The sham continues

Back in January, as part of the PR re the State of the Union, Obama announced the formation of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group.  The function of this new group in the president's words: “This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.”  Obama was able to persuade Eric Schneiderman, the NY AG who had been actively pursuing the bad guys, to join the Working Group and, in fact, be one of the five co-chairs. 

I said then that I thought this committee was 'smoke and mirrors'.  This article in the NY Daily News seconds that point of view three months later.  None of the 55 staff members that AG Holder said would be hired have actually been hired. There is no office for the Working Group.  In fact, telephone operators at DOJ have not even heard of the group. And Schneiderman is still AG for NY.  I doubt he's spent really very much time on the group's work agenda.

Very interestingly, the article points out that "the new Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group was the sixth such entity formed since the start of the financial crisis in 2009. The grand total of staff working for all of the previous five groups was one.",