Obama Tells 60 Minutes 'Damaging Behavior on Wall Street' Was Legal, Wasn't Asked Who Enacted

Newsbusters ^ | 12/11/11 | Noel Sheppard

[Nachum]

There was an astonishingly revealing moment on Sunday's 60 Minutes when President Obama said, "Some of the most damaging behavior on Wall Street, in some cases, some of the least ethical behavior on Wall Street, wasn't illegal." For what should be obvious reasons, CBS's Steve Kroft didn't bother asking his guest who created, voted for or signed the pieces of legislation that allowed this "damaging behavior on Wall Street" to be legal (video follows with transcript and commentary):STEVE KROFT (SECOND PART INTRO): In a wide-ranging conversation Friday morning, President Obama discussed everything

[Nachum]

Full title: Obama Tells 60 Minutes 'Damaging Behavior on Wall Street' Was Legal, Wasn't Asked Who Enacted Such Laws

[SpaceBar]

It’s starting to sound like Corzine was on orders from Obama to “prove a point”.

[Sherman Logan]

Kind of a dumb storyline. It implies that the behavior in question was illegal until a law was passed making it legal. Or that “everything that is not specifically permitted is illegal.”

I think what the president says is, unfortunately, quite correct. Much of the damaging stuff done on Wall Street was not illegal because the regulations had not caught up with the wildly diversifying world of derivatives, as just one example. As I understand it, most of the top execs at the firms working with these financial instrument didn’t really understand them or their potential for disaster.

So how can we possibly expect relatively low-pay regulators and (ignorant by any standards) congressmen to spot the dangers and head them off at the pass?

There are large numbers of commentators presently bloviating about why this disaster happened. You can go back to 2007 and earlier and research the truly remarkable paucity of them predicting at that time what would happen.

IOW, almost nobody expected this. So how in the world could laws have been passed to prevent it?

[EyeGuy]

“For what should be obvious reasons, CBS’s Steve Kroft didn’t bother asking his guest who created, voted for or signed the pieces of legislation that allowed this “damaging behavior on Wall Street” to be legal...”

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I’ll bet the 60 Minutes Commies are kicking themselves for not giving the Kenyan an opportunity to slap George Bush...... or Dick Nixon.

[EagleUSA]

Obama decides what is “legal” and the cowards in Washington and the complicit media never take him to task on it.

Yeah, I know, SSDD.

[dragnet2]

It’s perfectly legal to screw over the tax payers.

However, there are no bailouts for any of you.

[FlyVet]

So how can we possibly expect relatively low-pay regulators and (ignorant by any standards) congressmen to spot the dangers and head them off at the pass?

Couldn't expect them to spot the dangers, no. But, I have to believe there were plenty of people tugging on their pant legs, trying to alert them to it. That's what people like Heritage and Cato do.

One example was the stats geek who figured out the Madoff scandal long before it imploded. He submitted his findings five times, to the SEC, and was ignored.

I think the congress critters do a lot of ignoring, too. Too busy catering to lobbyists, and raising money for the next election cycle.

What do they care, most of them? They've got plenty of security, and will always be first at the pay window, no matter how bad things get.

[wac3rd]

Heres a real question.

“Mr. President, why did you personally sue Citibank for redlining and now you go on TV decrying the loans you and the Government made Citbank write?”

Kroft is merely another ass kissing Libtard too enamored with Soetero to have any logic. It’s like a teen girl interviewing Justin Beiber.

[jonrick46]

Ann Barnhardt:

"Why in the world would a man wake up in the morning one day and say you know what, I think I am going to steal all the customer seg funds in this FCM that I'm running, which is the biggest FCM in the country. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. No. Why would a man like that even engage in a nefarious plot like this? Because he knew going into it he could get away with it. And the reason he could get away with it is he is in tight with the Obama regime. He is one of Obama's highest fundraisers. Earlier this year Jon Corzine had a fundraiser dinner at his New York City apartment for Barack Obama where it was charged at $35,000 a plate. Okay? He bundled high six figures for Obama in one evening! He is a crony of the regime. This is Marxist Communism. There is no rule of law. And these people, these poor MF customers are just sitting out here helpless to do anything because there is no law enforcement because this is no longer a nation of laws. The rule of law no longer exists."

[driftless2]

Big Government was the thief, the banks and Wall Street financiers were merely the fences. If Big Government i.e. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, hadn’t stolen the money in the first place, there wouldn’t have been the robbery or ensuing financial disaster.