Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Elizabeth Warren’s Foreclosure Settlement Bombshell: Banks Determined the Number of Victims of Their Own Foreclosure Frauds

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, April 12, 2013

Elizabeth Warren’s Foreclosure Settlement Bombshell: Banks Determined the Number of Victims of Their Own Foreclosure Frauds

Click here to access article by Pam Martens from Wall Street on Parade.

The players in this Senate hearing drama are the 1) government regulators from the Office of the
Controller of the Currency (US Dept. of the Treasury) and the so-called "Federal Reserve" which is overwhelmingly owned and controlled by major banks with a thin veneer of government participation; 2) outside, and ostensibly "independent", consultants hired by the regulators to investigate fraud; 3) senators on the Banking Committee.

I think that there are several aspects that we should focus on: 1) the excerpted video below in which Sen. Warren of Massachusetts is questioning the bank regulators which illustrates how little effective power our elected Congress has over crimes perpetrated by banksters; 2) the fact that the formal foreclosure process was suddenly halted midstream to stop the "independent" review of fraudulent practices leaving the banksters to decide on the settlements, and 3) the final dismal settlement with some of the foreclosed homeowners and the fees paid the independent consultants.

Once again we see in this video graphic evidence of the frustration experienced by Sen. Warren over the refusal of regulators to fully reply to the Banking Committee's requests for information and the evasive and obfuscating replies that she receives during the hearing. Of course, the formal remedy for this kind of situation is the threat and the actual holding of contempt charges against the bank regulators, but of course they are much too big and too powerful to mess with--and they know it!

You see, what you learned about the government of the United States in your education was largely wrong. Congress doesn't have much power to decide anything if and when they are opposed by major sectors of the One Percent. Hence, I think the dramatic headline about a "bombshell" is extremely misleading; and worse, it serves to reinforce such wrong notions. The headline should read something like this: "Freshman Sen. Warren learns some lessons about the power of banksters".