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William Black 44 posts 0 comments

William K. Black, J.D., Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Bill Black has testified before the Senate Agricultural Committee on the regulation of financial derivatives and House Governance Committee on the regulation of executive compensation.

Political Economy

The Political Economy of Artificial Constraints on Government Money

William Black Feb 29, 2012

Consider the statements by the UK leadership that the UK has "run out of money." Does anyone think that the UK financial leaders believe that statement? If Germany declared war on the UK tomorrow would the UK surrender because it had "run…

Political Economy

Obama Administration propaganda on prosecuting elite financial frauds

William Black Feb 2, 2012

The Obama administration’s record of prosecuting elite financial frauds is worse than the Bush administration’s record, which is a very large statement. Neither administration has prosecuted any elite CEO for the epidemic of mortgage fraud…

Business

Anti-employee Control Fraud

William Black Jan 17, 2012

Apple has released a report on working conditions in its suppliers’ factories. It highlights a form of control fraud that criminology has identified but rarely discussed. I write overwhelmingly about accounting control fraud because it…

Economy

The continuing saga of bank self-regulation and other fairy tales featuring Alan Greenspan

William Black Jan 12, 2012

We continue to witness remarkable developments in the intersection of the related fields of economics, finance, ethics, law, and regulation. Each of these five fields ignores a sixth related field – white-collar criminology. The six fields…

Economy

Real Financial Regulators Love Prosecutions of Fraudulent Bank CEOs

William Black Jan 11, 2012

Senior former regulators are willing to be quoted by name asserting that Obama’s (not Bush’s) financial regulatory leaders are blocking lawsuits against fraudulent financial elites and their anti-regulatory co-conspirators because they fear…

Economy

Bank of America’s Death Rattle: Not with a Bang, but a Whimper

William Black Oct 19, 2011

Bob Ivry, Hugh Son and Christine Harper have written an article that needs to be read by everyone interested in the financial crisis. The article (available here) is entitled: BofA Said to Split Regulators Over Moving Merrill Derivatives…

Economy

Two Billion Dollars Lost because the FDIC Ignored United Commercial Bank’s Frauds

William Black Oct 18, 2011

The good news is that we finally have the second group of indictments of senior bank officers. The prosecution involves officers of United Commercial Bank (UCB), a roughly $10 billion San Francisco bank that originally specialized in…

Political Economy

Solyndra: Liar’s Loans

William Black Sep 27, 2011

This column comments on Joe Nocera’s September 23, 2011 column entitled: The Phony Solyndra Scandal. Nocera’s column compares the statements of Solyndra’s controlling managers to Dick Fuld’s statements to the public about Lehman’s…

Economy

Why Nobody Went to Jail During the Credit Crisis

William Black Sep 19, 2011

The following is a transcript of an interview with Financial Sense Newshour, a free financial/market broadcast hosted by money manager Jim Puplava on the week's market action, interviews with financial experts, and Jim's personal…

Economy

The FHFA Complaints and Control Fraud

William Black Sep 7, 2011

The FHFA complaints lose explanatory power and persuasiveness because they ignore compensation and accounting. It pays to understand accounting control fraud.