Finally, A Real Investigation?

When President Obama mentioned, during the SOTU, that he was calling on the Justice Department to investigate the actual causes of the "08 crash, I was both glad and skeptical.  Obviously, this was a political move by the President coming into his re-election campaign, but it was going to be one that actually makes sense (and one that should have been done, in my opinion, back in late '09/early '10).  However, I remember yelling to the television, "what about the proposed settlement that the government and the banks have been squabbling over?" 

Well, it looks like I am closer to having an answer now.  "Rolling Stone's" Matt Taibbi has been a real hero of mine, with regard to his reporting so extensively on this issue, and I just finished reading his latest post that actually addresses my concerns from Obama's move on this issue.  And like Taibbi, I am encouraged by what is being reported (h/t, Taibbi) about the narrowed scope of the potential settlement (only focusing on foreclosure fraud like robo-signing), and the fact that the banks will not get a free pass on their actions leading up to the '08 crash.

I know that there is a general sense on the right that it was poor and undeserving minorities getting loans from banks forced by the Community Reinvestment Act to lend to those folks (still not true, by the way) that "caused" our economic meltdown, but I am glad that we will have people like the New York AG Schneiderman looking directly at the the folks on Wall Street as the real culprits.