Trust your bank?

Big news this week is that a major bank, one of those scions of American industry, cheated over 4,000 military personnel on their mortgages. Not only that, but they fraudulently foreclosed on 14 homes. All this occurred while the military member was deployed to the war zone. When banks start screwing around with my military brothers, I get pissed! I can think of a whole lot of punishments I would gleefully impose on this bank. They certainly deserve to have their asses kicked.

What has the bank had to say about this? Oh, they admit they were required to reduce the mortgage for deployed personnel, but they didn't do it. Why? They're not saying. Could it be that in their greed they made a corporate decision to ignore the law, in quest of the almighty dollar? Could it be that some bank bigwig decided that the way to earn a huge bonus was to show a large profit, to hell with the fact that he was he was screwing some military people out fighting for our freedoms?

The bank has said they would process refunds. Isn't that wonderful? What about the 14 homes illegally foreclosed? Does the bank merely think that a refund will make everything right? Were I in charge, this bank would be required to purchase new homes, handle all the costs, including moving the families in, and pay a very large penalty for the pain, suffering and anxiety experienced by these families.

Of course, my Republican friends are still preaching that we must reduce or eliminate regulations on business, that these stifle the ability of corporate America to do business. Yeah, sure. What we really need are even stricter regulations to stifle the propensity of corporate America to cheat, lie and steal.