Rule of Law

I put this front and center because our country is in crisis in part because the rule of law is weakening everywhere we turn. For example, the banks have been running roughshod all over home owners during and after the housing bubble. And yet the Obama administration is pushing the attorneys general of the 50 states to agree to a settlement to end the mortgage/foreclosure crisis and jump-start that part of the economy that has harmed the overall economy so much. This they want to do without even launching any meaningful investigation of the banks’ behavior, which has been deplorable. Read Marcy Wheeler’s take-down here and her blog emptywheel for keen observations, much of them on issues related to the rule of law. I’ll have more to say about the rule of law — for instance about torture and our abandoning of our international treaties and agreements — in later posts.

Update. Apparently the feds are not going to let the banks get away with everything. However, time will tell the amount of muscle the government is prepared to bring against the banks. Other actions have been charades. This time, though, it's about the fraud against Freddie and Fannie -- with mortgage-backed securities the banks knew were next to worthless -- so it's about the GSEs regaining lost luster, and taxpayer money.