Well, it gets a bit repetitive to write about this but it's that or spacecrafts following comets(come to think of it, the comet stuff is much more fun). But, here we go again: bankers rip us off and all they need to do is sock it to the shareholders and customers and, presto, Eric Holder and his boss go home happy campers. The Treasury might get a little richer but nothing much will have changed.
Apparently, Bank of America--a really big, big player in the mortgage crisis primarily through its acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp--has a deal (via WSJ website):
Bank of America Corp. and the Justice Department are close to a deal in which the bank will pay between $16 billion and $17 billion to resolve allegations of mortgage-related misconduct in the run-up to the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the matter.
The bank has agreed to pay roughly $9 billion in cash to the Justice Department, states and other government entities, these people said, with additional money aimed at consumer relief, such as reducing mortgage balances for struggling homeowners.
If finalized, the agreement would set a record for fines and damages in a civil settlement between the U.S. government and a company. It would eclipse the $13 billion pact struck between the Justice Department and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in November over similar issues. Citigroup Inc. recently agreed to pay $7 billion to settle similar claims that it sold shoddy mortgage-backed securities ahead of the financial crisis.
Bank of America agreed to the outlines of a deal after a phone call Thursday between Chief Executive Brian Moynihan and Attorney General Eric Holder, people familiar with the matter said. For weeks, the bank refused to offer more than $13 billion, including cash and consumer relief, while the Justice Department was seeking $17 billion.
This comes on top of the court order just last week that fined Bank of America $1.9 billion as punishment for
"a brazen fraud by the defendants".
It's not a bad thing for some money to trickle back to homeowners but it's a pittance if you line up the financial damage overall in lost jobs, lost pensions (money never to be recovered because of the time lost to accrue money to expected levels) and, of course,lost homes.
That figure is in the trillions of dollars of lost opportunity.
For that, these people deserved sever jail time.
For fuck's sake, at the bare minimum, if there is going to be a fine, all to be paid by shareholders and consumers, and not a dime out of the pockets of the CEOs/managers, each of the CEOs who cut these deals, along with their senior management, should have been forced to resign. Otherwise, the same culture has been left in place--and the next crisis is just a matter of time.
Nothing has changed.