it's taking the risks, it's the u.s. taxpayers are taking the risk. >> well, it doesn't sound like a risk. >> well, if fannie and freddie were profitable until it isn't. if you look closely to what he says. these are loans in places where private capital would not ordinarily provide loans. what he's say something these places are so risky that the market won't provide the capital. so therefore the tax payers should. now if you're sitting at home wondering does that make sense, the answer is no, it doesn't make sense. what the bank is really just a politically connected slush fund for crony capitalism that benefits just a few companies that can hir

large scale investment banks will not exist in the future. there'll bank regulated, and they should be. there should be one governance process. can we compete? absolutely. we purchase a business called smith barney from citigroup. he will break $2 trillion of financial assets in a business. phenomenal business. low capital usage, great returns. every institution has to look at where they can get the returns. and to adjust their business model accordingly. >> you are moving away from the capital intensive, highly regulated investment banking businesses? >> i would not say we are moving away from it. the ballast which gives us stability. the other half is the engine room. have a business model which mixes the best of both worlds. time will prove if that is the case. >> new forms of lending going on.

central bank revealed the plan to rescue the country's second largest lender by breaking up the bank and pumping billions of euros worth of state money into it as santo provided loans to its parent company euro fin holdings which is a luxembourg based conglomerate which is run into some trouble lately after an auditor accounting irregularities last month and the bank also sold billions of euros worth of debt to its own customers now under the four point nine billion euro plan depositors and senior bondholders will be sparred while the banks non senior creditors and current shareholders will have to absorb the losses now most of the banks deposits branches workers and operations will be transferred to a new entity or a good bank controlled entirely by the bank of portugal called novo bank now while bank asparagus problems those problems assets they'll remain with the bad bank and losses will be absorbed by shareholders and subordinated creditors like i've mentioned before now basically the banks current customers and senior bondholders will be protected so funding for the bailout

the bank said quote nothing changes for the customers who will be able to carry out all operations as usual and without disruption the contents of the contractual relationships with the customers remain unchanged now euro zone banks are still far far from perfect but the leaders have given themselves the tools to calm market panic by creating a permanent bailout fund known as the european stability mechanism and are putting in place the essential elements of a banking union the e.c.b. is reviewing the assets and resilience of the region's most important banks and eurozone states of agreed to rules on how to rescue or wind down banks that do find themselves in some trouble so will the plan in portugal prove successful we'll just have to wait and see. now to get a better feel of what's at stake here we wanted to talk debt with william white so white is chairman of the economic development and review committee of the organization for economic cooperation and development or o.e.c.d. now he's also the former economic advisor of the monetary and economic department of the bank of internatio

beside the backdoor banks having a trusted lender of last resort. we are the side that knows you can't get divorced and still keep the joint account. one who is throwing a hand grenade into this mix. he is the reason that the governor is now being forced to prepare contingencies and he is the reason why the headlines this morning are talking about capital flight and chaos. independence, he claims nothing will change, he protests that somebody else should have to clear this up. we know that the first minister hates to take responsibility for anything. is he really suggesting that this is the fault of everybody else? >> i'm suggesting it is a responsibility of the no campaign who deliberately tries to create instability as a campaign tactic. i'm not playing other people, i'm taking that responsibility to the labor party and the conservative party and their alliance in the no campaign. the action ofting the governor of the bank of england from fulfilling his responsibility and recognizing these responsibilities continued after september 18. is exactly w

before coming to the banks? [inaudible] >> i think that gets into sort of the underwriting with you doing in terms of looking at allegedly and the analysis that is done there. we have work underway right now that's looking at that. but at work is yet complete. i would point out that we had made some recommendations back in '07 and this is just to clarify a point. although ex-im has been cooperative and agreed with our recommendations, not all have yet been implemented and so there's some back in 2007 which looks at the economic impact that it is still working on. >> okay. let me ask also in terms of the numbers, what numbers. both sides of this debate are claiming numbers that support their case these on different accounting methodologies. so the bank can't estimate it made 1.6 billion in revenues for taxpayers since 2008. yet as you know and it has been cited here today the cbo reported on may 22 that if ex-im used the fair value accounting that it would be budgeted as $200 million cost to the taxpayers this yea

