Der frühere BDI-Chef Hans-Olaf Henkel reagiert auf Kritik von James K.Galbraith, der in einem Interview mit MMnews in Hinblick auf dieUrsachen der Finanzkrise Henkel Inkompetenz vorwirft.
Henkels Replik (auf Galbraith: Henkel "inkompetent" ) löst in den USA nun Wellen der Empörung aus, da er sichauf alte diskriminierende Regelungen beruft (sogenanntes "red lining"),deren Aufhebung unter anderem der Auslöser der Krise gewesen seien.
Der Professor für Ökonomie undRecht an der University of Missouri, Bill Black, lässt die Klarstellung vonHans-Olaf Henkel nicht unkommentiert stehen. In einem aktuellen Beitrag auf New Economic Perspectives – siehe: http://tiny.cc/tsu1O - geht Black mit Henkel hartins Gericht.
Herr Henkel’s Hall of Shame
William K. Black
Associate Professor of Economics and Law
University of Missouri– Kansas City
Hans-Olaf Henkel was one of the primary Germanarchitects of the global financial crisis in his capacity as leader of theassociation that lobbied on behalf of Germany’s large businesses. He has written recently that a number of theCEOs running those businesses should be placed in a “Halle der Schande”(Hall of Shame). One hopes that he willfind his continued association with them congenial when he his given the mostprominent pedestal in that Hall.
Herr Henkel was the leading German businessproponent of deregulation and the executive compensation systems that drove theglobal crisis. He brought a specialpassion to denouncing German tendencies toward social equality and theresulting cultural limitations on executive compensation. The government and equality were the twinevils and when the government sought to increase equality the combination wasHenkel’s ultimate nightmare. It wascertain, therefore, that he would blame the global crisis on government effortsto reduce discrimination against working class, particularly minority,Americans. It was equally certain thathe would be enraged when Professor Galbraith refuted this claim. Herr Henkel replied:
Mr. Galbraith should familiarize himself JimmyCarter's "Housing and Community Development Act" where in SectionVIII Banks were prohibited the practice of "red lining" which untilthen enabled them to distinguish "better living quarters" and"slums".
It is not common to read nostalgia about thegood old racist days when the government (the FHA) and businesses worked togetherto prevent loans from being made to blacks. Herr Henkel has an interesting concept of causality. His “logic” is that blacks, not the denial ofhome loans, caused “slums.” Banks,naturally, did not loan to blacks because blacks lived in slums. They drew “red lines” on maps around “slums”where they would not lend. Then camewhat Herr Henkel terms the “do-goodism” among politicians that banned the redlining of integrated and black neighborhoods (aka, “slums” in Henkel’s worldview). The Fair Housing Act of 1968(passed under President Johnson) outlawed redlining. Under Henkel’s “logic” it, after over a30-year latency period, caused the global financial crisis. Black borrowers (“slum” dwellers all)destroyed the global economy. And Jewscaused Germanyto lose World War I by stabbing it in the back.
But it gets better. Herr Henkel claims that he is on a mission tofight a blood libel. He is enraged thatopponents of the disastrous financial system smear (Verunglimpfen) thatsystem on the basis of the wrongdoing of the CEOs leading our most elitebanks. This makes his casual, fact-free,smear of blacks all the more appalling and hypocritical.
http://tiny.cc/tsu1O
http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com
Bill Black is anassociate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri– Kansas City (UMKC). He was the executive director of the Institute for FraudPrevention from 2005-2007. He has taught previously at the LBJ School of PublicAffairs at the University of Texas at Austin and atSanta Clara University,where he was also the distinguished scholar in residence for insurance law anda visiting scholar at the MarkkulaCenter for AppliedEthics. He was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputydirector of the FSLIC, SVP and general counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank ofSan Francisco,and senior deputy chief counsel at the Office of Thrift Supervision. He wasdeputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform,Recovery and Enforcement. Black developed the concept of “control fraud,"in which the CEO or head of state uses the entity as a “weapon.” Control fraudscause greater financial
losses than all other forms of property crime combined and kill and maimthousands. He recently helped the World Bank develop anti-corruption initiativesand served as an expert for OFHEO in its enforcement action against FannieMae’s former senior management. He is the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bankis to Own One.
