by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
It is senseless to expect Democrats to save the people from the worsening housing crisis, since Democrats are as culpable for the disaster as the Republicans. It was Democrats in the House and Senate that passed a bill to allow banks to bypass state law to repossess homes. President Obama only exercised a quiet “pocket veto” when it became clear that failure would spell disaster with elections only weeks away. “If predicted losses in congressional races become a reality, the Democrats bear as much blame as the Republicans.”
Freedom Rider: Foreclosure Fraud
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
“The Democrats directly aided and abetted the financial services industry in all of their schemes and are equally responsible for the destruction of the housing market.”
The Democrats and Republicans who ran this country into a financial ditch are not through yet with their dirty work. At the behest of their masters in the financial services industry they attempted to accelerate the process of fraudulent home foreclosures and finish off what is left of the housing market.
Simply put, the chickens of the Clinton era bank deregulation continue coming home to roost. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act was the catalyst for the real estate bubble which continues to disrupt the economy of the nation and the world. When the last wall between banks and financial services was removed, Wall Street was able to do literally whatever it wanted, including securitize home mortgages and create financial disaster.
Banks are foreclosing on mortgages at a rapid rate, falsifying documents and rushing the process so as to collect on their ill-gotten gains as quickly as possible. In Florida, banks are changing the locks on homes that have yet to complete the foreclosure process, evicting people illegally. The attorneys general of 40 states are investigating phony notarizations and the “robo signing” scheme which churns out foreclosure documents in a process that is inherently illegal.
“Banks are changing the locks on homes that have yet to complete the foreclosure process, evicting people illegally.”
The proof of America’s decline into a full fledged kleptocracy became evident last week, with the sudden approval of HR 3808, the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act, which would have repealed laws preventing forms notarized in one state from becoming legally valid in another. In twenty-three states, foreclosures must go through judicial review. If the bill had been signed, the banks would have been able to destroy those protections and enable bankster corruption to continue unabated.
President Obama vetoed the bill but in the most passive way possible. A so-called pocket veto means that the president simply declines to sign legislation that, therefore, never goes into effect. The shrewd president knew that publicly taking sides with the banks when people are being thrown out of their homes would be unwise just a few weeks before Election Day. He is having enough trouble getting Democrats to the polls already.
In typical Obama fashion, he tries to have it both ways. He vetoes the bill, albeit in the least visible way, but his advisor David Axelrod makes it clear that the foreclosure mills must get going again. "I'm not sure about a national moratorium because there are in fact valid foreclosures that probably should go forward." It will be interesting to see what happens to the legislation after Election Day.
“The shrewd president knew that publicly taking sides with the banks when people are being thrown out of their homes would be unwise just a few weeks before Election Day.”
As of now, the Bank of America has stopped foreclosure proceedings in all 50 states, J.P. Morgan Chase and GMAC have stopped them in states requiring judicial review. The suspension will surely be temporary, giving the banksters time to plan their next move. Progressives must ask Democrats, who have the majority in both houses of Congress, how HR 3808 moved so quickly from being passed by voice vote in the House in the spring, to moving through the Senate unanimously in September.
The Democrats can’t be allowed to keep blaming the evil Republicans. They directly aided and abetted the financial services industry in all of their schemes and are equally responsible for the destruction of the housing market. If predicted losses in congressional races become a reality, the Democrats bear as much blame as the Republicans. It is too easy to vilify the Tea Party, when the Democrats’ unwillingness to fight for their constituents makes them unappealing on Election Day. The millions of people who turned out to vote for Barack Obama in November 2008 have little reason to support him or his party now.
While Democratic pundits try to scare voters into voting by foolishly fixating on loony Tea Party candidates, Democratic voters have decided to stay home. The president is forced to speak at high schools and back yard barbecues and run to black churches begging for votes. If he and his party had done something about rising unemployment or pushed for real health care reform they would have nothing to fear.
“The millions of people who turned out to vote for Barack Obama in November 2008 have little reason to support him or his party now.”
Instead they march in lock step with their corporate bosses to help them take what is left of Americans assets and they are seen for what they really are, useless in meeting the needs of working people and only marginally better than the Republican Party. The catastrophic effects of corporate rule will not be erased by mindlessly supporting a party that is equally dependent on the largesse of the criminals.
The president’s own point person has made it clear. Don’t expect them to step up and stop the ongoing crime. Perhaps the states will provide some relief, but the lessons of HR3808 are clear. The criminal class will not stand by and allow the states to provide protection without fighting for their take of the heist which they planned for so long. The struggle will continue, regardless of who controls Washington after Election Day.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com.
The International Criminal Court finally indicted Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, but this action is merely performative. If arrest warrants do not include war criminals like Joe…
Manning Marable reminds us that US fascism is institutional and normalized. The parallels of his 1981 essay with the present are obvious – US fascism remains ascendant.
The Washington Post’s latest anti-Eritrea propaganda demonizes Eritrean immigrants defending themselves in the West.
Annual climate gathering reflects divisions between the industrialized states and the Global South.
Glen Ford wrote many powerful essays, but his unflinching analysis of the history of the holiday we call Thanksgiving endures 20 years after he wrote it.