workers and operations will be transferred to a new entity or a good bank controlled entirely by the bank of portugal called novo bank now while bank or spirit has problems those problem assets they'll remain with the bad bank and losses will be absorbed by shareholders and subordinated creditors like i mentioned before now basically the banks current customers and senior bondholders will be protected so funding for the bailout comes from the bank of portugal's resolution fund which is a mechanism designed to help control banking sector risks a loan from the state will provide the resolution fun with additional capital which it will likely need now in a statement the bank said quote nothing changes for the customers who will be able to carry out all operations as usual and without disruption the contents of the contractual relationships with the customers remain unchanged now euro zone banks are still far far from perfect but the leaders have given themselves the tools to calm market panic by creating a permanent bailout fund known as the european stability mechanism and are putting in pl

first up we're talking about debt in all its forms and glory today the good the bad and the ugly of portugal's a bank though it's fair to say resolution plan is a top of the deck and what the rest of the eurozone can learn from it then william white is on the program the former chief economist of the b. i asked and current chairman of the economic development and review committee is joining us live on the show today. to discuss ultra easy monetary policy and whether public and private debt is still a problem they face crisis now also in today's big deal edward harrison and i are going to be sticking with this whole debt theme will be looking at public and private forms of it and again how much of it exists post-crisis you want to miss a moment actually gets in that it all starts right now. with. our lead story today debt more specifically debt in the context of portuguese bank spirit. now late sunday portugal's central bank unveiled a four point nine billion euro or six point six billion dollars rescue plan for a bank or a spiritual song to the central bank revealed the plan to rescue the country's s

>> it is being spent by the bank of portugal, the central bank. resolution fund was set in 2012, financed by the country's 84 banks. they will take over the bank as a whole. suspended shares on friday. it will move most of the assets and put it into this new bank, baank --, which is new bank. it will use the proceeds when it sells the bank to pay off the treasury. so the resolution fund to the bank. >> exactly. >> within the central bank. that is what has bailed out banco espirito santo. luckily, portugal still has $6 billion remaining from its bailout in 2011. the bad bank, problematic to use the word assets, held by the shareholders and the junior bondholders. they will include the loans in other parts of the espirito group. taxpayersews is that are not on the hook. >> well, they are in the short term. >> exactly. the senior bondholders are not on the hook. as in cyprus, the depositors are not on the hook as well. this is similar to what happened with the bank in england. arejunior bondholders taking some of the hip as well as the shareholders.

the first bank was formed -- i think it is great. innovation, the payment system, these are all innovations. if there is a market for it and they can do it efficiently and manage the credit risk, god bless them. >> is it going to end in tears? with a set of problems emerging? >> nothing is risk-free, particularly around money. again, if people understand the credit risks they are taking. what really matters is getting your capital back first. >> spoken like a true banker. i have a lot more questions, but no more time. [applause] research andrew mcaffe and the new machine age. >> we have two very fun folks. we have andrew mcafee, who has one of the hottest books on the market right now. with david brooks, columnist for "the new york times." at our opening dinner, david gave a riveting, sobering talk about the subject happiness. in the back of my mind, i had the pharrell williams song going on. the moral versus the economic as we look at the machine age that is coming. david brooks. >> i ask short questions. machines think, humans think

two and subsequent activities of the first thing really had to do about the central banks role lender of last resort and trying to restore financial stability the second rounds in the subsequent rounds in the forward guidance and all the rest of it is really designed to increase aggregate demand and one of the principal ways that they're trying to do it is by boosting asset prices in the hope that the perception of increased wealth will result in more consumption and more investment and whatever it's a very very different purpose and i think there's lots of reasons to doubt that it's actually going to work now many would say that there's a certain trickle down feel to q we do you think that's correct. well one of the worries is the i think there is an element of trickle down. but only an element the fact of the matter is that if the gains particularly on the stock market in and the narrowing of spreads in financial markets if the gains are going particularly to the rich as they are because they're the people that tend to own most of these things whereas the middle class people are mos

