Dennis RomeroAn activist platform that supports Occupy Wall Street is telling California Attorney General Kamala Harris to hold fast against pressure to make nice with major banks that allegedly committed fraud in their drive to sell home loans to folks who couldn't afford them.
That, of course, led to the Great Recession, the echoes of which we live with today, not to mention the more than month-old Occupy movement that seeks to hold Wall Street and banks responsible for the shite economy and income inequity in this era of massive joblessness.
Harris pulled out of a deal with the banks, saying Californians were …
… being asked for a broader release of claims than we can accept and to excuse conduct that has not been adequately investigated.
It's an issue at the heart of the Occupy juggernaut: Fry the banks or let them off the hook. Harris says they must pay.
Occupy L.A.; Credit: Ed Carrasco
But she's being pressured by other states to reenter negotiations, which would let them off the hook for the subprime mortgage meltdown in exchange for $5 billion that would go to refinance as many as 300,000 underwater loans in America. (By underwater we mean that folks owe more than their homes are worth: To be eligible for the refis people would have to be up-to-date with their payments).
That deal on the table, aimed at Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Ally Financial Inc., is said to have been drawn up specifically to placate Harris and bring the Golden State back into the fold
Without California — the largest state caught up in the home-repo mess — the deal might not happen at all. And banks could maybe even face prosecution.
The online activist platform CREDO says today that thousands of its members …
… have sent faxes and made calls to Attorney General Kamala Harris, urging her to not give into Obama Administration pressure to join 50-state settlement negotiations with banks that would have let them off the hook for unscrupulous mortgage and foreclosure practices.
CREDO political director Becky Bond tied the Harris decision to Occupy's core goals:
While people are out in the street marching on the banks, the real action is going on in the offices of California's Department of Justice. Kamala Harris is making decisions right now which will literally determine whether the Wall Street banks will ever be held accountable for their crimes — California is ground zero for the housing crisis, and our Attorney General, Kamala Harris, has a special responsibility to punish the bankers who drove our economy off a cliff.
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