Protests have only grown in the Trayvon Martin case, both online and offline. Change.org now has nearly a million signatures on their petition to prosecute George Zimmerman for murder. Hundreds turned out in New York City yesterday for what they labeled the Million Hoodie March. And another protest will send mass amounts of Skittles to [...]

I agree with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s research that the foreclosure crisis has shifted from a subprime origination problem to a broader problem related to the collapse of the housing bubble and elevated unemployment. Policymakers may assume that this is an easier problem to solve, because economic growth and reducing unemployment plays [...]

I want to turn back to Phil Angelides’ op-ed in the New York Times this morning, because in addition to making the case for bank accountability as a deterrent to future crimes, he says that the relevant authorities have had smoking gun evidence in their hands for two years. Meager resources have been applied to [...]

It’s been a while since I’ve checked in on the phone hacking scandal in Britain, and there’s actually big news on that front today that could bring lots more pressure on News Corp. A new statement from a police chief investigating the scandal alleges that reporters at the tabloid The Sun gave bribes to public [...]

I love this story. It’s one of those that calls to mind the old Margaret Mead dictum, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the [...]

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “underwear bomber” who attempted to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Eve 2009, will receive a life sentence today in Detroit, the conclusion of a trial that ended abruptly with a guilty plea. On the second day of the trial in October, Abdulmutallab suddenly pleaded guilty to all charges. [...]

I liked that NBC Nightly News used Yves Smith to describe the foreclosure fraud settlement last night. And she’s right that the ultimate penalty here is tiny for the banks compared to the damage done. Moreover, as Felix Salmon explains in a post actually claiming that the settlement is a win-win for everyone (I’ll circle [...]

I was just on KPFK in Los Angeles with RJ Eskow, and we have fairly similar ideas about the foreclosure fraud settlement, even though they may sound different. He thinks that we need to use the pressure available to ensure that the settlement is a beginning and not an ending. I’m just trying to be [...]

The WaPo editorial board’s biggest problem with the “rough justice” foreclosure fraud settlement is that robo-signing is a “victimless crime” because all those people were behind on their payments anyway, and that lucky duckies foreclosed upon might be getting $2,000 erroneously. That’s the media we have. Put aside the looming presence of servicer-driven defaults, fee [...]

Yesterday I talked about how the failure to prosecute represented a fundamental decay at the heart of our politics, a symbol of the lack of accountability that has plagued this country for a decade. Yesterday, we began to get some accountability for foreclosure fraud in the unlikeliest of places: Missouri.  From the New York Times [...]

We learned on Friday that Eric Schneiderman’s suit against MERS and three banks using MERS represented a carve-out on the final foreclosure fraud settlement. There was speculation, stoked by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, that other states might have carve-outs or grandfathered suits, so they would be able to pursue those investigations and prosecutions and still [...]