The true origin of this criminal enterprise lies squarely within Fannie, Freddie and the Democrat party. Without the lending policies enforced by the Democrats via Fannie, Freddie, the CRA and their accomplices -- ACORN and ACLU -- there would have been no crime! By bankers...or anybody else.
Nor, for that matter, any meltdown of the economy.
Indeed, many in the banking and mortgage community were as much a victim of this fraud as the taxpayers -- they bought securities issued by Fannie and Freddie, believing they were backed by "the full faith and credit, etc".
In a way, there is some equity involved in the bailout of the financial community -- as they were actually victimized by the government's action and might ordinarily expect recompense.
Any "banker thieves" implicated in this scandal were accomplices after the fact. The real perpetrators are represented by the likes of Barney Frank, etc. and the Democrat party in general.
Any "laws to prevent this kind of BS again" should restrain government from intervening in free markets -- as they clearly did in this case, with disastrous results.
Any conservative who is not directing their fire at the Democrats -- and is, instead, aiming at "banking thieves" -- is shooting straight thru to the fringe of the subject.
There seems to be a lot of that around here, lately. Which makes me somewhat suspicious...
This played a part in McVain's defeat.
And, If you want to think that the CRA caused 500+ trillion in derivatives then just keep living in your fantasy world.