Elizabeth Warren Tears Into Federal Regulators For Shielding Big Banks

[alp227]

Source: think progress

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) embarrassed government regulators during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday morning as she demanded to know why they won’t reveal how frequently big banks illegally foreclosed on homeowners. In January, regulators abandoned a case-by-case review of foreclosure fraud conducted by some of the nation’s largest banks in favor of a $9.3 billion settlement. Under the deal, most of the 4.4 million homeowners who were foreclosed on in 2009 or 2010 received less than $1,000 each.

Fair housing advocates and Democratic lawmakers panned the agreement, claiming that it short-circuited a more detailed review process (known as Independent Foreclosure Review) and let banks off the hook for illegally foreclosing on millions of homeowners. Regulators had initially claimed banks broke the law or made errors in 6.5 percent of all the loans reviewed, though the number has since been revised upward.

During the hearing, Warren pressed officials from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and The Federal Reserve for answers about how frequently banks broke the law, only to discover that regulators didn’t know the exact number before reaching their settlement and were now unwilling to publicize the error rate.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/04/11/1855561/elizabeth-warren-tears-into-federal-regulators-for-shielding-big-banks/

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Video & transcript at link.

[MichiganVote]

1. Not going to get invited to the WH Lizzie...Obama likes his banks.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Damn, she's good. I hope she's around for a very long time. n/t

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

5. I do as well.

I love my senior senator!

But the Feds are really pissing me off!

[valerief]

3. How can soulless govt regulators be embarrassed? nt

[cstanleytech]

4. Maybe the regulators need to be investigated to now?

After all its pretty clear they arent doing their jobs for some odd reason.

[creativebliss]

31. Great point!

Just because they are "regulators" does not mean they are immune to the labyrinth of corruption for which they are "intended" to investigate. Essentially, the regulators are immersed in the insulated bubbles to which politics and capitalism occur, sheltered from the genuine pressures and conscience of the population living outside of those bubbles.

What is it going to take for the people on the outside to penetrate the inside? Then this question I often ask myself leads to my next question...

Do good people become immoral politicians or do immoral people become good politicians? Of course, this is a pessimistic curiosity, since we'd be screwed either way.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

6. The Inspector General should investigate this.

[Liberalynn]

7. I love this woman. I want her as my President

[BelgianMadCow]

18. She's a very loving woman. The Elizabeth Warren group here on DU

has a beautiful interview with her up. Made me think of her as lovely, hence my reply to you.

[Liberalynn]

20. Thank you. I will have to check out the interview.

[midnight]

37. Me too...

[Indyfan53]

8. It's people like her that keep me voting Democrat.

I wish we had more progressives like her in Illinois and less DINO's.

[Indridc0ld]

9. These questions are long overdue

Yesterday, a story picked up by virtually every media outlet in the US, chronicled a man who took four fire fighters hostage at gunpoint. All reported that the man "demanded his electricity and cable TV be turned back on." What virtually ALL of them shamefully omitted, was that the man was facing eviction due to forclosure. That's right, a man "lost it" because he was facing being put out on the street. It has been SIX LONG YEARS since the bankers on Wall Street crashed the US economy, along with the hopes and dreams of MILLIONS of ordinary people. These people played by the rules, paid their bills, and lived their modest lives, until they couldn't.

More Americans lost everything they had, than at any other time since the First Depression. And yet, after six long years, NOT ONE bank CEO, has been indicted! Even the so-called fines barely dented bank profits for a single QUARTER. What recourse do people put out of their homes have? How many more people who have nothing left to lose are going to "lose it"? When will we see punishment that is commensurate with the damage to our society?! Elizabeth Warren is asking the right questions, but she is only scratching at the tip of the iceberg.

[MotherPetrie]

10. K&R

[Berlum]

11. Thank you, Senator Warren

Good

[rurallib]

12. why did it take 6 years and 3 elections to get one senator

one fucking senator - who is asking the questions 75% of America wants to have asked.
Has anybody got her flank?

[xtraxritical]

25. Bernie Snaders, Raul Grivalla, The Progressive Caucus, others...

[patrice]

13. If they don't know how many foreclosures were illegal, doesn't that mean they don't know how many

were LEGAL? ARE the "legal" ones legal?

