Citibank Continues Its Economy-Crashing Ways

Synthetic CDOs. Banksters didn't pay a price for foisting them on the world and wrecking the economies of several countries in the process. So, guess what?

Two years ago, if I read the closing credits to The Big Short correctly, Bloomberg reported that banks were selling something called a “bespoke tranche opportunity,” which Bloomberg concluded was merely another name for a CDO. And now this.

[...]

From Bloomberg:

The 35-year-old Citigroup Inc. director has spent the past two years meeting clients, speaking at industry panels and becoming the face of a resurgent market for synthetic CDOs -- complex derivatives that let buyers make big, leveraged bets on the health of corporate America. Along the way, she’s helped establish Citigroup as its dominant player.

[...]

Why in the everloving fck would we trust these clowns again? And, even if we all got really stoned and decided to do that, why would we trust them with the same goddamn hand grenades that blew up everything the last time? There’s recividism and there’s recidivism and then there’s a genetic predisposition to stick your hands in everyone’s pockets and steal every last lint-covered penny that’s in there.

[...]

Once, a long time ago, a man named Charles Ponzi was so good at being a crook that his name came to define a certain mechanism for mass financial fraud, wrote that:

Then, as now, nobody gave a rap for ethics. The almighty dollar was the only goal, and its possession placed a person beyond any criticism for any breach of ethics incidental to it.

  Charles P Pierce

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.