How they Got Away with it: White Collar Criminals and the Financial Meltdown

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

[Part I] Roots of the Crisis

1 Wall Street: Crime Never Sleeps

David O. Freidrichs

2 The Logics of Finance: Abuse of Power and Systemic Crisis

3 America’s Ponzi Culture

4 Bernie Madoff, Finance Capital, and the Anomic Society

[Part II] Enablers of Fraud

5 Unaccountable External Auditors and Their Role in the Economic Meltdown

6 And Some with a Fountain Pen: Mortgage Fraud, Securitization, and the Subprime Bubble

Harold C. Barnett

7 Generating the Alpha Return: How Ponzi Schemes Lure the Unwary in an Unregulated Market

[Part III] Perverted Justice

8 The Technological Advantages of Stock Market Traders

9 Why CEOs Are Able to Loot with Impunity—and Why It Matters

William K. Black

10 The Façade of Enforcement: Goldman Sachs, Negotiated Prosecution, and the Politics of Blame

Justin O’Brien

[Part IV] Perspectives from Afar

11 Reappraising Regulation: The Politics of “Regulatory Retreat” in the United Kingdom

Steve Tombs and David Whyte

12 How They Still Try to Get Away with It: Crime in the Dutch Real Estate Sector Before and After the Crisis

Hans Nelen and Luuk Ritzen

13 Economic and Financial Criminality in Portugal

Rita Faria, José Cruz, André Lamas Leite, and Pedro Sousa

14 Greece “For Sale”: Casino Economy and State-Corporate Crime

15 Financial Fraud in China: A Structural Examination of Law and Law Enforcement

EPILOGUE Can They Still Get Away with It?

APPENDIX A Short (Global) History of Financial Meltdowns

Compiled by Alex Holden