Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Abstract

Fraud has been the cause of a large part of the recent financial crisis. Banks and other lenders in leading economies have been charged with crimes, fined, and accused of fraud, especially mortgage fraud. This paper examines the performances of 14 top global lending institutions, and compares their performances over the period of financial crisis with major developed nations’ and EU economic data. American fraud and bank crime trends are shown. A series of correlation tests shows that several of the featured large lending institutions’ performances are very similar to fraud activities reported by the FBI. Correlations are also shown which link divorce, alcohol consumption, and abortion to economic and financial crises. Insufficiently checked white collar crime and a loosely regulated financial industry are shown to be associated with negative social and economic impacts. Policy changes are suggested.