Updates II

The states have settled their various mortgage malfeasance issues with the banks, or purport to.

Let's put this into perspective.  These banks are collectively worth trillions, much of it extracted in various ways through the mechanisms they're not admitting to wrongdoing for but have decided its cheaper to pay hush money on.  The $29 billion they propose to pay back in the settlement amounts to maybe 1% of their value.  This amounts to a parking ticket for someone in the middle class.

Parking tickets are nuisance.  They don't change behavior unless you get lots and lots of them.  Getting one parking ticket after years and years of using no-parking spots is hardly likely to scare you much.

I belabor the analogy but, really, if you measure intent by action, there is no action here, and so likely no intent.  The elites don't want to solve this problem.