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Elizabeth Warrens A Fighting Chance: An exclusive excerpt on the foreclosure crisis
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Boston Globe


Boston Globe, April 26, 2014
Posted: April 29th, 2014
http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/04/26/elizabeth-war...

In fall 2009, Secretary Timothy Geithner invited people working on TARP oversight to a meeting. After we had listened to the secretary go on and on about his departments cheery projections for recovery, I finally interrupted with a question about a new topic. Why, I asked, had Treasurys response to the flood of foreclosures been so small? The Congressional Oversight Panel had been sharply critical of Treasurys foreclosure plan. We thought that the program was poorly designed and poorly managed and provided little permanent help, and we worried that it would reach too few people to make any real difference. The secretary ... quickly launched into a general discussion of his approach to dealing with foreclosures, rehashing the plan that the Congressional Oversight Panel had already reviewed. Next, he explained why Treasurys efforts were perfectly adequate. Then he hit his key point: The banks could manage only so many foreclosures at a time, and Treasury wanted to slow down the pace so the banks wouldnt be overwhelmed. And this was where the new foreclosure program came in: It was just big enough to foam the runway for them. There it was: The Treasury foreclosure program was intended to foam the runway to protect against a crash landing by the banks. Millions of people were getting tossed out on the street, but the secretary of the Treasury believed the governments most important job was to provide a soft landing for the tender fannies of the banks.

Note: Adapted from A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren. For more on the government's collusion with the big banks before, during and after the 2008 financial crisis brought about by fraudulent mortgage sales, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.


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