Attorneys General Settlement: The Next Big Bank Bailout?

Source: Rolling Stone
By Matt Taibbi

Amidst all the bad news coming out of Wall Street and the economy, here’s something good: California has backed out of the talks for the long-awaited foreclosure settlement, now making it far from likely that the so-called “Attorneys General” deal will happen anytime soon.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris sent a letter to state and federal regulators explaining that she pulled out because the proposed settlement amount for banks guilty of bad securitization practices leading up to the mortgage crisis – said to be in the $20 billion range – was too small. From Business Week:

Harris says in a letter to state and federal negotiators that the pending settlement is "inadequate" and gives bank officials too much immunity.

I’m convinced that the deal will eventually go through, however, after some further concessions are made. Certainly the absence of both New York (whose Attorney General Eric Schneiderman gamely started this mess by refusing to sign on or abandon his own investigation into corrupt securitization practices) and California will make it difficult for the banks to do any kind of a deal. But there is such an awesome amount of political will to get this deal done in Washington that it almost has to happen before the presidential election season really gets going.

More: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/attorneys-general-settlement-the-next-big-bank-bailout-20111005

Also DE and Massachusetts

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2055308#2055751

And, as mentioned, there's Schneiderman. Not to be underestimated, I think.