Yesterday’s robosigning settlement that all but one state ultimately signed off on, was far from perfect.
Let’s make that perfectly clear.
Depending on what you have read, you might be outraged, you might be relieved, you might be overjoyed. And the target of your wrath or sympathy might depend on your own personal perspective.
But make no mistake about it, yesterday was a day of reckoning, for me, and much more importantly, for the people I represent.
Yes, the banks got a slap on the wrist and the money they are trickling back to the homeowners won’t make up for the systemic fraud these lenders engaged in, and make no mistake it was fraud at the highest level.
I wish I could personally put the handcuffs on each CEO who allowed robosigning to occur.
But here’s the silver lining, now we have a reengaged President, who is anxious to see the job done. We have Eric Schneiderman on the case, and he is going full-speed right at the banks.
They may have not gotten the flogging they deserve, but I am optimistic that they surely will.
Conservatives can blame the borrowers all they want, and certainly not all were faultless. But the banks were the grown-ups here, they should have known better. They had the chance, in the midst of the housing boom, to stop, take a breath and take a look back at what they had done.
They didn’t.
The truth is no amount of money would have been enough. And since we can’t put the banks in jail, they got what was in essence a very public shaming. And people’s eyes were opened. What you have now learned, can not be unlearned.
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