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(h/t to Fractal whose comment about being down the rabbit hole gave me the idea to post this video of Gracie Slick and the Jefferson Airplane performing White Rabbit in 1967 on the Dick Cavett Show)
In one of his articles yesterday, David Dayen mentioned that the settlement agreement has not been reduced to writing.
That is astonishing.
Let me repeat. That. Is. Astonishing.
The biggest problem with settlement agreements in particular, and all agreements in general, is reaching a so-called ‘meeting of the minds’ regarding the details and ‘chiseling them into stone’ by reducing them to writing. As I used to warn my clients when I was practicing law, we do not have an agreement until it has been reduced to writing, thoroughly reviewed, and signed by each of the parties. That has obviously not happened in this case.
Experience has taught us that humans dealing in good faith make mistakes, no matter how careful they are, and the potential for mistakes, misunderstandings and subsequent disagreements about the terms of an agreement cannot be overestimated. That potential becomes a certainty when one or more parties to an agreement is dealing in bad faith.
That, my friends, is why we have a law called the Statute of Frauds, which requires that certain types of agreements be in writing or they are invalid and unenforceable.
For example, contracts regarding the sale of real estate must be in writing or they are invalid and unenforceable.
Given the absence of a written agreement and the vagueness regarding its terms, which is virtually incomprehensible to me, I cannot help but wonder if everyone involved in the settlement talks is being less than candid when they say an agreement was reached.
Obama would not be the first person to declare publicly that an agreement had been reached when, in fact, that was a false statement.
Why would he do that?
To pressure reluctant parties to settle. It is a variation on the old ploy, “I have scheduled a press conference in two hours at which I intend to announce that we have reached a global agreement that settles all claims in this case and provides desperately needed relief to homeowners. These discussions have gone on long enough. Agree to these terms now because they are not going to get better and if you do not, I will announce publicly that we would have had a deal except for you. Then you can explain to your constituents why there is no deal.”
Recall that he wanted to announce a global settlement during his SOTU address.
Why would the attorneys general agree?
A better question to ask would be how could they could not agree, given the severe financial limitations of state budgets these days and the practical impossibility of assembling and compensating a team of hundreds of dedicated professionals to work for many years investigating and prosecuting the numerous interstate and international crimes that have been committed. We are talking about millions of people who were defrauded during a period of close to twenty years and probably documents numbering in the hundreds of millions, if not billions. Imagine the resources that would be required to investigate and, figuratively speaking, get your arms around this vast coast-to-coast conspiracy that eventually went international in the form of exotic financial instruments of mass destruction that may yet still blow-up the world economy.
Practically speaking, only the Department of Justice has the capacity to investigate and prosecute the heinous crimes committed by the criminal banksters, and that has not and will not happen because Obama, Holder, and Breuer have decided not to do it.
This is why we have not seen a realistic and credible effort by any organization to thoroughly investigate this case. The little investigation we have seen by dedicated professionals working alone or in small groups has produced a few snapshots of wrongdoing in individual cases and resulted in a few lawsuits and indictments of low-hanging-fruit underlings, but that is all.
Having been involved in defending people in many complicated paper-intensive white collar racketeering and fraud cases, I do not believe the state attorneys general had the ponies they needed to ride in the race.Obama called their bluff and they caved.
I respect those who tried to do something, but I am not happy about their decision to not only acquiesce in approving of this apparent settlement agreement, but to try and sell it publicly. We are not stupid and we deserve to know the truth.
The truth is that Eric Holder, Lanny Breuer, and Barack Obama are corrupt and the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. The Department of Justice has refused to investigate and they casually brush aside all questions by saying no provable crimes were committed.
Come on, now. How in the hell could they know that, if they have not investigated the case? It is long past time to, figuratively speaking, slam them up against the wall, call bullshit, and hold them politically accountable for their lies. They insult our intelligence when they tell us that no provable crimes were committed.
I am an experienced trial lawyer with knowledge and experience defending people charged with white collar crimes and I know what it takes to prove a case. I am calling them on their bullshit.
I suspect Obama desperately needed two things: Money and a favorable settlement for the banks.
If you have been paying attention, you would know that Wall Street donations to Obama’s campaign for reelection have slowed to a trickle and he cannot win reelection without substantial financial support from the criminal banksters.
He needed to do something dramatic to open the spigot and restore the flow of their cash into his coffers.
He also needed to find a way to conceal their identities and how much they were giving so that we the people would not know that the money was a payoff for effectively cutting off bank liability for Forfeiture Gate.
