The Senate Banking Committee met today to hold hearings about the foreclosure fraud crisis. MarketWatch has a brief summary here. After it was over, Dave Dayen, Atrios, and Mike Konczal (rortybomb) chatted on Twitter:
ddayen: It’s a national crime that this foreclosure fraud hearing won’t lead the nightly news
ddayen: hearing ending, yes these things are a lot of hot air, but I think this one might have done some good
Atrios: what possible good? nice that maybe some senators get it, but… then what?
ddayen: point is that this has gone from a backwater on blogs to the chair of Senate Banking saying this is a crisis. Baby steps
Atrios: yes that’s progess but..Treasury unlikely to do anything and of course congress is useless
ddayen: Congress is useless but investors, AGs not necessarily. Investors watched this hearing and $ signs lit up in their eyes
Atrios: true, long thought that the only slim hope for this mess was investor uprising
rortybomb: You only need a little bit of successful investor uprising to put ratings agencies into motion, which sends whole thing collapsing.
Atrios: true, tho i think problem with investor uprising solution is that many investors are on both sides of this
rortybomb: You could also have an investor uprising which doesn’t really help homeowners/communities at all. That’s a worry.
Atrios: yes i agree with that, investor uprising no guarantee of helping homeowners. just slim possibility
ddayen: That is a worry, but there are a combination of pressures here, particularly from courts denying foreclosures….pt. being, a multi-pronged attack w/courts, investors, munis and AGs, could get the banks to a homeowner-friendly endgame
So will investors who bought securities backed by fraudulent mortgages lead a revolution against the banks who sold them? Maybe! Though probably not. In any case, I just thought everyone might enjoy eavesdropping on the postgame show a bit.
