The Financial Crisis on Trial: What Went Wrong

IF 0.7 2区 历史学 Q4 BUSINESS Enterprise & Society Pub Date : 2021-12-22 DOI:10.1017/eso.2021.31
John H. Sturc
{"title":"The Financial Crisis on Trial: What Went Wrong","authors":"John H. Sturc","doi":"10.1017/eso.2021.31","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Americans demanded retribution from the mortgage lenders whose subprime loans defaulted and from investment bankers whose mortgage-backed securities sharply declined in value in 2007, leading to financial panic and the Great Recession. From 2008 to 2019, the federal government extracted hundreds of billions in fines from dozens of corporations, but few individual business executives were held accountable, and no senior banker was convicted of a crime. I use the trial court record of five government enforcement cases against individuals to explain this apparently anomalous result. I conclude that, in addition to a lack of funding, the prosecution effort was hindered by the government’s erroneous selection of cases to pursue. Further, the diffused nature of decision making in the mortgage finance market made it difficult to prove that any one senior-level participant had the criminal intent necessary for a conviction or a Securities and Exchange Commission civil fine or injunction. The trial results also support the argument that the growth and consolidation of investment banks from 1990 to 2008 created incentives for misconduct within the firms.","PeriodicalId":45977,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise & Society","volume":"24 1","pages":"222 - 252"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Enterprise & Society","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2021.31","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Americans demanded retribution from the mortgage lenders whose subprime loans defaulted and from investment bankers whose mortgage-backed securities sharply declined in value in 2007, leading to financial panic and the Great Recession. From 2008 to 2019, the federal government extracted hundreds of billions in fines from dozens of corporations, but few individual business executives were held accountable, and no senior banker was convicted of a crime. I use the trial court record of five government enforcement cases against individuals to explain this apparently anomalous result. I conclude that, in addition to a lack of funding, the prosecution effort was hindered by the government’s erroneous selection of cases to pursue. Further, the diffused nature of decision making in the mortgage finance market made it difficult to prove that any one senior-level participant had the criminal intent necessary for a conviction or a Securities and Exchange Commission civil fine or injunction. The trial results also support the argument that the growth and consolidation of investment banks from 1990 to 2008 created incentives for misconduct within the firms.
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
审判中的金融危机:哪里出了问题
美国人要求次级贷款违约的抵押贷款机构和投资银行家进行报复,他们的抵押贷款支持证券在2007年大幅贬值,导致金融恐慌和大衰退。从2008年到2019年,联邦政府从数十家公司提取了数千亿美元的罚款,但很少有个别企业高管被追究责任,也没有一名高级银行家被判有罪。我用五起政府针对个人的执法案件的庭审记录来解释这个明显反常的结果。我的结论是,除了缺乏资金外,政府错误地选择了要追查的案件,也阻碍了起诉工作。此外,抵押贷款金融市场决策的分散性使得很难证明任何一名高级参与者具有定罪或证券交易委员会民事罚款或禁令所需的犯罪意图。试验结果也支持了这样一种论点,即1990年至2008年投资银行的增长和合并为公司内部的不当行为创造了激励。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
1.20
自引率
30.00%
发文量
37
期刊介绍: Enterprise & Society offers a forum for research on the historical relations between businesses and their larger political, cultural, institutional, social, and economic contexts. The journal aims to be truly international in scope. Studies focused on individual firms and industries and grounded in a broad historical framework are welcome, as are innovative applications of economic or management theories to business and its context.
期刊最新文献
Industrial Policy and its Funding at the Frontier of European Integration: Lessons from the Past and Present Challenges Paper Steaks: Live Cattle Futures Markets and the Financial Revolution of 1964 The Role of Forecasts in Planning for Energy Infrastructure: A Historical Look at Past Futures in Postwar Quebec “Killing Complaints with Courtesy”: The Role of Relationship Building in the Success of the Early U.S. Central Power Stations (1890–1938) Wartime segmentation: Class, gender, and nation in the marketing of consumers, Sweden 1939–1945
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1