Mortgage settlement is great — for politicians and banks

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http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-hiltzik-20120212,0,7852934.column


California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris retains the right to pursue the banks under state fraud laws. But the settlement narrows the breadth of a promising Massachusetts investigation and may entirely shut down cases brought against BofA by the Arizona and Nevada attorneys general. (Bob Chamberlin, Los Angeles Times)


I hate a parade. And the parade of rosy self-congratulation staged last week by the creators of the $25-billion mortgage fraud settlement with five big banks is the kind of parade I really hate.

There certainly are some big winners in the deal, which has the approval of 49 of the 50 state attorneys general. Start with its godfathers. President Obama took to the podium a couple of hours after the deal's announcement to declare that it will "speed relief to the hardest-hit homeowners."

California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris went before the cameras soon after that, taking credit for "a tremendous victory for California," which has been perhaps the hardest-hit state in the foreclosure crisis.

Then there are the banks. The signatories to the deal are Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase and Ally Financial (formerly GMAC), which handle payments on more than half the nation's outstanding 27 million home loans and therefore have been at the center of the servicing and foreclosure abuses the settlement is supposed to end.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. America's Bankers Have Suffered Enough

We need to forgive, forget, and move on. These are good people. Not the kind of folks that smoke pot, or exercise their right to public assembly - *those* are the kind of folks we need to clamp down on.

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2. +1

[angrychair]

3. This article is wrong

at least what I read of it and its analysis of the agreement. Don't want to get real long winded but in short NOTHING in the agreement prevents indivdual homeowers from filing lawsuits and NOTHING in the agreement prevents state AGs or Federal AG from filing lawsuits for illegal activities in the furture. This was specific to robo-signing and does NOT limit or make immune from future legal efforts. Rachel Maddow did a great piece on this last week with the AG from NY. He is also in charge of the presidental task force looking into banks and morgage companies for their illegal handling of morgages and loans. That task force still exist and is activily looking into cases right now. This action was only the first step. Take a deep breath and have a little more faith in our president.