More Mortgage Mischief

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...6188640816094376.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h

MARCH 15, 2011.

More Mortgage Mischief
Elizabeth Warren revs up her Consumer Financial Protection Bureau..

The new federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's website proclaims that no financial company "should be able to build, or feel pressure to build, a business model around unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices." How ironic, then, that the bureau itself is trying to extend its reach by extorting billions of dollars from private mortgage servicers, regulating their business by fiat, and stalling a U.S. housing market recovery.

SNIP

They've sent a proposed 27-page "settlement" to the banks that would, among other things, force mortgage servicers to submit to the bureau's permanent regulatory oversight; impose vast new reporting and administrative burdens; mandate the reduction of borrowers' mortgage principal amounts in certain circumstances; and force servicers to perform "duties to communities," such as preventing urban blight.

We warned during the Dodd-Frank debate that the new consumer bureau would become a political tool for credit allocation, and here we already are.

 

That's becoming a trademark the man who would be king, Obama.