The US continues its dizzying decline into Russia's post-Soviet hell.
Yves Smith has this devastating critique of the mortgage settlement which will enable Wall Street banksters to walk scot-free away from decades of criminal fraud.
Even by the most conservative estimates, the housing bubble destroyed $7 trillion of US wealth. Wall Street raked off massive profits when the bubble was inflating, engaged in criminal fraud and malfeasance, and then got huge government bailouts when markets nosedived (among other gifts, the ability to borrow at 0.025% rates of interest from the Federal Reserve, precisely where working stiffs like you and me have to pay 5% or more).
Not a single bankster goes to jail, and the banksters will hand over the grand total of $25 billion, very little of which will directly help homeowners.
This is beyond criminal, into some realm of decadence which needs its own neologism
The bitter irony of this is that none of this will solve the problem of the shadow inventory of dead mortgages, which will never be profitably sold. Nor does it solve the problem of negative equity -- twelve million American households owe more on their mortage than their house will ever be sold for.
Things don't have to be this way. It's high time to start jailing our banksters, slashing our bloated military, spending on healthcare and education, and investing in green jobs.
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