the u.s. bank of england where's the weak link that when this when the when the when the you know the stuff hits the fan this time who's going to be revealed as the weak link well this is first of all the strongest link in china because china the central bank is willing to print all the money. to keep its economy afloat so it isn't the weak link won't be china it'll be it'll be america and it's always been america for the last century because america is the most highly leveraged country of all england is also very severely leveraged which is why the bank of england has taken it begun to take moves to try to stop the leveraging the so the u.s. and england are that weak links but also you have the south you have the sovereign debt the governments of southern europe are greece. and the other countries that are especially hurt by the russians retaliatory sanctions they're still not able to run a budget deficit so you're having this fiscal squeeze in addition to the debt squeeze the fiscal squeeze is co

when they are afraid of the when the banks get a cold, we get the flu. we don't need banks that get so big and so loose with their cash -- not their cash, your cash -- that we cannot control. do not to make sure they go hog wild. they were essentially in vegas on wall street with your money. they should not get to do that. if we could put restraints on even the banks did not know how much value they had and some of the stocks they had purchased. they were betting against themselves, these hedge bets. money down and had spent some of their investments were going to lose. if they did lose on the investments, they are ok because they had to do against the loss. it's crazy. i agree we need to do something with is why we have credit unions. it's why we started savings and loans. we have to have a financial system that works for everyone especially small businesses. without the line of credit emma it makes it very tough. let me go on to the next question. luis, and i'm being told we are pretty much out of time. 10 or 15 minutes away. i will pick a few more name

protests have been taking place across the west bank. meanwhile, clashes have been taking place across the west bank as people react to events in gaza. a little over a wook ago, one person was killed and scored more wounded when israeli security forces opened fire on a checkpoint between ramallah and jerusalem. for now the third intifada that some were predicting start to materialize. for the senior member of the ruling plo, recent events only heightened support for rivals hamas. he said they will emerge stronger from the conflict. >> i think support is rising up in the west bank. and it was there at the beginning of the war. i don't think there was complete identification with the demands with the gaza strip. >> increasing public sympathy perhaps but hamas has been decapitated in the west bank. many of its members were arrested during the israeli crackdown that followed the killing of three jewish teenagers in june. >> moving on, nouri al maliki ordered the iraqi air force to help the kurds threatened by the advance of isis sunni extremi

of the bank of england. ou very much. we will bring you the report live and in full in this hour. let's turn to the ukraine. is movinga convoy towards the border. what happens when they hit the front? what is the latest about the trucks from when we were first talking about them. what do we know about where they are and what it contains? andhe convoy was on its way when the convoy comes, that is -- that is when things get interesting. city,e biggest ukrainian it was 70 kilometers and very close. the russians, when they announced the convoy, said the exact route with the convoy is going to travel and what border it is going to cross. they said that the whole thing had been coordinated with the ukraine. we are hearing from ukraine and they say they are going to stop the convoy because they are not certain that it is only humanitarian. they think it might be military. the committee for the red cross has been part of coordinating this and they are starting to get cold feet. have a listen. contact with all of the

>> decision day for the central banks. will the russia crisis disrupt mario draghi's outlook and is the bank of england on the verge of a split? president bands agricultural imports from countries imposing sanctions. the biggest bank settlement in history. bank of america is said to be having a $16 million fine. sprint walks away, the company's earnings are breaking now. welcome to "countdown." breaking news crossing the bloomberg terminal from deutsche telekom. caroline hyde is here. --basically in line with basically flat on last year. it is in line with where analyst had been expected. sales were tiny bit weaker than had been expected. analysts wanted 15.2 billion euros but sales flat on the previous year. this is a company facing intense pressure in terms of prices. they have stronger competitors. it's going to up the ante in terms of pricing competition. the chief executive has vowed to revitalize the company, particularly the european operation. the biggest setback of course all over the news yesterday is the u.s. uni

