LA City Attorney Sues Bank of America Over Lending.
Source: nyt/ap
The Los Angeles city attorney is suing Bank of America for mortgage discrimination it claims led to a wave of foreclosures that cost the city a fortune in extra expenses and lost taxes.
The suit, filed Friday in federal court, claims B of A redlined minority neighborhoods for years, then turned around and gave blacks and Hispanics predatory home loans that they couldn't afford. The suit claims those borrowers were forced into foreclosure when the housing bubble burst and they were denied refinancing. . .
The city attorney filed similar lawsuits on Thursday against Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. They deny the allegations and say they're committed to fair lending.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/12/06/us/ap-us-foreclosure-lawsuit.html?hp
cspanlovr
(1,470 posts)And the people hurt will never see restitution for their losses.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)This is not solely the problem or desire of the banks themselves. It is the problem from not having a 'social floor no one falls under' in this country pitting us against each other. The disdvantaged are pitted in an economic system that they have to take a gamble on like home mortgages, as the alternative is homelessness or unsafe living conditions.
The homeless situation is being maintained intentionally in this country just like the condition of those in poverty or unemployed. They are used as an example to the middle and working class to keep them putting up with crap.
Making housing, like health care and money to live on, a human right sets the 'floor' and poor, middle and working class people have more confidence to say no to abusive employment, those junk insurance policies, and be able to stand up to the market forces on their housing.
JMHO. It's bigger than BoA.
villager
(26,001 posts)Of course, when that doesn't work, there's mass incarceration, or the reliable "Fred Hampton" approach to someone getting too far out of hand...
loudsue
(14,087 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I'm so proud to have a city attorney like him!
GTurck
(826 posts)that a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand pin pricks by states, counties, and cities might be more of a problem for the big banksters than one big federal case. In the former they will have to send their high power, high priced attorneys everywhere thus diluting their ability to prevail.
It would be something to experience that limitation on Wall Street.
kknackjr
(11 posts)As long as we live in a country where bankers can buy votes and write their own laws, the fight against the US banking industry must continue.