Konczal pointed to this one earlier

http://bettermarkets.com/blogs/robo-signing-bank-settlement-criminal-sell-out

that’s why I hate the robosigning deal so much. That arena is where fraud is most easily proven, I hear.

I wonder how the MO AG news earlier today figures into this. are AGs bringing these somehow in association with the negotiating process? Or is MO trying to get some specific settlement funds carved out for itself? cynical, I know. btw, left comment at the earlier MO story that the seven year sentence is per count.

I believe that’s seven years per count. If my math is correct (big risk) the maximum possible sentence would be 952 years for Ms. Brown.

Mr. Koster said his office’s investigation was continuing. This suggests he may hope to persuade Ms. Brown to cooperate in his investigation of the parent company. If convicted, Ms. Brown could face up to seven years in prison for each forgery count. DocX could be fined up to $10,000 for each forgery conviction.

I agree. This is just the Administration trying to capture (in the economic sense of the word) a resistant and troublesome SAG.

If I understand Suskind (Confidence Men)correctly, WH policy is that the scandal produced by a successful public prosecution of any of the megabanks would cause a crisis of confidence in the entire system. This has been Geithner’s winning argument from the very beginning. Obama again signaled this yet again in the SOTU by saying the whole point of this new “investigation” was to “turn the page.” Whether Geithner leaves soon or not, his view still reigns over Obama–that the entire system is too fragile to handle a real investigation and all it would bring to light.

American Bankers Association would be my vote.

Another case where deficit spending can result in great benefits.

You are absolutely right to bring in Nader–a point missing in much of the back-and-forth on this topic. I don’t know why Stoller and others ignored Nader in their considerations–unless it was because including him would negate aspects of their arguments that the left had not put forward some of the issues Paul is advancing. The left has done that, and Nader is still doing that.

It is hard to overstate how effectively the Democratic Party has demonized and marginalized Nader. What happened to Howard Dean pales in comparison. And what Nader attackers fail to address is that there were many other 3rd party candidates on the Florida ballot as well–and I believe that the vote totals that any of them received would have put Gore over the top. And Gore did run an absolutely horrible campaign, and he did not himself fight sufficiently during the legal contest.

Ancient history, but I think you are entirely correct in bringing Nader into this as he is very relevant to this liberal fracas, whether your cited authors want to believe it or not.

We won’t really see how GOP responds to a “decent” jobs report until we have one. This simply wasn’t it. At current pace, using this ‘decent’ jobs report, we will not get back to pre-recession levels until 2027.

Fact: this is a poor, bad, failing, not-good jobs report. Fact: It is one of a long string of similar job reports that are partially brought on by Obama’s policies. Just because the GOP are responding to it like idiots doesn’t change these facts.

there was a recent earthquake in south texas. others in oklahoma. someone with experience in geology could write a great diary on this, looking a frequency of low-level quakes in active shale-gas regions.

The fracing fight will occur/is occuring at a much wider scale than just New York. It’s international.

Also, there is a clear link between fracing and seismic activity (relatively low power quakes):

British Geological Society

New Scientist

while the quakes have not so far been strong enough to be very destructive, I think they do likely carry fracing contamination much further than it otherwise would go, by opening new channels, cracking old well-casings, etc.

dday, I’d be interested to know if you felt any prognosticators of 2011 were on the mark, or even in the ballpark. Looking back on the year, it seems fair to say that the entire world was blind-sided by events that were entirely, absolutely, unforseen.

Thanks for posting that photo. The foreground reveals not “debris” but dead Lakota, four of them, two closest to the camera uncovered, probably by the photographer.

I’d suggest keeping San Antonio on the list, mentioning their participation in the port action.