suspect that the bank is reaching to raise rates. shot across the bows of complacency. there is a concern about snuffing out growth. mortgage rates tend to pop rates -- orterest bank rates than he used to. -- it used to. >> interesting. thank you very much gilbert joining us. -- thank you very much. mark gilbert joining us. a snub ahead of the u.k. takeover deadline to put up or shut up by friday. caroline hyde is with us with more. are they the same reasons before from balfour beatty? >> they are the same risks they are outlining us before. it sweetened deal of valuing at 2.1 billion pounds is still not enough to overcome it. if they team up with karelian -- ion, it would make the biggest builder in the u.k. that is a key risk. parsons brinkerhoff also keeps haunting carillion. .hey are close to selling it that would go to the investor base as cash returned to shareholders. they want to get rid of this asset that has been burning a hole in their pocket. there is no logic to keeping it. illion says that as part of the deal. if they w

but it's all on the banks. i'm not saying they shouldn't have their comeuppance, but nobody else seems to be. fannie and freddie are largely in their own little words, unpunished. and the politicians who goaded them on are now doing speeches. >> the politicians that goaded them on, some of them obviously should not be in politics any more. >> the secures and exchange commission knew they were doing it. >> who forced them? andrew cuomo forced them. they told him to do loans. they told them to do sub prime loans. >> no, no. charlottesville le-- charlie th did not. you knew it was going to be a loss. >> you should lower your standards and do more sub prime loans and they influenced them to do that. in order to do that, you have to secure -- >> you don't have to -- >> keep them on their balance sheet. >> you can't do the sub prime -- >> let me say this. you're telling me andrew cuomo said to securityize these morages and sell them to pension funds -- >> stop! let's not forget alan greenspan, i have the quote. he sta

some of the biggest names in bank arrange at the global summit to rethink banking models. no small topic on the agenda today? >> yeah, the future of finance and there are some big, big questions. we talked a little bit about credit provision. when you compare and contrast what happens heres have in the united states. you look at the united states, some of the big fines imposed and there is a risk of regulatory overreach. are these banks becoming overwhelmed? something that doug also flint talked about recently -- douglas flint talked about. i'll be talking with him and then i have andreas dombret of the bunde bank. we'll talk about his role on the supervisory mechanism. we have to be clear about this. what are the difficulties here in the euro-zone? i know he has something to say on what he calls reform fatigue. look at for that one, anna. >> interesting when you consider just how much banks are spending and should be spending on regulation when we have witnessed some enormous fines in the banking sector of late. >> yeah, anna, when you look at some of these fines on the ba

let's move to the national bank of australia. for the national australia bank. as low interest rates helped to limit defaults. alibaba may face scrutiny ahead of its ipo on some of the irregularities in the country -- in the company's film business. it is unlikely to be delayed. shares were suspended friday in hong kong. no word on whether shares are reopening today. for more than a century, harley davidson bikes have been using the highways and byways of america. the iconic look and sound may all be about to change with an all-electric model. let's pay homage to the hogs. ♪ >> to get more on that story any, just download the bloomberg tablet or mobile, available on android, apple, and windows as well. the nba welcoming its first ever player from indian origin. llar comes from toronto. he is signed by the second metal kings and was the biggest player in the ncaa this season. an impressive 7'5". he was taking part in today's indian day parade through the streets of new york. let's have a look ahead at what is coming in the program. china's economy shrinking more t

we are talking about the future of banking. working.t europe you have to talk about the financial services industry. the u.k. faces a lot more regulations. that is a lot of uncertainty for a lot of people operating in london. if you are operating in london , we put the to calm question to the deputy governor of the bank of england yesterday. this is what he had to say. is a target. you have to make sure the center is honest. that the infrastructure works. people find the environment conducive and they would choose to be there. the city of london faces a lot of uncertainty. this is a financial issue and a political question. it will be some and that is difficult to manage. >> we have seen some pretty big u.s. fines. i know you are speaking to hsbc about that. >> regulatory overreach is an issue that everybody has been to say about. you have regulations coming from here, there, and everywhere. how much time are they spending? they will have to address something. >> they have a lot to say about that. banks are overwhelmed and distr