What else has happened recently, aside from this ridiculous unwritten settlement agreement with a few numbers waved around that kind of sound impressive until one considers the vast scope of this criminal conspiracy?
Obama announced that he ‘regrettably’ must accept Super PAC money in order to compete with Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Super PACs are instruments of mass electoral corruption because there are no limits on the amount of money they can contribute and their donors can remain anonymous. That means the criminal banksters can anonymously pay him off with millions.
When I step back and look at this deal, I do not see an enforceable deal. I see the mirage of a deal. I do not believe anything has changed. The forfeitures relying on forged documents will continue. The states will get some bankster cost-of-doing-business bribe money to shut-up and few, if any, homeowners will ever see the ridiculous and insulting $1800 bribe.
And that, my friends, is yet another monstrous con.
Classic Obama extend and pretend.
And to the state attorneys general, I say: Tell us the truth and save your self-respect and professional reputations. Do not go down with this con.
Cross posted from my law blog.
46 Comments
In my previous post, I urged the state attorneys general to proceed with criminal charges and reject the deal that Obama was pushing them to accept.
I still believe they should do that although, given their lack of adequate resources to investigate and prosecute the criminal banksters, they are at an enormous disadvantage.
Nevertheless, I believe they should try to do the best they can despite their limited resources because no one else will and the people victimized deserve no less.
Assuming they have ‘agreed’ to this shitty ‘deal,’ they apparently still have the option to pursue criminal charges, but I do not think they will as the wind has been removed from their sails and they have other things to do.
No, I think they have been bought off for what is, in effect, 30 pieces of silver and they will move on to doing what they normally do.
Call me naive, but I just wish they would tell us the truth about how this thing went down, including whether and why they agreed to this awful and insulting deal. I would respect them, if they did, even if I disagreed with them, and I think many other people feel the same way.
After all, we know the feds are the only ones equipped to protect us from world-class predator criminals and we know they have suspended the rule of law and joined the predators.
Thank you, masoninblue, for keeping this important subject on the front burner. I have one addition to make to your excellent lawyerly exposition, which is that my surmise is not that Obama ‘needs’ the billions or trillions (the mind boggles) which corporate funding would provide – since I would expect many among the 99% would be tipped into the pro-Obama column for votes if he did NOT accept corporate funding and simply made that his mantra.
Rather, I suspect that the corporates need him to need and are applying suitable pressure. They need both ‘candidates’ to need them. And need is a kind word for it. It’s clear that money isn’t everything, and in fact it is becoming a rather smelly negative. So when it comes to attracting votes, there’s no reason (particularly as he already has the bully pulpit) for him to go the megamillions route.
And of course, factor in that just as this mortgage mess demonstrates that system is well and truly broken, so too any reliance on the simple counting of actual votes is pretty much pie in the sky as well. We used to think well, we’ll vote in huge numbers (or we’ll abstain in huge numbers) and that will send a message. Hah, the problem with that is that there are in our government currently no ears – no ears at all – to hear.
Mason regrets on butting into your soliloquy but by definition a rigged game lacks the intent of a disinterested joust of competing ideologies.
The outcome is not only predictable but is guaranteed regardless of the facts and circumstances.
Otherwise have at it.
There are tons of windmills waiting for an honest frontal assault.
And you give intelligent, honest, often inspirited assault.
The darkness of fascistic night is now the guiding principle of what was once a free America.
“The darkness of fascistic night is now the guiding principle of what was once a free America.”
I agree except that I doubt we have ever been truly free, even during the best of times.
But this is ridiculous.
And it is getting worse.
The good news, I guess, is that at least I don’t have to worry about running out of windmills.
“I agree except that I doubt we have ever been truly free, even during the best of times.”
It was the best of times and it was the worst of times, but even the best is but smoke and mirrors passed off by the PTB as irrefutable gospel.
To question the PTB is treason and now with NDAA punishable by oblivion.
It has taken us but a brief historical stretch of the legs to become the very thing that Jefferson, Paine, Franklin, Washington et al rebelled against in the 18th century.
We have indeed met the enemy and willingly sold our democratic birth right for larger TVs and ever more electronic bobbles, bangles, and bright shiny beads with which to somniferously while away the days of our lives.
The shame, the sorrow and the pity of it all.
On the positive side of the equation, how is your rendition of Sancho Panza getting alone?
Interesting that you said alone instead of along.
