Why the Foreclosure Deal May Not Be So Hot After All

[MrCoffee]

However, now that the settlement is finalized, and I've had time to think about it and talk to people who know far more than I do about this, I'm feeling pretty queasy.

It feels an awful lot like what happened here is the nation's criminal justice honchos collectively realized that a thorough investigation of the problem would require resources they simply do not have, or are reluctant to deploy, and decided to accept a superficially face-saving peace offer rather than fight it out.

So they settled the case in a way that reads in headlines like it's a bite out of the banks, but in fact is barely even that. There will be little in the way of real compensation for stuggling homeowners, and there are serious issues in the area of the deal's enforceability. In fact, about the only part of the deal we can be absolutely sure will be honored in full is the liability waiver for the robosigning offenses.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-the-foreclosure-deal-may-not-be-so-hot-after-all-20120209#ixzz1luutF1SM

[russspeakeasy]

1. I give you $1,000. You give me $1. We're even right ?

This agreement is a crock of shit and will help very few people, but will help a lot of corporations. Shit, I forgot, corporations are people.

[msongs]

6. deal! when are you gonna send the $1000 lol nt

[russspeakeasy]

9. I'll send it yesterday...

[truedelphi]

2. Many of us have been saying this since the first release of information regarding it.

And the Attorney general for the State of California, Kamela Harris, had pulled California out of this deal. Though now I hear that she has put California back into this terrible settlement.

[girl gone mad]

3. I was surprised she held out so long.

She was under immense pressure from the White House to sign off on this terrible settlement before the SOTU.

[truedelphi]

13. She understands the real mood of the California voting populace perhaps

Better than the man in the WH does. After all, he got the votes of us commie socialists. (Or FDR Dems as I prefer we be called.)

Kamela had to strugggle to round up her win - a full nine percent of the progressives here voted third party. So what should have been a shoo in for her and the Party ended up being quite a struggle. (As far as her major contender - She was running against a very unpopular RW candidate.)

[EFerrari]

17. Me, too. She wasn't exactly a maverick as the SF D. A. nt

[MrCoffee]

4. California may have gotten a special incentive to join

They are getting a huge chunk of the write-down/refi allotment.

[DJ13]

5. realized that a thorough investigation of the problem would require resources

I think thats bullcrap.

The DoJ needed only to spend enough resources to investigate a small number of fraudulent foreclosures, then prosecute those executives that can be tied to them, and THEN the AG's and civil attorneys could have run with that and really pounded those financial institutions that were responsible.

It wouldnt require an investigation into tens of thousands of individual foreclosures, it wouldnt take more than a few dozen to establish a pattern of criminality.

There are plenty of resources to go after them in that manner, just no backbone to do it.

[xchrom]

7. Du rec. Nt

[zipplewrath]

8. Not defending it, but...

The one realization I did have, is that cooperation from the banks could be extremely useful in the criminal investigations. That could be hard to come by if the banks are constantly worried that it will open up an unending string of civil suits. And there is a real chance that the civil suits might never generate the kinds of assistance that homeowners need. So the choice was made to take what they could get quickly, and then go after the individuals in criminal court.

In the long run the best "protection" against further behaviors like we just went through is real people going to real jails and doing real time.


Just wish the President realized that about torture too.

[MrCoffee]

10. I don't see how handing the banks another bailout will foster cooperation

especially with criminal investigations.

[zipplewrath]

11. Lose the incentive

First, they lose the incentive to "resist" the investigations. Most of the people who will be investigated don't work anymore for the banks that have the information they need. The banks don't have any vested interest in defending them.

Second, they won't want alot of press where they are explaning why the bank is "defending" people accused of criminal activities by witholding information.

And third, it removes any "self incrimination" defense they might have in resisting subpoenas and similar requests for information. Actually, one would hope that as part of this agreement, there is some obligation to cooperate in the criminal investigations.

[EFerrari]

12. This was predictable as soon as Obama farmed it out (as if) to the fifty states.

No state wants to be on the wrong side of this deal, for one thing, so no one was going to stand up against Wall Street and for us.

And, I questioned Elizabeth Warren signing off on this at the time. If I could predict it with my zero expertise, why couldn't she?

We got sold out (again) and they got bailed out (again).

[MrCoffee]

14. I have no faith in Schneiderman after this

I get the feeling he held out simply to protect his MERS suit.

[truedelphi]

15. Yep, that is it in a nutshell. Sorry to hear that

E Warren was fooled.

[Fumesucker]

18. Warren seems considerably sharper than that..

I doubt she was fooled..

[Solly Mack]

16. K&R

[PufPuf23]

19. Agree. The People "won" (but really we lost). nt