Breathless prediction goes poof. * edited *
Last edited Sun Jan 29, 2012, 10:33 AM - Edit history (2)
** I edited this post to respond to those that still maintain the banks will be given blanket immunity. Other than a deal on robo-signing in exchange for a cash settlement, the vast majority of the banking industry's soft underbelly will remain exposed. Even Matt Taibbi is impressed (see his interview below).
Matt Taibbi: "The narrow focus of the deal covers only a small amount of liability and leaves the banks incredibly exposed to all kinds of criminal investigations."
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Obama Is on the Brink of a Settlement With the Big Banks—and Progressives Are Furious
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How that turned out:
Obama picks New York A.G. Schneiderman to lead national mortgage-abuse probe
11:20 PM, Jan. 25, 2012
link: http://www.lohud.com/article/20120126/NEWS05/301260028/Obama-picks-New-York-G-Schneiderman-lead-national-mortgage-abuse-probe?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|News|s
ALBANY — Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has fought with the Obama administration over a settlement with the nation’s largest banks that contributed to the mortgage meltdown. Now the president will turn to the first-term Democratic attorney general to lead a national investigation into the institutions responsible for the collapse of the housing market.
Schneiderman is being tapped as co-chairman of the Unit on Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuses, the White House said.
-- snip
Schneiderman: “These are abuses in the foreclosure process. Our working group is focusing on the conduct related to the pooling and the creation of mortgage-backed securities and issues relating to the conduct that created the crash, not the abuses that happened after the crash.”
The role in Washington would provide a national stage for Schneiderman, a former state senator who has been lauded by liberal groups for his tough stance against the banks. President Barack Obama announced the new task force in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. He said he has asked federal prosecutors and attorneys general to work together to expand investigations into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages .
“This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans,” the president said. The group is expected to determine which institutions broke the law, compensate victims and provide relief to homeowners.
edited to add AND ...
Mortgage Deal Is Close, and May Not Offer Much Immunity
George Zornick on January 27, 2012 - 1:19pm ET
link: http://www.thenation.com/blog/165917/mortgage-deal-close-and-may-not-offer-much-immunity
The federal government is closer than ever to a deal with five major banks over mortgage fraud practices—and, with some exceptions, the emerging details may hearten progressives who feared banks would get off the hook.
The White House provided an outline to the Huffington Post, and it appears that immunity has largely been removed from the deal—except in the area of state prosecutions against robo-signing. (Robo-signing is when banks use fake signatures, or stipulate to documents they hadn’t read or that didn’t exist, in order to foreclose on a home).
According to the Huffington Post story, banks would not receive immunity in the following areas:
1. Criminal liability.
2. Tax liability
3. Fair lending, fair housing, or any other civil rights claim.
4. Federal Housing Finance Agency or the GSEs [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac]
5. CFPB claims for the period after they came into existence in July 2011
6. SEC claims
7. National Credit Union Association Claims
8. FDIC claims
9. Federal Reserve Board claims
10. MERS claims
State-level robo-signing prosecutions are the simplest form of fraud to prove, however, and the banks wouldn’t face any more investigations. But they would have to fork over $25 billion to help homeowners who were either wrongfully foreclosed on, or have homes that are underwater as part of the settlement.
With almost everything federal still on the table (though the White House says only that a “vast majority” of securitization and origination claims will be exempted), this is not a terrific deal for the banks—especially given that the administration is ramping up federal investigations with a new task force headed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. “I think it is fair to give [New York Attorney General] Eric Schneiderman and the other progressive attorneys general a lot of credit for holding the line,” a source intimate with the negotiations told the Huffington Post. “This is a big victory for them.”
-- snip
AND ...
Matt Taibbi weighs in on the above. Interview by Bill Press on Countdown.
http://current.com/shows/countdown/videos/matt-taibbi-ponders-whether-obamas-embrace-of-populist-rhetoric-is-already-impacting-wall-street
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The above is a perfect example of dysfunction here at DU. Predictions are considered good enough by some to launch a threadsworth of nasty epithets. Kneejerk arguments here at DU often are nothing more than a cheap shot by opportunists who double-down by mocking people that question the prediction de jour. Although the detractors are now silent about the prediction, I'd like to point out that yet again they have jumped the gun and yet again the president is afforded zero credit for doing the right thing.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Yet we continue to jump right in. (I can't stop myself!)
We 'haters' want the President to fail or we want the repuke to win. Really, we do. 