It’s a lonely fight, but I’m not in it for the smell of greasepaint and the roar of the crowd.
What I wonder about is why AG’s without adequate resources don’t crowd-source the investigation using volunteers, both individual and organizational. How many retired accountants are out there who would be willing to put in a few hours a day each week examining documents?
Supposedly the banks and servicers are using $11/hr help off the streets to robo-sign. I’m guessing that retired school teachers and other white collar types could easily go through documents, find discrepancies in signatures, dates, etc., and assemble the questionable documents in nice neat little packages to be passed on up the line to the point where an actual staff attorney had to simply review them. You know, “Signature A was written by a lefty and signature B, purporting to be the same person, was written by a righthander with Palmer-method penmanship. Put this done in the pile marked Forgeries”.
Great post, Mason. Recc’d. Obama and his administration are, once again, proving themselves to be tools of the ruling corporate class for all with eyes to see and brains to think.
Teddy Roosevelt would at least have the sense to do something to save his own class’ ass if nothing else. Sadly, Obama and his ilk, and I include our current crop of Republicans here, don’t.
They are doomed. And the rest of us have to live through this unpleasantness.
See? I can be nice.
Excellent point. Yes, I’m sure they could assemble an outstanding team of retired and unemployed experts in each of the relevant fields of investigation and analysis, including former lawyers and law enforcement agents who would be willing to work for free or for a pittance because it’s the right thing to do and they want to work.
I know I would.
Just goes to show that even barbarians can be nice :)
Myself, I kinda like barbarians. There’s a part of me that has always wanted to ride a Harley and be a Hell’s Angel.
BTW, we (Innocence Project NW) did that in the Wenatchee Sex Ring case in Washington State. All of our lawyers, experts, and students were volunteers who worked for free and we kicked ass.
I’d love to take the banksters down.
Obamanable cosmetics (With LIPSTICK)!
I suspect you know how many lawyers there are out here whose only paid work these days is “document review.” The placement agencies like to call them “contract attorneys” but the law firms just think of them as “temps” who do the painfully boring work of actually learning the facts from corporate archives (tens of millions of emails, hundreds of thousands of PowerPoints).
Doc review attorneys know the state of the art for locating & categorizing inculpating evidence. There are squads of dozens working right now defending these same five banks against “put back” claims on crap RMBS. Aside from those that have actively worked for the banks, there are thousands available who would volunteer for this project in a heartbeat.
The mind boggles. The more I mull over the truth of your post, the more it seems we have all been down the rabbit hole with Alice. The Tim Burton of Alice in Wonderland is the one that sticks with me these days. We have the insane Queen of Hearts (preznit), her reliable Jack of Hearts (Holder), his knaves (Perrrelli, Tom Miller of Iowa, most of the state AGs), the Mad Hatter (Schneiderman), the Cheshire Cat (that Rick Santelli guy on CNBC), and, of course, a trio of courageous Alices (Kamala Harris, Martha Coakley, Catherine Cortez Masto). All we’re missing is the White Rabbit.
“Dear Wall Street”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/09/1063225/-Dear-Wall-Street?via=user
Thanks, Fractal.
I like your comparison and you gave me an idea. I’m going to go to You Tube and grab a video of the Jefferson Airplane performing White Rabbit.
Incidentally, I can still remember where I was and what I was doing when I first heard it. Turned me on to acid rock and the rest as they say is history.
Meanwhile, back to the present disturbing situation and the lack of a written agreement. It’s almost as if the ‘agreement’ was announced before the AGs knew there was an agreement and they were expected to fall in line.
Bizarre.
That works for me, Fractal. I did Disney characters for the old Bush Iraq gang way back on the now defunct PBS NOW politics board (probably why it got taken down – we can’t be looking back, must go forward…there’s the White Rabbit for you.)
I put some interesting info from a Pam Martens piece at counterpunch.org over on David D’s latest thread (along with my sage comments of course.)
Wonderful snarky letter.
Yes, we hired 50 contract lawyers to code over a million documents that we received in discovery in the Green River Killer case. They did a wonderful job for us. We would have been lost without their assistance.
Mason, I am late coming in but you are correct. It is nothing but another bailout for the banks and some hush money to the State AG’s.
Something I wrote when commenting on another diary:
It’s like watching a horrible accident of millions and millions of people, … I mean F me, it’s fucking tragic beyond words. What really can one say at seeing this?
