During his State of the Union address, President Obama announced that he would be forming a Financial Crimes Unit, to tackle the subprime mortgage meltdown and those who caused it. In 2009, President Obama announced the creation of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force the purpose of which was to “hold accountable those who helped bring about the last financial crisis as well as those who would attempt to take advantage of the efforts at economic recovery.” The Financial Crimes Unit will operate as part of the Task Force.
Confused yet?
It seems the Financial Crimes Unit is going to coordinate investigations into the mortgage crisis, specifically, and not fraud, generally. Also, it’s a Unit, not Task Force… so… that’s different, too.
In any event, this is good news:
Reporting from Washington— New York Atty. Gen. Eric Schneiderman, who was tapped by President Obama to co-chair a new state and federal mortgage crisis unit, promised Wednesday to move aggressively to coordinate investigations into the causes of the subprime mortgage market meltdown.
“We’re undertaking a more coordinated effort to pull together all of the various strands of investigations relating to the conduct that created the mortgage-backed securities bubble and led to the market crash,” Schneiderman told reporters in Washington after an event at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“There have been investigations going on in various states and branches of the federal government,” he said. “We’re now making a concerted effort to pull everything together and move forward aggressively to address these issues.”
He said the new unit, part of the existing federal Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, would go after “every aspect of the conduct that created the bubble and crash,” including the origination of mortgages and the packaging of them into securities.
Obama announced the new effort in Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
“This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans,” Obama said.
Surely the “Yeahbutters,” will cynically complain: “Yeah but, he should have done this sooner!” or “Yeah but he’s obviously pandering to his base because it’s an election year!” And the “Toldjas” will take credit for it: “Toldja that Credo Mobile petition would work! Toldja!”
And the rest of us will laugh at the Yeahbutters and the Toldjas and ask if they’d like another pudding.
[via LA Times]
Law & Order: FCU
David Dayen, Digby, and her commentariat immediately jumped to declare this a blatant attempt to co-opt Schneiderman and speculate about what his price must have been. Somehow to bring Schneiderman into the fold is to disarm and corrupt him, but to not bring Elizabeth Warren into the food is also to disarm and corrupt her. They can’t even keep consistent about their conspiracy theories. Sad.
Uh, into the FOLD, not into the food.
One of my Facebook friends re-posted some viral claim on her wall that Obama would announce amnesty for the financial crooks during the SOTU speech. She got several equally angry comments on it but no follow-up after the speech disproved the allegation, but she did post some more deeply emo tirades on Obama’s many, many flaws over the next couple of days.
I like this woman. She has been a good friend to me in the past. But I can’t believe what a downer it is to look at the feed when I log in and see so many of these screeds every day. There is a way to stop seeing someone’s updates in your Home page, right? (I am Facebook stupid.)
Bout. Fucking. Time. Because the 2nd time around is a charm. I’m really looking forward to hearing how ABL and her delusuonal side kicks will spin the zero accountability crusade that will surely follow; because no way is O bought and sold by the very intereta he’s “investigating”. He really cares. He does. He’s been saying so for years. HAHAHA!!!! The level of blind faith is mind boggling, truly.
Let me guess, Ron Paul 4EVER (hearts, rainbows, unicorns, Xes and Ohs). Tea Party Bible Bagger over Obama? Not just no, but HELL NO.
You say Barack Obama is bought and sold, but the financial sector is making less money then ever before and the top Wall Street CEOs are donating to the likes of Romney at a ratio of 5/1 over Obama.
I’m sorry Barack Obama saved capitalism when you wanted it to fall and crumble, I really am, but the rest of us need this system working to rebuild and create a fairer outcome for us all.
DING!
your screen name is very illustrative.
Indeed. Makes you wanna vom, dunnit?
I used to be kinda naive, but since I started watching Jon Stewart a decade or so ago, I’ve learned a lot of pretty nasty stuff, like the meaning of terms like “tossed salad” and “rusty trombone” and “hot carl.”
I’m a little nervous that one day, when I’ve become old and senile and start to blurt out random stuff floating around in my haunted brain, I’ll throw out some of these terms in front of my beautiful niece and her children.
Hey, Salad, here’s a little factoid for you – Ron Paul’s solution for the mortgage crisis was to eliminate the federal reserve, which is his solution to damn near every economic issue. Yes, he was one of the few Republicans who spoke out about the housing. But, as Krugman pointed out, Ron Paul’s waking John Birch ideas about monetary policy would crash the economy.
Obama solution is to regulate banking transactions so lenders can rip you off when you sign a 30 year mortgage. Ron Paul’s Solution – fuck regulation and fuck you if you can’t pay for a 100K house in cash upfront, buy gold and live in a hut!! Uh, yeah, great alternative.