| Follow us @ twitter.com twitter.com Last month's proposed $25 billion mortgage settlement involving 49 states along with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Ally Financial is a step closer to being official, reports Reuters, as Federal representatives ask a judge to approve it. Supporters claim this deal attempts to prevent the mortgage crisis from happening again, with banks agreeing to revamp loan modification procedures and abandon abusive practices such as robo-signing. But critics argue this is a case of a trend we've seen far too many times before: a settlement that's a good deal for the banks, where they admit no guilt, but a lousy deal for homeowners. Yves Smith is author of the popular blog Naked Capitalism and the book Econned. She's a critic and has followed this deal closely throughout the entire process and breaks down why this is the case and how this deal ended up with "a lot of garbage in it." Smith says banks are paying much less than $25 billion, there is no element of damages or notion of punishment, and the cash payments for people who lost their homes wrongfully is so trivial it's insulting. |