So the banks got to dump all their crap investments (and they knew it was crap because they said so and bet against them) onto the taxpayer. F me. Then they got trillions from taxpayers. Which QE are we on now? Thanks FED reserve. So how much is it now? 15 trillion? 19 trillion? Do these numbers even mean anything anymore? Well F me.
Now thanks to this “victory” (what did we get? oh ya, no print, fine or otherwise, so they can change the terms any time they want and say oops, my mistake, this is what it really said), … well the cynic in me says complete retro-active pardon (if not actual than functional) for … robo-signing, fraud, perjury, theft, … everything. No jail time (that would be crazy talk).
And they get to pay their victims with the money they stole from … wait for it, … it’s a surprise, … the victims (now that’s good business). Steal a $100 and pay back a penny. I can just see them now sipping their cognac laughing their asses off … ya, well F me again.
And will they pay? Ask CA (pretty sure it was CA, maybe NV, but if someone could point out the specifics, thank you) and their previous “settlements” with the banks. How did that work out? Oh ya, they just didn’t pay.
And what about the underlying problems with MERS? Still going strong and still skrewing people over. Sweet. And the 11 million homeowners? Well 1 million gets the token cash (big maybe here, I will bet money the banks will fight every single payout), the others … well they just got fucked. Of course the people who have mortgages (and even the ones that have paid of their house) now have the beauty that is MERS, the big banks, and the best government money can buy waiting … just waiting to tack on fees, foreclose, … and these people will have no recourse. F me? No, the ones with homes are the real ones fucked. Just not yet. Soon they too can enjoy the wonders of robo-signing and judges who rubber stamp bank orders. What, you paid of your house? Well that’s not what this legally binding affidavit says, … so out you go. It used to be perjury. Now it’s just good business.
Well F me. F us all. Can someone please pass the Vaseline. And keep it coming, because they’re not done yet.
Wouldn’t be surprised to find out that some mega corporation now owns all of the companies that produce the lubes and, surprise, surprise, the criminal banksters own it.
I think a word we’re going to be hearing more and more in the not two distant future is “insurrection”.
Yeah, the full company name is probably JPMorganChaseKY.
We’re looking at an example of their handiwork: They are the Oligarchy. Unfathomably rich and more importantly Powerful mofos who will not stop. They are supranational, above the nation state. They despise our Republic and all it stands for. It has thus been subverted and overthrown. We see merely the shell of what once was with their paid puppets traipsing about the Capital supposedly doing the work of the people, but as many of us know, they are not working for us any longer. We are given dog and pony shows until we are rendered too weak to fight. Then, as Franklin saw they may reveal their true intentions for us:
“I have lately made a Tour thro’ Ireland and Scotland. In these Countries a small Part of the Society are Landlords, great Noblemen and Gentlemen, extreamly opulent, living in the highest Affluence and Magnificence: The Bulk of the People Tenants, extreamly poor, living in the most sordid Wretchedness in dirty Hovels of Mud and Straw, and cloathed only in Rags. I thought often of the Happiness of New England, where every Man is a Freeholder, has a Vote in publick Affairs, lives in a tidy warm House, has plenty of good Food and Fewel, with whole Cloaths from Head to Foot, the Manufactury perhaps of his own Family. Long may they continue in this Situation! But if they should ever envy the Trade of these Countries, I can put them in a Way to obtain a Share of it. Let them with three fourths of the People of Ireland, live the Year round on Potatoes and Butter milk, without Shirts, then may their Merchants export Beef, Butter and Linnen. Let them with the Generality of the Common People of Scotland go Barefoot, then may they make large Exports in Shoes and Stockings: And if they will be content to wear Rags like the Spinners and Weavers of England, they may make Cloths and Stuffs for all Parts of the World. Farther, if my Countrymen should ever wish for the Honour of having among them a Gentry enormously wealthy, let them sell their Farms and pay rack’d Rents; the Scale of the Landlords will rise as that of the Tenants is depress’d who will soon become poor, tattered, dirty, and abject in Spirit. Had I never been in the American Colonies, but was to form my Judgment of Civil Society by what I have lately seen, I should never advise a Nation of Savages to admit of Civilisation: For I assure you, that in the Possession and Enjoyment of the various Comforts of Life, compar’d to these People every Indian is a Gentleman: And the Effect of this kind of Civil Society seems only to be, the depressing Multitudes below the Savage State that a few may be rais’d above it.”–Benjamin Franklin
Keep fighting, it’s our only chance.
LOL!
Love that quote from Ben Franklin.
It’s so true.
Thanks for stopping by.
