Now expected to return to private corporate practice, one more government appointee spinning through the lucrative revolving door between washington and wall street. That door could be a big reason why government treats the banks with kid gloves. A man who once worked for citigroup, jack lew, the president s chief of staff, has been picked to be the new treasury secretary. And Mary Jo White, the newly named head of the securities and exchange commission, is a chief litigator at a top law firm representing big investment banks like morgan stanley. With all this happening, its time to talk with journalist matt taibbi. Youve seen him on our broadcast before. A contributing editor at rolling stone, hes been tracking the high crimes and misdemeanors of wall street and washington for years. Welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me. Youre working on a story right now thatll come out in a couple of weeks on the hsbc settlement. Tell me about that, why it interests you. Well, the hsbc set
Incredibly top priority. So youre telling me that not one executive on wall street committed provable fraud . I mean, i just dont believe that. Tonight ofrontline, the untouchables. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontline is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. And by the frontline journalism fund, supporting investigative reporting and enterprise journalism. Although this downturn started in the housing sector and in the financial sector, youre seeing a lot of things being hit. Todays numbers suggest job losses are accelerating. Thats the biggest loss since 1974. The unemployment rate. Narrator in 2009, wall street b
Into a hightech masterpiece . Whatever your business challenge, dell has the technology and services to help you solve it. [ticking] do you believe that there are people at countrywide who belong behind bars . Yes. Do you want to give me their names . No. Would you give their names to a grand jury if you were asked . Yes. We spent nine months investigating our story and asked the Justice Department about the state of their own investigations. The perception i mean, it doesnt seem like youre trying. Well it doesnt seem like youre making an effort, that the Justice Department does not have the will to take on these big wall street banks. [ticking] Anton Valukas was the man in charge of investigating the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the fourthlargest Investment Bank in the world. Isnt the government supposed to protect the investors . Yes. Arent they charged with informing investors . Yes. Why didnt they do it . Welcome to 60 minutes on cnbc. Im bob simon. Even though fraud played a signi
Nothing can reverse copd. Spiriva helps me breathe better. blowing sound ask your doctor about spiriva. [ticking] do you believe that there are people at countrywide who belong behind bars . Yes. Do you want to give me their names . No. Would you give their names to a grand jury if you were asked . Yes. We spent nine months investigating our story and asked the Justice Department about the state of their own investigations. The perception i mean, it doesnt seem like youre trying. Well it doesnt seem like youre making an effort, that the Justice Department does not have the will to take on these big wall street banks. [ticking] Anton Valukas was the man in charge of investigating the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the fourthlargest Investment Bank in the world. Isnt the government supposed to protect the investors . Yes. Arent they charged with informing investors . Yes. Why didnt they do it . Welcome to 60 minutes on cnbc. Im bob simon. Even though fraud played a significant role in the
1974. The unemployment rate. Narrator in 2009, wall street bankers were on the defensive. The Great American mortgage bubble had burst. This is a huge amount of money. Narrator the economy was in ruins and wall street bankers were being blamed. Bankers admitted they had miscalculated. But they were also worried that they could be held criminally liable for fraud. He and president obama will continue to work on. Narrator with a new administration arriving in washington, bankers and their attorneys expected investigations and at least some prosecutions. 150 billion in mortgagebacked securities. Smith was there a sense that there were going to be prosecutions of alleged fraud related to the mortgage crisis . I think there was that expectation. I think people had seen the financial crisis. There was obviously a lot of conduct that had gone on that was improper. And i think people were expecting to see some substantial prosecutions. The men and women who duped wouldbe homeowners, who defrau