Thursday, December 1, 2011

It's Possible to Do the Right Thing

Despite popular belief, it is possible to be a politician and not whore yourself to banking industry:
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said today that she has filed suit against five major US banks for allegations related to mortgage fraud and unlawful property seizures. Coakley said she will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. today to detail the suit against Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citi, and Ally Financial.
I know that the president of the United States faces more political pressure than attorney generals from Massachusetts, New York or Delaware, but there is nothing stopping him from directing Eric Holder to look into these practices nationally. More importantly, he most certainly does not need use his political power to force a settlement that lets the banks of the hook.

I'm not saying any of this stuff is easy or without cost, I just think any excuses made for Obama on this front are particularly week. He has the power to investigate the banks, he has used his power to shield them from scrutiny instead.

1 comment:

  1. Particularly in the case of wrongful foreclosures on active military personnel, where there is potential jail-time involved. One year for each instance, I believe.
    So yeah. They should be in prison. This is phenomenally easy. Either there's documentation of someone improperly foreclosing on an active duty servicemember, and they go to jail, or there isn't documentation, and they're in deep shit for foreclosing on someone who's mortgage they can't prove they own.
    THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.
    And incidentally we still seem to be rather good at rocket science, so this should be a fucking walk in the park (minus the pepper spray, of course).

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