Yes. Since our government refuses to listen to us, except when one of our complaints provides it with yet another excuse to give more millions and billions to the banks, we are left with no other choice but insurrection.
We are not fooled by this absurd dog and pony show and soon the rest of the country is going to catch on too.
Hey, Obama. Do yourself a favor and get out of the way. Announce that you will not seek a second term.
I’ve never known the AG side in any state to be the match of the top folks and their law firms in the top 50 firms in the financial industry. The Federal side is an equal, and I had to use 7805B on occasion (although I always thought my facts enough to win without it) – and I am not a lawyer – just an actuary that “faked” it (well not really – ran the area and provided the presentation of facts in legal discussions) in the tax area for a few years.
There was, in my opinion, no slam dunk to massive rewards for homeowners on a settlement basis hidden in the facts of this situation. There was a very real chance of an unjust “put back” enriching some hedge funds that ignored the 1940 Act, but that final decision was 20 years in the future. There were and still are individual cases that can feed a single lawyer for a few years, but they are not large enough to feed a large firm.
So I wonder what was the shape of the settlement you thought possible (surely you did not contemplate taking enough from the banks to restores everyones net worth, or even the $800 billion to get rid of underwater loans?), and what you thought would get the industry to agree, and finally why the timeline to get to your settlement would have been good for the economy and the population, including the underwater homeowners?
I also note the $2000 in the announcement is replaced by Yves’ (business news writer Susan) $1800 – not that it matters as no one has seen the final actual terms (and based on my experience they are unlikely to be revealed until they are ready for presentation to a court in a court document), but the wording so far in the public press seems to indicate all foreclosures during the 3 year period get an automatic $2000, so why are folks “unlikely to see” that $2000 – is it because the money is assumed to go through the state like a block grant, despite our not knowing that such wording is in the settlement?
Wouldn’t be surprised.
If there’s money to made, you can bet they’re on it.
Amazing quote.
Simply amazing.
Always appreciate your perspective, Masoninblue. Recommended.
That and I’d like to see him give back the Nobel Peace Prize.
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.” — Frank Zappa
But what is that “brick wall” for us?
What manner of beast lays hidden, when that before us is beyond imaginable?
“Are we to dance?
Sway to the chimes?
And do we jig?
Or is it of other matters we speak?
When the age is gone,
When the aesthetics and preconceptions are gone,
When there stands the bare it,
Weren’t we once Gods?”
Hi, Peony,
Yesterday (Sat), jbade reported that Bradley Manning has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Wouldn’t it be fitting if he were to win and the committee also rescinded its decision awarding the prize to Obama?
Yikes! What a colossal failure that was.
Rec’d for the fine diary it is, Mason, but a friend at my other blogging home made the point that all this will speed up foreclosures massively, and all of that will be happening in the run-up to the election. He sees how insanely useful it is for Romney; just grabbed kgb’s insightful comment:
“Obama is just getting played by the people he’s supposed to be regulating; to truly hold the lords of finance accountable will require the leadership of someone who knows their games, has their respect and has a history of winning in a pitched toe-to-toe battle with America’s billionaires.
Who do you want? Someone who’s always begging for a “deal” and scared to fight – or someone who has a history of grabbing the bull by the horns and getting the favorable outcomes they set out to achieve across the table from these same people Obama is always trying to coerce by wheedling?”
O may have seriously miscalculated, and maybe even the Big Banks did. I mean, there is no way that they’d ever get a better deal from Romney.
Revolution. It’s all that’s left.
Papau: “and what you thought would get the industry to agree…”
Jayzus; isn’t that the entire point??? It’s not supposed to be about the banks agreeing; it’s supposed to be about holding them accountable for massive fraud!
Hi, Papau.
I wanted an aggressive and thorough investigation of Forfeiture Gate conducted by a suitably staffed and adequately funded task force similar to the one Bill Black directed during the Savings & Loan debacle in the 80s. I now realize that an independent prosecutor should be appointed to run the task force.
Why not DOJ?
Because Attorney General Eric Holder and his compatriot Lanny Breuer, the chief of the Criminal Division at DOJ, have a conflict of interest and they should not be involved with the task force. They were partners at Covington & Burling, the biggest law firm in DC, during the time that the firm issued an opinion letter stating that MERS did not violate any laws. The law firm is vulnerable to a malpractice claim by the banks for issuing such catastrophically bad advice. As former partners, they likely have a financial interest in the continued well-being of the firm, even if it is parked in a blind trust, so they should have nothing to do with assembling and supervising the task force.
