Interview with William Black

30 comments on “Interview with William Black ”

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1. save nz 1

   15 May 2016 at 7:51 am

   Great post. If American wants to ‘great great’ again they need to elect Bernie and get his fraud advisers in to root out corruption in their system. American corporations like banks and wall st and Kleptocrats are stealing from their own people and their own future.

   The West won the cold war because unlike USSR and others they put more effort into corruption controls and having a free media so ordinary people felt safe within the system. Unfortunately a fair and balanced system under extreme neoliberalism has ended.
2. Nic the NZer 2

   15 May 2016 at 8:42 am

   Bill Black is well worth listening to.

   The similarities with Dick Smith collapse are relevant and striking (though its not clear fraud was involved there or not). Prior to listing DSE ran a strategy of selling down the inventory and not replacing it. This caused the company to report significant profits before listing on the share market. Sharemarket investors who brought in overpaid for shares and needed to recapitalise the inventory for the business to continue operating. If there was any fraud it was in the accounts put with the listing which didnt make it clear that the business carried little stock. At this time the listing company sold out before the problems became evident and locking in their profits before the share price collapsed. This kind of thing drives investors out of the Sharemarket no doubt.
3. travellerev 3

   15 May 2016 at 8:47 am

   Nic the NZer, the same thing happened in Holland with the V&D chain and in England with the BHS chain. Both some 11.000 people lost their jobs.
   • dukeofurl 3.1

     15 May 2016 at 8:55 am

     Its going to be repeated here with the ‘media merger’, create a big candy floss which is sold to the public and collapses soon after.

     That was supposed to be Weldons job for Mediaworks too, but they put the cart ( someone who could do a stock exchange float) before the horse(growing the audience with successful programs).
     • dukeofurl 3.1.1

       15 May 2016 at 9:31 am

       Just thinking about TV companies like Mediaworks, they buy programs/series etc and they treated as ‘assets’ and normally once they are screened, they lose value very quickly, maybe a rerun a year later etc.

       But the books can be cooked , by not writing off programs that have been screened or more often than you would think programs bought but not screened.
       News shows are the worst sort of program, high cost and zero value the next day.
       But of course crap reality shows can be kept on the books for longer, until it comes share float time and the company can be ‘valued’ by its assets.

       You can see how the ‘accounting value’ can be a complete fake
       • Gristle 3.1.1.1

         15 May 2016 at 11:25 am

         From memory, most programmes were written down to 0 or at most 10% after the first play: even on a 3 play deal.

         The issue can be over output deals so you build up a library of material that you do not have either the intention of screening or physically don’t have airtime to put on before the license expires. And of course this material may represent 20% of an output deal. So you would be courting trouble if you put 20% value on this junk.
     • RedBaronCV 3.1.2

       15 May 2016 at 10:20 am

       Is there a strategy to stop this?
       Wouldn’t it be great to have a shareholder AGM that voted for a wage policy with strict upper level limits enabling the employment of more people at a reasonable wage, invite the staff to put up and vote for a couple of the board of directors – it would be great to invest in an ethical organization with a small steady return.
       • Colonial Viper 3.1.2.1

         15 May 2016 at 1:04 pm

         Yes, we’re going to find a corporate shareholder meeting where the 1% minor shareholders alongside the 0.01% billion dollar hedge fund managers are going to suddenly start advocating to give away the value of their investment to the little people slaving away for them.
       • Nic the NZer 3.1.2.2

         16 May 2016 at 8:19 am

         In some places it used to be that the top execs and directors in certain industries based on trust (banking, accounting and legal) would have unlimited liability for their firms. This seemed to discourage a lot of this as the execs would keep an eye on how each was doing business.

         I think that should be brought back as a concept.
4. Colonial Viper 4

   15 May 2016 at 10:15 am

   Awesome work Travellerev.

   Bill Black, an investigative veteran of the 1980s Savings and Loans scandal, makes it very clear how the subprime crisis was brought about and how the roots of the GFC were sown. And especially how the authorities have simply walked away from the problem.

   In the US Black makes a simple point: the financial system is regulated by authorities and law enforcement who do not believe in regulation or enforcement.

