Economic Survey: Wall Street corruption and criminality 'necessary' for success - by Glenn Wright

In what may be the last nail in the coffin of trust by most Americans in the integrity of the Wall Street way of doing business, a new survey reveals shocking levels of indifference to, and even enthusiasm for, criminal behavior amongst "500 senior executives" of Wall Street and UK financial industry firms.

The survey, conducted by the law firm of Labaton-Sucharow, known for filing lawsuits on behalf of investors against "corporate offenders", concludes that, nearly four years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, "[m]isconduct is still widespread in the financial services industry."

In light of increasing scandals on Wall Street, whose firms seem to have learned little or nothing of self-regulation or self-restraint after the 2008 Wall Street meltdown, the new survey points to the need for the one thing Republicans in Congress, and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, claim the USA cannot afford—increased government regulation.

However, as one indicator after another of Wall Street's system being substantially rotten at its core is reported, Wall Street's leaders have an old problem, the same problem that faced the investment industry after the 1929 crash and the Great Depression. For decades after that catastrophe, few Americans trusted Wall Street to be honest players in a game that seemed rigged to reward the super-wealthy few at the considerable expense of the regular investors.

This problem also goes to a greater question of the justice or lack of it in the economic and political system. Why should voters, for example, trust politicians, who are largely beholden to a few big, wealthy contributors, or Wall Street firms?

Read more: Survey: Wall Street corruption and criminality 'necessary' for success - National Political Buzz | Examiner.com

US Presidential Elections: Obama says no apology to Romney over Bain attacks

Mitt Romney's not the solution. He's the problem says Obama.

Questions about Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital and the fortune he earned there have dogged the former Massachusetts governor as Obama and his allies have said the Boston-based firm shipped jobs overseas. Romney insists he left the company in February 1999 to take over the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but documents suggest he was still in charge as late as 2001.

Romney’s advisers, trying to explain the discrepancies between Romney’s account and federal documents, offered fresh explanations to shift the campaign back to more comfortable ground.
“He actually retired retroactively at that point,” Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said. “He ended up not going back to the firm after his time in Salt Lake City. So he was actually retired from Bain.”

A second adviser, Kevin Madden, said Romney had no choice but to have his name listed on Security and Exchange Commission documents as he sought to transfer the company’s leadership to partners.
“The reason that there is a document that had ... his signature is because, during that transition from 1999 to 2002 ... there was a duty to sign those documents,” Madden said.

The exact role Romney played at the firm between 1999 and 2001 is important not only because critics have raised questions about his truthfulness, but also because Bain was sending jobs overseas during that period.

Read more: Obama says no apology to Romney over Bain attacks | Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal