Juggling Dynamite

A year ago this month the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the banking giant JP Morgan Chase would avoid criminal charges by agreeing to pay $13 billion to settle claims that it had routinely overstated the quality of mortgages it was selling to investors. But how did the bank avoid prosecution for committing fraud that helped cause the 2008 financial crisis? Today we speak to JP Morgan Chase whistleblower Alayne Fleischmann in her first televised interview discussing how she witnessed “massive criminal securities fraud” in the bank’s mortgage operations. She is profiled in Matt Taibbi’s new Rolling Stone investigation, “The $9 Billion Witness: Meet the woman JP Morgan Chase paid one of the largest fines in American history to keep from talking.”  Here is a direct video link.

Here is the link to the JP Madoff.com site that Ms. Fleischmann mentions as tracking the abuses and settlements of JP Morgan.

Must read article today is Matt Taibbi’s Rolling Stone interview with the woman JPMorgan Chase paid one of the largest fines in American history to keep from talking.  Except now she telling it all.  See:  The $9 Billion witness:  meet JP Morgan’s worst nightmare.

Where oh where, oh where, is our modern day Pecora Commission epiphany that finally embarrasses politicians and revolts the populace into breaking up today’s banking cartel?

The simple-minded obsession with certainty comes from vulnerability and fear about our highly uncertain existence.

Brené Brown studies human connection — our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity. Here is a direct video link.

Here is a link to Brown’s follow up TED talk in 2012: Listening to Shame.