the weekend. do you know where your money is? don't ask your bank, because for the five big nest the kgest in , things got scary and i'm talking real scary. not just because jpmorgan and others were hacked or just because the russians were hacking them, but the way they were hacking them and how far they got hacking them. apparently, deep enough to delete and change bank records. i want you to think about that. think about someone getting into your bank account, maybe zeroing out your bank account, scary stuff, and it makes you wonder what could be next. on that happy note, let's get right to it to ben stein, and charles fain and gerri willis and adam koshinski. and i want to remind you that it is still cavuto even though i was out last week. and okay. what do you make of this, charles payne, because we all hear the hack attacks, but this is serious of how far it attacked. >> and how sophisticated, and talking jpmorgan and because it was backed more or less by the russian government. >> and the russians are saying it isn't. >> and i trust putin. >>

forbes lists the bank of america as the second largest bank in the u.s. and another large settlement was made by j.p. morgan chase, the top spot on american banks. the company greed to pay $13 billion and citigroup agreed to pay $7 billion. none of the banks admitted to any wrongdoing. that's a round up of the other banks that have had to pay out. we are joined live from washington, d.c., first to talk about specifically about the bank of america and that announcement just made that the bank reached a $16.65 billion settlement with u.s. regulators to settle the charges. it was exspecked, wasn't it? >> well, it was expected, but it was only as the result of very tough negotiations reportedly bank of america initially offered only $3 billion, and the government, holder personally taking charge of the face of the personal negotiations insisted that the bank was liable for more than that. the bank had con tended that they basically were the toxic loans, the mortgage-backed securities that were based on toxic loans were really the fault of the two companies th

how does the bank address that? >> the question is if you are going to cause the recession by rates. >> yes. who wins the argument? >> it strikes me as being important. if you are not getting wage growth, it signals that there is more slack in the economy than you would think. there'llve less slack, be wage growth. you are not getting wage growth. the coala canary in mine with wage growth. >> the problem is that the canary in the coal mine may be wage growth and it is to lay. if you want to keep rates low, you have to be ahead of the curve. you may be behind the curve. >> you may be. you run the risk of over-tightening at a point when -- >> nobody thinks there'll be a hike. slope of it towards normalization and a rate hike. and do a gradual process not think you are going to get that next week. to buildradual process up to that point. >> the data is strong. >> they will be slow and gradual about it. come on themore to central bank story. later, on bloomberg tv, we will bring you mario draghi and his news conference l

occ and the state-charted banks, mainly the community banks said no. don't want to be in there with the big banks and we want to stay with the fed because we want a regulator that pays attention to us and isn't overly influenced and here the the problem is this and one of the best things that happened from my standpoint with the regulation going forward, with senator reid getting the senate to say we're not going to allow judges to be filibustered because you have an imbalanced court in the circuit in d.c. you had a lack of funding and i think the biggest single problem has been the incredible underfunding of the cftc. they were given the the biggest grand of new authority and derivatives and they were wildly underfunded and that's why people regret that we didn't let them be in that situation. what many would like to do with throttle with cfpb and then you have -- and then you have the financial industry loading all these comments on the agency which you have to do and you have the court requiring a very specific analysis and then saying, oh, no, that

the china central bank released its policy review. the people's bank of china looks like it is shooting down expectations. david is in hong kong with the details. >> that's right. it is not surprising they have come out with this assessment, given the amount of money we have seen injected. they did acknowledge there has been a rapid increase in a lot of things. credit lending. they did express when it comes to solving underlying structural problems. of theven't lost sight reform agenda when it comes to financial markets. china will likely refrain from broad-based. say toh they did ex expect monetary stimulus to come into place. that raises a point about borrowing costs. able to lower borrowing costs. i think it is continuing to fall. there are places that need financing to be cheap and available. that is the key take away. >> just stepping back from the markets. there was a strong earthquake in china. it is the southwestern part of china. at least 381 people have been we understand. .here are torrential rains we know 2500 troops have b

