By Richard Lawless From Caribbean News Now

In 2006 a financial crisis of unprecedented magnitude hit America.

Wall Street, with at least complicit support from our legislators, the DOJ and regulatory agencies began to create new financial instruments to sell to the American people. Unfortunately, these new investments consisted of pools of troubled mortgages.

It really was that simple. Today there is universal agreement that Moody’s, S&P and Fitch provided fraudulent credit ratings.

Could you image what would happen to a real estate appraiser that knowingly issued home values that were hundreds of thousands higher than the value of the property and a dishonest borrower that borrowed millions based on these phony valuations. The banks would incur millions in losses and the borrower and appraiser would go to jail.

As of 2016, not one employee or executive at the rating agencies were ever charged.

Our legislature is the recipient of tens of millions per year in political contributions and paid speeches. None of that money comes without strings. Our congressmen and senators did what they were paid to do and protected their Wall Street friends. The DOJ and regulatory agencies are run by these very same legislators and were prevented from prosecuting anyone.

Six trillion dollars in lost wealth, six million homes lost to foreclosure and millions of jobs lost.

Well, the credit rating agencies are at it again and this time our country does not have the resources to withstand another major crisis.

It has been a few years now since the start of the wholesale financial collapse of Puerto Rico. Sufficient time has passed allowing individuals, companies, regulatory agencies and our legislators the time to understand the root causes of this crisis.

That’s right, you guessed it! All of the credit ratings issued on Puerto Rico debt were either misleading or outright fraudulent. But it does not end there, a quick review of bond ratings from Chicago, Connecticut, California and New York reflect similar concerns.

The municipal bond market is $4.2 trillion. Preliminary indications suggest that as much as 60 percent of these bonds were sold to investors with an inappropriate or misleading credit rating.

Once again our regulatory agencies, the DOJ and our legislators have circled their wagons around Wall Street. No matter how many Americans are thrown under the bus, our government will not move against their friends.

So far tens of billions have been lost by our senior citizens who purchase these bonds to supplement their modest retirement incomes. It will not end with Puerto Rico; Puerto Rico is only the beginning.

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Commentary%3A-History-is-repeating-itself-and-America-may-not-survive-31603.html