Unsealed court-settlement documents reveal banks stole $trillions' worth of houses

[Whiskeytide]

136. I don't for a minute doubt that...

... The banks committed all manner of fraud in the course of this mess, and I am not apologizing for them. And I am not blaming homeowners for it either. I blame the rampant predatory lending practices that took place in the run up to the meltdown. And the absurd, greed driven investment frenzy on Wall Street.

But, when you say that the banks "stole houses by illegal means", the question becomes "from whom" - or from "who" - i never get that right. If the homeowner stopped paying for the home, "someone" had the right to foreclose on it. If a bank did so when they didn't have the legal right to do it, then they stole it from the entity that did have that right. They didn't steal it from the homeowner.

Now, if there are homeowners who were foreclosed on when they had not missed a payment, there is no justification for that, and the bank should be (and usually is) held accountable - maybe after a legal battle, but I'm confident homes are not being given to banks by judges when homeowners can prove they made payments. There might be a few instances where it's gone down like that, but not many, and there is usually an explanation for it buried somewhere below the headline.

But what the OP is talking about is not that scenario. It speaks of a situation where the homeowner gets into default, and then defends themselves in a foreclosure proceeding on the charge that the foreclosing bank doesn't have it's paperwork in order. I.e. "some bank somewhere might be able to legally foreclose on me, but its not YOU!".

Now, again, if you want to vilify the banks for getting the homeowner in the position of default, or for stealing billions from the treasury, I'm with you 100%. But I have a hard time getting outraged when I see the banks stealing from each other because of their sloppy practices. I say let the phiranas eat each other to the bone.