Helen Davis Chaitman Reviews “In Bed With Wall Street.”

Author Helen Davis Chaitman is a highly respected attorney with extensive experience in the areas of lender liability, bankruptcy, bank fraud, RICO, professional malpractice, trusts and estates, and white collar defense. The National Law Journal named her as one of the nation’s top ten litigators in 1995. Ms. Chaitman is also the author of The Law of Lender Liability. Since early 2009, Ms. Chaitman has been an outspoken advocate for investors in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (more here).

Helen Davis Chaitman Reviews In Bed with Wall Street. 

By Helen Davis Chaitman

I confess: Larry Doyle is my hero. Along with a handful of courageous, brilliant people, Larry has spoken out about the corruption that is Wall Street in his wonderful book “In Bed with Wall Street.”  This is a 201-page book, not counting footnotes, and it is a must-read if you want your grandchildren to live in a country that protects against the ravages of the super-rich. Americans like to believe they can teach third world countries about good government. Excuse me?  Do we want to spread the word on how to corrupt our regulators and prostitute our legislators?

The Fraud that is FINRA

If you think I’m exaggerating, you need to read this book.You will see how, step by step, the rich and powerful have distorted the purpose for the existence of FINRA, the securities industry’s self-funded, self-regulatory organization whose stated purpose is to be Wall Street’s own private police.  FINRA is a private organization formed as a result of a merger of the National Association of Securities Dealers and the regulatory arm of the New York Stock Exchange. It is funded and run by the Wall Street firms but it is completely above the law: Unlike even the SEC, FINRA cannot be sued – no matter what it does. Larry describes FINRA as the “Cops on the Take” and, when you read his book, you will see that he is 100% correct. How convenient that Wall Street supervises itself!

Mary L. Schapiro, former Chief Executive Officer of FINRA and then Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, described FINRA as having overarching objectives of investor protection and market integrity.  If you believe that, read Larry’s book. You will see that FINRA exists to enrich itself and to protect the big Wall Street players, no matter how illegal their practices, while tormenting the small players who can’t afford to grease the appropriate palms.

Speaking of greasing palms, Congress does not come cheap.  During the ten-year period from 1998 – 2008 – the lead-up to the catastrophic world financial crisis – Wall Street contributed $1.7 billion to favored legislators’ campaign funds and $3.4 billion to lobbyists who, of course, spread the wealth among those who count. Wall Street plays both sides of the aisles; 55% of the contributions want to Republicans; 45% went to Democrats. Wall Street is not interested in one political parties’ credo or the others’. It simply wants to own Congress. And it does. Larry lays out all the details in his book. Nobody can say that Wall Street is reckless with its money. As Larry writes: “The funds may have bought Wall Street the desired ineffectual oversight, but they also bought America and the world a crisis of epic proportions.”