   Thanks again fo contributing this.
   • travellerev 4.1

     15 May 2016 at 10:21 am

     My pleasure! Here he has some choice things to say about Merrill Lynch, Ireland, Putting an investment banker on the Guardian board of the Cullen fund after he manages to stop laughing and John Key! Remember, sharing is caring!
5. Pat 5

   15 May 2016 at 10:27 am

   Well……
6. stunnedmullet 6

   15 May 2016 at 12:24 pm

   Looking forward to more of your posts here Travellereve.
   • travellerev 6.1

     15 May 2016 at 12:25 pm

     Thank you Stunnedmullet. 🙂
7. adam 7

   15 May 2016 at 1:36 pm

   Nice, interview and good job.

   What a nice guy.
   • travellerev 7.1

     15 May 2016 at 1:40 pm

     Isn’t he just! And boy does he know his stuff!
     • left for dead 7.1.1

       15 May 2016 at 6:26 pm

       I saw that interview a few weeks ago, didn’t realize it was you, good questions, we need more of that. 😉

       edited
8. whateva next? 8

   15 May 2016 at 2:15 pm

   Many thanks Travellerev, so good to hear someone with knowledge AND integrity explaining this stuff
   • travellerev 8.1

     15 May 2016 at 5:45 pm

     Yep I think so too!
9. Penny Bright 9

   15 May 2016 at 2:23 pm

   Well done The Standard, Ev, Vinny and Bill Black!

   Vinny Eastwood is getting some internationally significant guests on his show, and they’re being given more than a short ‘sound bite’.

   I’d like to give Ev full credit for her years of research on our ex-Wall Street banker Prime Minister John Key, and look forward to a LOT more people paying attention to what she is saying.

   And I’d also like to give full credit to Vinny Eastwood to providing an ongoing opportunity for those active on the issues to have a chance to explain WHY we are doing what we are doing.

   That’s what ‘freedom of expression’ is all about – the opportunity to put forward a view that some may agree to disagree with.

   But where we don’t choose to agree – let’s keep it civilised.

   Debate the ISSUES – or agree to disagree?

   Hope you are given more opportunities to post here Ev!

   Cheers!

   Penny Bright
   2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
   • travellerev 9.1

     15 May 2016 at 5:47 pm

     Thanks Hon, I hope so too! And yes, let’s argue the issues not the emotions!
10. UglyTruth 10

    15 May 2016 at 4:55 pm

    Great interview, Travellerev. It’s not hard to make the connection from Libor to the City of London to the Crown. Key’s history in the banking industry shows him to be ideologically aligned with these financial predators.

    Interesting that Labour UK has recently has recently been conducting a witch-hunt over anti-semitism, with Londoner Ken Livingston very much in the limelight. Big money families like the Rothschilds having a fairly significant interest (if you’ll pardon the pun) in the operations of the City of London and in the use of the language of anti-semitism as a reaction to criticism of Zionism.
    • travellerev 10.1

      15 May 2016 at 5:48 pm

      Yes indeed!
11. fender 11

    15 May 2016 at 7:27 pm

    Thank-you Travellerev for posting this. I found that highly educational and wish every voter in the country were made aware of how our PM fits into the puzzle.

    I’ve zero interest in reading the PM’s book, but it does seem odd that there’s no mention of derivatives in it. Surely he’s proud of his of his earlier “work”.
    • travellerev 11.1

      16 May 2016 at 7:28 am

      Fender,

      What is interesting is that the NZ Herald took 5 pages of the online version of an article which appeared in July 2008 of their website. That was the part of the “Unauthorized” biography article written among others by Eugene Bingham.
      The pages they took off were the pages in which they detailed his banking career.

      Maybe in a next post I can bring those pages back up because when I found the pages missing I went to the library and made a hard copy for future reference.

      It may be coincidence but they did so after I send them this article. An open letter to Eugene Bingham or would you have voted for John Key if you had known.
12. Philj 12

    16 May 2016 at 12:37 pm

    Well done and thankyou Travelrev. We have to tell the whole story to the public , somehow. Sigh. Keep up the good work.
    • travellerev 12.1

      17 May 2016 at 8:17 pm

      Cheers Philj
      • Nic the NZer 12.1.1

        18 May 2016 at 9:09 pm

        Think you should read through Bill Blacks article about 10 myths of neoclassical economics. It explains his position on deficits (and therefore govt debt) which was a question he didnt find time to answer during your interview properly.
        • Colonial Viper 12.1.1.1

          18 May 2016 at 9:42 pm

          Ahhhh thanks for the pointer.

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1. Guest Post On The Standard! | Aotearoa: A Wider Perspective: posted on 15 May 2016 at 2:11 pm

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