MoveOn, Color Of Change Demand Obama To Investigate Wall Street Banks, Housing Crisis

With big banks inching closer to a settlement over allegedly improper foreclosures -- one that critics call too lenient -- progressive groups are calling on President Obama to get tougher on Wall Street.

In a press release, Move On, Color of Change and other groups ask Obama to launch a "full federal investigation of Wall Street banks and their role in the housing crisis."

The groups have gathered more than 360,000 signatures which they will present to the Obama administration, according to the release.

"Our members understand that an investigation is essential for real accountability and preventing future reckless behavior from the banking and mortgage industries," Rashad Robinson, executive director of ColorOfChange.org, said in the release. "The Obama administration has a critical choice to make. The President can either cut a deal that lets Wall Street off the hook, or he can commit to a full investigation into the banks and the damage they've caused."

The calls comes months after The New York Times reported that members of the Obama administration were pressuring New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to go along with the multi-billion dollar settlement. But Schneiderman and a handful of other state attorney generals have criticized the deal for being too lenient on the banks.

For his part, Obama hasn't show much interest in a more sweeping probe into the financial crisis. Last month, Obama told "60 Minutes" that "some of the most damaging behavior on Wall Street -- in some cases some of the least ethical behavior on Wall Street -- wasn't illegal."

Obama also said he couldn't comment on particular prosecutions because "That's the job of the Justice Department, and we keep those separate so that there's no political influence on decisions made by professional prosecutors."

But Salon's Glenn Greenwald pointed out that, shortly after he took office, Obama publicly expressed his belief that the Justice Department should not prosecute members of the Bush administration for torture or other possible criminal activities.

From Greenwald:

Does this sound like a President who actually believes that it's improper for him to "comment on the decisions about particular prosecutions" to ensure "there's no political influence on decisions made by professional prosecutors"? Or does this sound like a President who applies exactly that kind of political pressure on the DOJ when it suits him, and is now cynically invoking this excuse to avoid having to take responsibility for the virtually full-scale immunity given to the financial-crisis-causing Wall Street criminals under his watch?

Comments

[carolgregor]

04:11 PM on 01/24/2012

This is the biggest moment in Obama's life. Is he with us, 99% or them, 1%.

[tthan43]

04:05 PM on 01/24/2012

Click this link to see a phenomenal, staggering waste of our money and the money of probably untold generations>>>>> http://www.unelected.org/audit-of-the-federal-reserve-reveals-16-trillion-in-secret-bailouts

[rory talbot]

12:10 PM on 01/21/2012

Wall Street doesn't need to be investigated, it needs to be fumigated.

[Peabodies]

10:13 AM on 01/22/2012

rory -- I think you meant cremated.

[rory talbot]

12:09 PM on 01/21/2012

Hahaha!!! Oh my! Obama investigate Wall Street. Wow. That's so funny it hurts. If by "investigate", you mean give $7 TRILLION in interest free loans with no strings attached and no accountability, then yes, Obama will "investigate" them.

[tthan43]

04:07 PM on 01/24/2012

Wanna see something that will make you sick at the titanic of money wasted by this administration>>>> http://www.unelected.org/audit-of-the-federal-reserve-reveals-16-trillion-in-secret-bailouts

[Tquin]

10:45 AM on 01/21/2012

Yes Obama, go ahead and go after those banks. Show them what they must do while you are President. Everything will be OK in November.

[Rob Harrington]

08:54 AM on 01/21/2012

Why did the DOJ give WaMu executives a hall pass? www.nationalwamuhomeownerssupportgroup.com

[court182]

08:31 AM on 01/21/2012

I apologize in advance if my paraphrase is off but similar to what Stalin said "Steal a little, you go to jail. Steal enough, they make you king". How long are we, the American people, who actually make money by the sweat of our brows going to take this hypocrisy that is endemic to our financial sector? It seems like almost daily something more outrageous is done and the common response by the people overseeing the purported "Over regulation" do less and less.

[OldTulsan]

04:47 PM on 01/22/2012

F&F

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" -- Edmund Burke

[court182]

05:36 PM on 01/22/2012

Please don't hate me but that is exactly what the plan is. To seduce us with professional sports, "reality" shows and 24 hour infomercials and news cycles to keep us so distracted that we do exactly that, nothing! It all starts with education. Sorry about the rant.

[fistofthejedi]

02:38 AM on 01/23/2012

This is a powerful and favorite quote of mine.

