All 50 Attorneys General across the nation have until today to decide if they’re going to sign on to a settlement with the nation’s biggest banks to let banksters off the criminal hook for widespread fraud committed on Wall Street during the financial crisis. The settlement – which is against the biggest of the big banks like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo – is worth $25 billion – which is chump change compared to the real damage they've done to the American middle class – where over $7 trillion in wealth has vanished.
By agreeing to the settlement, Attorneys General will waive their right to pursue further criminal investigations on Wall Street – meaning no banksters will see a jail cell. George Goehl, the executive director of National People’s Action, slammed the deal saying, “People are very disappointed in ... this …We’re giving away the store.” While most states want to take the settlement – California is still holding out and reserving the right to launch its own investigations.
And in New York, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed suit last week against JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo over improper foreclosure practices. "We the people" need to make sure any deal that doesn’t include jail time for Wall Street’s criminals and doesn’t force the banks to refinance the exploding mortgages they bilked customers into buying – is rejected outright.
Comments
How could any ethical AG sign off on this? They should be full speed ahead on prosecuting every last one of those corrupt banksters who are responsible and take everything they own away from them and give it back to the investors who were screwed by them. That would be the honest thing to do but seeing how most of them are lawyers looking for a better job I'd say the people will get screwed again. I think lawyers are rated below used car salesmen for honesty and that ain't saying much.
.... they bilked customers into buying ....
Thom, you make it sound like Bank employees busted into peoples houses, tied them up and forced them loan money! I can tell you that in 100% of cases the Bank employee was sitting down at their desk and work and the loan seeker, walked into their place of work and "asked" to see them, and asked for a loan. They were then presented with a contractual agreement which they then acknowledged that they had read and signed every single page.
This infantilization of the American people is rampant among the Left and is as disgusting as it is destructive. It is the same line of thinking that believes that the Citizens United cases allows television commercials to just pour opinions into Americans empty heads.
.... they bilked customers into buying ....
Thom, you make it sound like Bank employees busted into peoples houses, tied them up and forced them loan money! I can tell you that in 100% of cases the Bank employee was sitting down at their desk and work and the loan seeker, walked into their place of work and "asked" to see them, and asked for a loan. They were then presented with a contractual agreement which they then acknowledged that they had read and signed every single page.
This infantilization of the American people is rampant among the Left and is as disgusting as it is destructive. It is the same line of thinking that believes that the Citizens United cases allows television commercials to just pour opinions into Americans empty heads.
Have you ever heard of bubble market hysteria? People had to buy because prices were going to rise 25% a year forever! Everyone knew a guy who made $200k buying and selling a house. The rational people left the building. The banksters that ran the banks (not the guy at the corner bank) are the ones who dreamt up pick a payment loans, and helocs at 125% of the homes value. They inflated the demand, by increasing the amount of money people could qualify for, and the number of people who could qualify. In the end, unless they were going to allow cats to buy, they had run out of fools.
For an historical example, read Thomas Wolfe's You can never go home again. The hero returns to his hometown, and watches in awe as everyone in North Carolina is consumed with the real estate bug, down to cab drivers and the town drunk.
Calperson, you have finally convinced me that you are either the most naive romantic or the most cynical person posting. If you really believe that these banksters and their hired thug mortgage agents offered people honest opportunities to make good or bad decisions on a rational and informed basis, then I want you to live in Wonderland with Alice and the Mad Hatter. Please stop insulting our intelligence with this nonsense, and/or do reality therapy.
You cannot be this stupid. Oh, I forgot, you can.
Feb. 22, 2012: Bloomberg is reporting that a Whistle-Blower has reported that CitiGroup DEFRAUDED Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/citigroup-defrauded-fannie-freddie-whistle-142854059.html?l=1
Breaking news! Gambling at Rick's! Shocking!
Thom had a used house seller from Detroit call into the show on Wednesday. She was upset because she herself was upside down on a piece of dirt and Bank of America had sold her loan just a few months ago, so she could not participate in the loan modification program, for which she otherwise qualified.
Evidently the big banks have been getting rid of these loans in anticipation of the settlement, so that $25 billion "can't" be used to modify the loans.
I give Thom credit for not asking the woman how many people's lives she'd ruined in the bubble years.
I agree, Calperson, it IS insulting to treat people like children. BUT, if you consider the pervasive and skillful propaganda, dog-eat-dog hunt for money at all costs without a glimmer of conscience, media complicit with this shark mentality, propaganda, consumerism and brainwashing together with moronic standards of American education you would need to provide literate advocates for millions of Americans who are unable to navigate this sesspool of leeches ready to suck the last drop of life out of you. The Century of the Self, a British documentary (free on youtube) dug up evidence of how the 1% developed this tool to control the masses.
Moreover, it's not only the unsophisticated and uneducated who fall prey to these blood-suckers. Millions of highly educated seniors and just naive and trustful citizens who believe laws will protect them are thrown under the bus without any help from the government agencies designed to protect them. You steal pennies from big crooks - march to jail, they steal your life savings - too bad!
Not convinced? Just read this: http://inspinwetrust.blogspot.com/2011/10/selection-of-richest.html
Remember, it was the Greedspan who thought the Banksters would make wise and responsible decisions because he knew they were financial experts and could be trusted to be rational. If the people at the top believe this crap, why blame the folks who have not been to Biz School and don't have the official titles and badges of authority for expecting them to be smart and moral?
I have heard people in this stratum speak with 'learned confidence' about how fine and sound their theories are while I asked questions they deflected because I was not "one of them." It is not the people on the bottom of this game who bought into the magic, it is those who fell in love with their own narcissism.
Only the dumbos rob banks. The smart guys own them and do their robbing 'perfectly legally.'
I have heard people in this stratum speak with 'learned confidence' about how fine and sound their theories are while I asked questions they deflected because I was not "one of them." It is not the people on the bottom of this game who bought into the magic, it is those who fell in love with their own narcissism.
Only the dumbos rob banks. The smart guys own them and do their robbing 'perfectly legally.'
And in the same line of thinking here, DRC, what we need to do immediately in the USA before the final looting of everyone here by these sociopathic banksters, and before the USA goes into an irreversable collapse into a third-world nation, we must create a complete revolution ... in policy :
1. Get government leaders who are not supporting the financial empire.
2. Get Glass-Steagall passed.
3. Re-establish a United States National Bank with the Hamiltonian credit system.
4. Repeal all of the laws passed in the past 30 years (and the past 30 weeks) that were preparing us for death or drudge if not empire bound.
All these bankster need to go to jail and serve triple life sentences and be exposed to Money-Masters 24/7.
Then we have a raid at the next Bilderberg meeting.
Shut down the Trilateral Commission and the CFR and arrest all their members.
Between inciting a depression and the Logan Act violations they can see first hand the prison industry complex their drug laundering money has helped built.