Guest Author - Tony Daltorio
It should not come as a surprise to anyone that if you reward behavior, even bad behavior, you will get more of the same.
Wall Street banks "misbehaved" so badly that it put the entire global economy at risk.....
They created securities which they knew was filled with near-worthless mortgages and other 'gems', paid off the ratings agencies to rate the securities as ultra-safe AAA, had their 'snake oil' salesmen selling these pieces of garbage all over the globe, then actively bet against their clients that the securities would go down in price.
All of this was done in the name of making billions of dollars for themselves, while leaving the taxpayers holding the bag for billions of dollars worth of bailouts.
And Wall Street's punishment? Nothing but a slap on the wrist. Wall Street paid a few millions in fines (which they can earn in a few hours of trading, since they are front-running trades) and got "reform" which was no reform at all.
The result? More bad behavior from Wall Street banks - improper and perhaps fraudulent foreclosures on peoples' homes.
Several large US banks were forced to halt foreclosures in a few dozen states that require banks to go to court to repossess delinquent borrowers' homes
This occurred after it emerged that the documents were being rubber-stamped by "robo-signers". Robo-signers were bank "officials" who signed up to 10,000 forms a month while hardly glancing at them.
The banks and their defenders say that this is all a bureaucratic technicality and much ado about nothing.
What a bunch of BS! The fact that the major Wall Street banks regard court proceedings to repossess homes so lightly is a worrying reflection on Wall Street's ethical standards. Or more precisely, the lack of them.
At worst, the banks may have been lying to courts over a vital safeguard in property law - the sanctity of documents.
The hope is that the courts will take a very dim view of this. And the individual states too...the attorney generals in all 50 states are investigating the matter.
Hopefully, the states will hold the banks' feet to the fire. Show Wall Street that its contemptous approach to their legal responsibilities is unacceptable.