[castlemike]

01:58 AM on 01/21/2012

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-18/mf-global-commodity-customers-must-be-paid-first-cftc-says-1-.html

MF Global Commodity Customers Must Be Paid First, CFTC Says

MF Global Inc. (MFGLQ) commodity customers must be paid before all other claimants, including the bankrupt parent company, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Court papers by the trustee for MF Global Holdings Ltd., Louis Freeh, contain “errors and misstatements of law” in arguing that commodity laws, which require that customers be “made whole” first, don’t apply to brokerage liquidations, the regulator said in a court filing today. Freeh, representing the parent company creditors, has said money due to them shouldn’t be “diverted” to customers.

If Freeh was right, “the senseless result would be to render inapplicable the key regulations of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the largest commodity broker bankruptcy in U.S. history,” the CFTC said. The result would “strip” customers of a remedy, after they entrusted their assets to the brokerage relying on rules for segregating customer money, it said.

The CFTC was responding to a judge’s instructions to regulators and the trustee to file briefs on the rules governing the brokerage’s distribution of assets. Creditors of the parent company also have been clashing with brokerage customers as each side seeks more money for itself.

[carolgregor]

12:44 AM on 01/21/2012

Obama's obligation is to the people. He has failed by ignoring the biggest fraud in history that has destroyed the middle class. He has shown no interest in the human consequences which is a real tragedy.
He should stop foreclosures and demand justice for the people.

[Andrew Troutner]

11:19 PM on 01/20/2012

This never would have happened if it weren't for the federal gov't and the federal reserve meddling in the market.. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are privately owned government supported enterprises that are given special privileges by the federal government like guaranteed lines of credit (promises of bailout money) and not having to comply with SEC regulations, as well as exemption from income taxes to name a few .. Combine these banks that have been promised bailout money even if they are mismanaged - like if they write thousands of bad mortgages, and artificially low interest rates set by the fed and you have a recipe for disaster. Why not write bad loans if you make money on them and the gov't has promised to bail you out with tax payer money when you go bankrupt? So all that money was invested into housing rather than more productive things like businesses that create jobs because of the imbalances created by gov't policy. Bureaucratic incompetence and gov't corruption are mandating a return to our constitution.. RON PAUL 2012!!!!

[unique]

10:24 PM on 01/20/2012

I think Mike Bloomberg should run for President.
After all he has been filing Freedom Of Information
requests to get to the bottom of this mess.

BLOOMBERG FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012..........

[CSNC]

09:23 PM on 01/20/2012

"Progressive Groups Demand Obama Investigate Wall Street Banks"

Dream on... Obama is too immature, too incompetent, and too surrounded by WS people to do that.

And here we have what we will get from this "tranformative leader" -- that I once believed he was.

H

[optomist1]

08:35 PM on 01/20/2012

right, this happens the same year the Detroit Lions win the super bowl....don't hold your breath.

Who then will finance both parties election efforts??

[ccairnes]

08:34 PM on 01/20/2012

It seems there are several issues here. One is that the successful lobbying efforts of the banking industry over the last 30 years or so have yielded a system that has legalized things that common sense would tells you should not be illegal. Another is that Grover Norquist has done what he set out to and reduced the federal government down to the size where it "can be drowned in the bathtub" and the financial institutions have grown to have enough attorneys in their legal departments to drown the government's efforts to try to prosecute them. And as the system has become more rigged, people become more willing to be more ruthless to one another to try to get ahead. So, what little fragments of effectiveness are remaining, in what ever realm (state, civil, DOJ), should be brought to bear, until legislation can be enacted to reign in the abusiveness and recklessness. Going back to having commercial banks separate from investment banks would be a good start.

[Peabodies]

10:19 AM on 01/22/2012

ccairnes -- "Going back to having commercial banks separate from investment banks would be a good start". Undoing Gramm-Leach-Bliley would reinstate Glass-Steagall.

Each state should have its own State Bank, like North Dakota.

[Captain Hindsight]

08:27 PM on 01/20/2012

There is little need for investigation. They have settled numerous times for pennies on the millions without admitting any wrong doing or paying restitution. Prosecute the VULTURES! Throw them in jail and get the money back!

It's time to start executing corporations!

[court182]

08:37 AM on 01/21/2012

I wish we could get the money back but I am afraid all we would ever see is pennies on the dollar and in all likelihood it would be clawed back in the form of fines paid to the "Government". But just as with the savings and loan debacle, a lot of people should go to jail for a very long time!