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THE CONTRAST WITH OUR SUCCESSORS’ REGULATION OF BANKS REPORTING HIGH PROFITS Senior supervisors told the FCIC it was difficult to express their concerns forcefully when financial institutions were generating record-level profits. The Fed’s Roger Cole: “a lot of that pushback was given credence—Citigroup was earning $4 to $5 billion a quarter. And that is really hard for a supervisor to successfully challenge.” (FCIC 2010:307) The reality was that Citigroup was losing vast amounts of money on its fraudulent mortgage loans—but reporting profits through deceit. Richard Bowen Citi SVP, underwriting: “supervise[d] the purchase of roughly $50 billion annually in prime loan pools [for resale to Fannie & Freddie]. The [weak] sampling provided to Bowen’s staff for quality control . . . showed extremely high rates of noncompliance. [In 2006] we identified that 40 to 60 percent of the files either had a ‘disagree’ decision, or they were missing critical documents.” (FCIC 2010:168) In the S&L debacle, our standard operating procedure would have made Citi a top priority. In the mortgage fraud crisis, Citi became effectively immune because regulators feared it would be really hard to challenge a bank reporting high profits.
The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One
William K. Black
Most revealingly, many of the people on the list contributed to both parties. Indeed, real estate developers are infamous as political contributors. Many of them strike it big by getting a zoning change from the local commission or obtaining a license to develop a facility from a state agency. Real estate developers commonly donate to both parties. In early 1987, Texas S&L insiders held a Republican fund-raiser at which Treasury Secretary Baker was the featured speaker. Baker sat next to Don Dixon of Vernon Savings. Dixon had also contributed to the DCCC. In 1987 he was the worst known control fraud in the nation; he was on the prosecutors’ list of 400 names. When Wright saw his name on that list he thought “Democratic contributor.” Similarly, Craig Hall contributed to the Republicans and the DCCC (O’Shea 1991, 227). Wright never considered that control frauds have compelling incentives to make contributions to powerful politicians of either party who might intervene on their behalf.
The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One
William K. Black
Over the course of the following weeks, I’ll introduce new skills, such as letting go of stress, preparing for challenges in advance, and creating an ideal heart state on demand. Every week there will be an Action Plan—a sort of homework “prescription.” It will always be based on a foundation of two 20-minute breathing sessions per day, the last segment of which will integrate the specific theme or skill presented in that week’s chapter. That means that every week, the final 5 minutes of your breathing sessions will vary. In week 2, for instance, the last 5 minutes will center on diaphragmatic breathing, also called belly breathing; in week 3, you’ll spend those final 5 minutes connecting to a daily stressor on the inhale and releasing it on the exhale; by week 6, you’ll end by practicing Emotional Pivoting, teaching yourself to shift from, say, irritation to love (when imagining interacting with family members), from a feeling of pressure to calmness (at work), or from fatigue to increased energy (at the end of a long and trying day). Five minutes might seem short for techniques promising such powerful effects, but I promise you these 5 minutes are strategically placed for maximum benefit. The period immediately following resonance breathing is when your mind is most receptive to new ideas. That’s because, with regular practice, 15 minutes of resonance breathing will put you into a kind of meditative state, characterized by an increase in alpha brain waves, a sign of relaxation. Once you’re in resonance, your brain is essentially humming with evidence of parasympathetic dominance. Your subconscious becomes more permeable, allowing the week-specific technique you are practicing the chance to become hardwired.
Heart Breath Mind
Leah Lagos
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