Andrew Ross Sorkin uses his column today to highlight to troubles of those suffering the most from the downturn: the CEOs of major banks who bought up failing competitors in the midst of the financial crisis. Jamie Dimon, J.P. Morgan’s CEO, get center stage for having to deal with Bear Stearns’ legal liabilities, but Sorkin also has some tears for Wells Fargo, which bought up Wachovia, and Bank of America, which took over Merrill Lynch.

Though I’m not sure anyone pays attention to them anymore, the President delivered his weekly address this weekend, and it was all about how Congress has to help “responsible” homeowners (because the irresponsible ones deserve nothing, after all they fleeced those responsible banks to get the loan). In the address, President Obama contrasted his approach with a Congress that won’t expand refinancing for underwater borrowers, by saying that his Administration “teamed up with state attorneys general to investigate the terrible way many homeowners were treated, and secured a settlement from the nation’s biggest banks – banks that were bailed out with taxpayer dollars – to help families stay in their homes.”

So what about that? We know from early reports that the bulk of the consumer relief in the first three months of the foreclosure fraud settlement went to short sales, which involve families forced into SELLING their homes, not staying in them. The bulk of these short sales, which amount to a bank waiving the right to seek money from a homeowner who sells a home for less than they owe on their mortgage, occurred in states whose laws bar banks from going after those homeowners anyway.

Yesterday, Bank of America fired off one of their biggest settlements yet, spending $2.4 billion to quiet claims with investors over their purchase of Merrill Lynch.

This was outright securities fraud, and I’m more than surprised that the investors plaintiffs, led by public pension funds in Ohio and Texas, accepted this.

The final night of the Democratic National Convention has been moved indoors, away from Bank of America Stadium and into the Time Warner Center, where last night’s speeches were housed.

The Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight has released their initial assessment of the foreclosure fraud settlement. And what they’re finding is that banks are “paying off” their portion of the settlement by engaging in short sales with their borrowers. Which is something they were already doing in greater numbers prior to the settlement.

Protests have begun at the RNC, even if the convention hasn’t. And the groups engaged in the protests started by targeting an unlikely but also a universal target, one you’ll hear a lot about next week in Charlotte as well – Bank of America.

A little over five months after the inking of the foreclosure fraud settlement, and around three months since a federal judge blessed it and allowed it to go forward, people have begun to wonder whether the signature piece, the money pledged toward “credits” for a variety of actions, including principal reduction, has gotten off the ground. This Orlando Sentinel article is not encouraging and gets the confusion and dismay right.

Money laundering is the latest form of financial sector corruption to emerge from under the rocks. Even the banksters can’t defend this one, so maybe something can change.

Dimon is right to believe that derivatives are safe for JPMorgan Chase. He has the Fed and the FDIC to backstop him. And it’s really great that you get to backstop the Fed and the FDIC for him and his gambling habit.

Ben Hallman has an informative piece on who is starting to get relief from the foreclosure fraud settlement. The short answer, despite incentives to write down loans in the first year of the program, is not that many people. But direct confrontation efforts are having some success.