Macro N Cheese

Regulatory agencies taking on Savings & Loan fraud may not be everyone’s idea of a swashbuckling tale, but for us nerdy types at Macro N Cheese it’s pure gold. It has villains like Charles Keating and the Keating 5. (No, that’s not an English rock group from the 70's.) It has unsung heroes whose names aren’t known to most Americans, including our special guest, Bill Black, and the cofounders of Bank Whistleblowers United. Had people like them been allowed to do their job, the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 might have been prevented, along with the economic devastation of millions of people. Financial fraud is somehow beyond the ken of neoclassical economists whose assumptions about the behavior of corporations render them blind to reality. They are left baffled and unable to explain the S&L debacle and the GFC. But, as Bill reminds us, seeking profit is risky; it’s a gamble. “Why would you think the CEOs are gambling when fraud is a sure thing?”   In the 1980s and 90s, regulators noticed that S&Ls were beh