What”s the rush?
The States” Attorney General and the Justice Department are pressing for a quick settlement of a deal with the five largest mortgage companies responsible for much of the wrong doing that resulted in the disastrous crash of the housing market.
The deal would absolve B of A, J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial of wrongful foreclosure and use of fraudulent documents filed in the courts. The banks offered to pay $5 billion to buy their release from liability, but the offer was refused by negotiators.
Now the amount being considered is $30 billion, which isn”t a bad deal for the banks if you consider that together they may have handled $5.7 trillion in home loans or about 54 percent of all the outstanding home mortgages.
For a mere $30 billion and a promise to play nice and not be naughty again. They get to keep the difference and no body goes to jail. Isn”t that cute?
The Justice Department and the Attorneys General have only made a cursory investigation and have only sampled the piles of documents so they don”t have the evidence to play hard-ball with the big kids.
It appears that settling for a pittance might save someone from a lot of work. We should contact our representatives and express our dismay by demanding a serious and complete investigation with real consequences for the greedy thieves who brought us to this disaster. What”s the rush?
R. Rosendin
Lower Lake
