Francesca Mari argues, in her review of Aaron Glantz’ book Homewreckers, that, except for FDR, who did it right, it did not matter who was president for homeowners cheated by banks out of their homes. People lost their homes in the Savings and Loan crisis under Ronald Reagan – especially in Texas. If people weren’t compensated, at least thousands of bankers were prosecuted.
People lost their homes in the banking crisis of 2007-8 under George W Bush and Barack Obama – especially in California. Mari says the law allowed much of the fraudulent behavior under Reagan. Mari cites Glantz and says the law did not allow fraudulent behavior under Bush and Obama. Bankers’ bad behavior just was not prosecuted.
Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin’s OneWest made billions kicking people out of the homes, especially in California. The Attorney General at the time, Kamala Harris, declined to prosecute him or anyone at the bank. Banks like OneWest were scofflaws. Nothing happened to them.
As a pro-Trump friend says – it doesn’t matter who is in charge. People get screwed.
Stop for a minute. Consider Katie Porter. An Elizabeth Warren protégée. A Kamala Harris appointee. She studied post 2008 bankruptcies. She wrote about the fraudulent behavior of banks. There are skeptics. An Orange County blog claims the negotiations did not get people the relief they should have. So does the Intercept.
Porter didn’t actually negotiate the settlement. She was the California monitor responsible for distribution of the funds that were negotiated. In Porter’s case, the dog does not bark. No one complains her monitoring was insufficiently supportive of people who lost their homes. In Washington now representing CA 45, she is described by American Banker as the fiercest bank disrupter since Elizabeth Warren. Her sharp questioning has won applause, according to that journal, from leftists and criticism from Republicans and even some Democrats. None of that criticism is that she was fooled by the banks when she was working for Kamala Harris compensating former homeowners for their losses.
It matters at every level who has the job.