the fed. these banks are the biggest banks and compete with other banks in the world. do not think it is the right answer to break them up. they are in fact still too big to fail and i think the results of the orderly liquidation proves that. still have to manage that i do not think the right answer is to break them up. >> let's talk about business conditions for a moment. business conditions you are dealing with as a ceo. >> last time you are here a year ago you said relative -- lending standards are still relatively low. some of that is starting to a road. seeing lending starting to deteriorate some. not back to her was in 2007 but there definitely is some erosion occurring. >> whether it is credit or stock prices doubled exist, everything is cyclical. whether it is a seven-year cycle or 10 year cycle is anybody's guess. >>re are we in that cycle? because of the size of the financial crisis and cries -- size of the bubble that burst, i think it is likely it will last longer this time. we are not at the excessive level yet. lex how will you know? >> one of the problem

and the individuals in the ban banks. it's the same thing playing out in the stock market. and i think that is why it's happening. basically, technology has reduced the natural and the useful role played by wall street and eliminating it in some markets and you have to find other things to do. [applause] we are going to bring a table up your just get a couple of minutes to get organized. barnes and noble is out on the patio and they have some mouth on cloud well books available for sale to the because they'll blink bac >>> co-author steve forbes and evil is a talk about their books and how the destruction of the dollar threatens the global economy. this event was held at politics and prose bookstore in washington, d.c. in june. >> vr very privileged to have with us this evening a very recognizable figure in the media and business world. steve is of course editor in chief of forbes magazine, the nation's leading business magazine and he has had a media company that includes not only asian and european editions, but a number

it is up to the bank to defend itself and to the bank to get the police or the fbi. t if you have a much bigger threat, which has to do with government related, then at that point, banks have to work with the government. i think it will be interesting. the government has been so anti-bank over the last several years. maybe this is something that brings them together. >> coming to be very reluctant about the fbi working with them in general. i think there is no choice at some point. governments and banks will have to work together. i think field cyber security, the ownership of the internet, the data which can be manipulated, it is a key event. the u.s. is one of the safest places. the majority of servers and data are here on u.s. soil. the banks most at risk are the ones that do not have full control of the server. if you have full control of have a lookey can at it, but they cannot take anything up to read >> it almost seems the way the you describe it that paradoxically, we could end up in a situation where the , whether the u.s. government, the british government,

the data. it is all about central banks. e this week, we do have services sector isn data that we'll continue to watchout for that. more coming up this week as far as indications on the employment situation and wages in the u.s., which caused some of the consternation that we saw in last week's session and that supported the session on friday, too. we'll look at the european market. we have lost a bit of steam as the session progresses. right now the xetra dax is lower .30%. the cac is higher by .40%. and we are seeing gains for the portuguese market. good bank and bad bank solution now for this bank lifting the border markets with a .30% gape. we'll look at bond rates as we are watching what's going on as far as portugal is concerned. we are continuing to see yields tighten by four basis points, 3.63. yes, there's a separation as far as the sovereign and the individual bank is concerned being redeployed by the market this morning. ten-year yield trading at just over that level. here's what's going on as far as the foreign ex

a lot in the schemes were demanded by the chair horldz of the banks themselves. so it doesn't trouble me the shareholders will pay some of the settlement. they are responsible for some of the pay practices and procedures that led to this problem in the first place. so the reality is corporations are huge institutions. they influence the behavior of the people inside them. at some point you have to focus on the institution and not just on the individuals. the people in the banking industry who knew it was going on but for the most part at the very low level, they were the mortgage brokers, they were the underwriters, it wasn't the c.e.o.s and top executives, many of whom found it quite easy to look the other way and not know what was going on. criminal prosecution of individuals is very hard in these cases. the most effective strategy may be just what the department of justice is pursuing which is to hit the corporate entity where the corporate entity hurts and that is its wallet. > i wish that was true. no one has enough information to know whether it is or not. w