I wanted a thorough investigation, indictments, prosecutions, convictions, and long prison sentences for all of the higher-ups in the offending banks. I also wanted the banks taken over and their affairs wound down and closed.
Meanwhile, I wanted a freeze on all forfeitures pending the outcome of the criminal investigation. I wanted the homeowners to remain in their homes
Then I wanted a committee appointed to come up with a fair and equitable resolution for the homeowners and the victimized investors that would at least write down the principal to fair market value and restore some semblance of order and predictability to home values.
The committee also would have to come up with a universal solution to clear up the cloud-on-title mess.
The settlement places the cart before the horse. I never would have settled the case without conducting the investigation first.
This whole case was botched from the beginning to protect the insolvent banks, which are criminal enterprises that must be eliminated, and I am disgusted and furious about that.
We are gods in the making and we need to assume responsibility for what we are and start acting like it.
Yes, indeed.
The Rule of Law is broken and our government belongs to the criminal banks and giant multinational corporations. It no longer serves or protects us from their predation. Instead, it facilitates it.
We must do what we can to abolish and replace it. The time and opportunity to reform it from within have passed.
We have the numbers and we will win. The only questions are whether the revolution will be violent or nonviolent and how long it will take.
I wonder if there is any lie Obama would not tell and any act he would not commit in order to be reelected?
Yep. Thanks for making that point so succinctly. By their criminal acts, they forfeited the right to have any say in the outcome.
Thanks for the clear reply -
The policy decision – to end the current management of the banks – even without throwing everyone into jail – was obviously too much for most, esp. with a frozen credit situation that nationalizing the banks would make worse (the remedies you suggest produce negative capital, and because the MBS securities and related derivative have changed hands into the hedge funds at bargain prices, the remedies would unjustly reward those that cause the problem).
An independent prosecutor/task force would have worked well in 2004/5/6 when liar loans took over the market via the hedge funds and investment banks and no regulation Greenspan, but that would have been a major change in direction for GW Bush. The economic wound was so large in 2009 that such a task force would have bled out the country rather than stemed the flow. As you recall, in the 87 S&L crisis (causedthe major player was the Silverado Savings and Loan collapsed in 1988, costing taxpayers $1.3 billion with Neil Bush, son of then Vice President of the United States George H. W. Bush, on the Board of Directors of Silverado, and a major thief – taking $100,000 and $500,000 in no pay back loans while getting the rest of the board to approve $100 million to his partners without telling the board they were his partners – the $100 million never repaid. The investigation result was no indictment on criminal charges, a FDIC civil action that cost him $50,000 that was paid via Republican supporters, a Resolution Trust Corporation Suit against Bush and other officers of Silverado that was settled in 1991 for $26.5 million, and Bush banned for life from banking activities.
The media buried it all, GH Bush and GW Bush get elected President, the $1.3 billion is gone, and that’s that.
Based on past experience – even the rather good one under Bill Black – I doubt the positives of such a task force at this date would have been as good as you hope for – indeed I doubt one would get more than the settlement.
But I applaud the idea of a task force to send folks to jail via the DOJ doing something – albeit under Obama that is not going to happen. But the S&L task force led to the OTC being created to regulate things. And a new task force that the DOJ actually allowed to indite a few people might lead to better regulations.
I should note that S&L problems began with Reagan deregulation via Congress passing in 1982 the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act that increased the proportion of assets that thrifts could hold in consumer and commercial real estate loans and allowed thrifts to invest, 5% immediately and 10% of their assets after 1/1/1984) with the right to make commercial, corporate, business, or agricultural loans up to 10% of assets also after 1/1/1984. Under Obama/Tim we may have to wait a long time for regulations under Dodd-Frank if there is no pressure from a new task force that has indicted a few folks.
That’s been answered already, methinks.
NO.
On the Sunday talkshows thread there’s a link to the NYT article by Gretchen Morgenstern – she points out that previous settlements have been ignored and that such criminality has in fact speeded up in the last six months, so ‘mirage’ is indeed the operative word.
“ ‘It’s astounding that in such a huge percentage of cases the lenders are not complying,’ said Philip A. Olsen, a former Nevada Supreme Court settlement conference judge. ‘The banks have learned that they can thumb their noses at the program and it won’t cost them anything.’ ”
Since this is the case, why waste trees setting it all down on paper? We can’t even get compliance on the settlements that are already ‘in force.’
Methinks you’re right.