In the aftermath of the foreclosure fraud settlement, and as we look ahead to the working group on securities fraud co-chaired by Eric Schneiderman, one of the best people to look to for answers on how this whole thing could have gone – how it could still go – is William K. Black. The author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One, and a central figure in exposing fraud among both financial executives and members of Congress during the S&L scandal, Black has been relentless on exposing the lax nature of regulation and prosecution during the past decade and more. His latest scoffed at the new task force on securitization fraud.

Our paranoid culture of rooting out fraud and our fear-mongering media that makes every anecdote a proof the system is corrupt, make it harder for people who need help to get it.

If everyone on Wall Street is as pure as the driven snow, or at least “not guilty”, then it’s fine for Obama to raise tens of millions of dollars from them to pay for his shot at re-election.

No one should be allowed to evade responsibility on the theory that collective guilt creates individual exoneration.

Any analysis that ignores control fraud is certain to distract us from the reforms essential to prevent our recurrent, intensifying financial crises. Ignoring fraud led the authors to propose reforms that are criminogenic.

It is one thing to think that a company like Massey Energy is cheating safety regulations. It is quite another to find out that they kept two different sets of safety books. That is a crime in and of itself. Here is hoping it leads to a RICO case and charges of Felony Murder for Don Blankenship and everyone who helped kill 29 miners just for a little extra profit.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged one trading house and two individuals for illegally manipulating oil prices during the price spike of 2008, when oil reached $147 a barrel, by creating the appearance of a shortage to drive up the benchmark for crude. While the action covers oil trading in 2008, the connection to today, where speculation is seen as a primary cause for higher gas prices, is unmistakable.

Maybe the foreclosure crisis hasn’t been fully solved. But at least we have those consent orders on the top mortgage servicers. At least federal regulators will lay down the law and we’ll get to see those independent reviews of each mortgage company and the wrongful foreclosures they initiated. I mean, at least there will be some transparency and discovery, right? right?

Rarely do lies simply go out in the world and stand on their own. To have staying power, they require a complex network of ancillary lies and human enablers (sometimes knowing, sometime unwitting) who create a web of falsehood. These tangled webs can drain families’ bank accounts, get people killed, cause great institutions to fall, even help crash an economy.

The only problem I have with Stephen Martin Kohn’s new book, The Whistleblower’s Handbook, is that it hadn’t been published when I was trying to decide two years ago whether or not to take the risk of speaking out against the health insurance industry.