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. Noneof the Countrywide mortgages could be foreclosed legally.

Because it finally came out that Countrywide never transferred the mortgages to Bank of America when BOA bought out Countrywide. It later has been alleged those mortgages had been destroyed.
The reason that the robosigners were needed was to make forged copies of all the mortgage papers when banks did forelcose, since banks did not have complete documentation ( which meant they could not legally foreclose.)
The reason that MERS was needed was to put false transfers of mortgages into the county records.
Many times MERS represented that it had the power to foreclose, but legally it did not.

I have been following this mortgage scam for the last 5 years, and as each piece of info was unraveled, it eventually revealed the above picture of an enormous scam fuled by forgeries.
An enormous scam that NO ONE in goverment except Warren was willing to look at
despite mountains of evidence.

[Douglas Carpenter]

14. knr - my God she is good

[ErikJ]

15. Now that is Presidential material!

Thats what confused me about Obama. He seemed to come out of nowhere and I said to myself-"but what has he stood up to or done"? He was swept up in a "cult of personality" thing which I despise if I dont know why. When he firstr said "clean coal" my red flags went up.

[FreedRadical]

22. I know, thats how I feel...

At least about the Warren part. I am down for H Clinton, but I have really wanted E Warren for some time now. I don't know. Who is the better Woman for the Job?

[ErikJ]

24. Obviously Warren is far more suited

The Clinton(s) are moderate Conservative like Obama. WHo signed into law the repeal of Glass Steal? Which senator voted for the Iraq War? I have never seen Clinton harrass the evil doers like Warren does.

[DonB]

16. An ode that bears a little revision and some repetition

Lizzie Warren took a bat,
and gave the bankers forty whacks.
When they blocked her for what she'd done,
she gave the Senate forty one.

Regulators close your doors, lock them tight,
cause here comes Liz, to set things right.

[madrchsod]

17. she really needs to run for president.....

[xtraxritical]

26. I think she will, 2016. She'll get my vote.

[Stuart G]

19. K and R nt. thanks for posting

[Moostache]

23. PLEASE STAY OFF OF ANY SMALL PRIVATE PLANES!!!!

I love what Elizabeth Warren stands for and how she is one of the few truly honorable people in Washington...but I fear for her safety going forward. If she were not as popular as she is, I am certain that the powers that be would have ensured she had an "accident" already.

Stay safe Elizabeth, and I truly hope more good people join you instead of prostrating themselves before the altar of greed and taking those sweet, sweet campaign dollars and cushy lobbyist jobs in exchange for selling out their countrymen.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

27. Bankers have the 'Life of Riley'

Good, someone needs to call them out - finally

[Selatius]

28. Ultimately, it was the Justice Dept. that favored the 9 billion dollar sweetheart deal with banks.

It was likely done to avoid a lengthy legal war as well as a bloody political battle against well-financed banking lobbyists with huge amounts of cash at their disposal to wreak havoc on Democratic campaigns for House and Senate seats.

[Mr. X]

29. Could have

shortened all of that to "Business as usual"

Seriously - The vast majority of politicians don't give a shit about anything other then keeping their seat.

[creativebliss]

32. Do you know

or anyone else here, where precisely these settlement funds are alotted? Is the money that ACTUALLY goes to the victims taxed first or counted as income to be taxed later? I just find the lawsuit and settlement game such a farse. It never addresses the real issues or real criminals and certainly doesn't hurt enough financially to curb the proclivity for these immoral establishments to continue breaking rules and laws.

[lonestarnot]

30. Revolting!

[Uncle Joe]

33. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, alp.

[sarcasmo]

34. Kick!

[MrMickeysMom]

35. Well, if I were being threatened with foreclosure...

I'd want the criteria as to whether it was being done legally, referring to this testimony.

To hell with them... Off with their heads, Elizabeth!

[bonniebgood]

36. If these homes were illegally foreclosed, they had to be illegally

sold, which means they were sold without a clean title. I would want nothing less than my
house back. If the house is still vacant I would move back in. Damn you get more in compensation
in an auto accident.