It really is incredible to see such a concerted effort to rewrite history in front of our faces. There is not much ambiguity in the story of the housing bubble. The private financial sector went nuts. They made a fortune issuing bad and often fraudulent loans which they could quickly resell in the secondary market. The big actors in the junk market were the private issuers like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Lehman Brothers. However, George Will and Co. are determined to blame this disaster on government “compassion” for low-income families.

BoA has agreed to this settlement just weeks after Abigail Field did the work the Attorneys General and other regulators should have been doing. And she found that for a sample of NY foreclosures, Countrywide had endorsed none of the notes of Countrywide-generated mortgages.

Bank of America settled some of their mortgage problems today, but now all. Even then they got off very cheaply, a mere 8.6 billion.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan told the LA Times today that a settlement between top banks and state and federal regulators on foreclosure fraud would be inked in “a matter of weeks.” HUD has been pretty close to the settlement talks, so I don’t totally doubt him, though I’m wondering exactly how many Attorneys General they expect to sign on to a deal, with Republican AGs distancing themselves and Democratic AGs undertaking their own investigations. Interestingly, Tom Miller’s chief spokesman contradicted Donovan quickly after the LAT published, saying “While we certainly hope we can reach a settlement in a matter of weeks, we don’t know how long it will take.”

If we work together as a community, maybe we can get some criminal prosecutions for the crimes that caused the Great Crash. It doesn’t happen by accident.

Insider trading: Martha Stewart yes, Anthony Mozilo no.

Today marks the national call-in day for state Attorneys General, sponsored by several community-based groups, asking them to do their job and prosecute foreclosure fraud meaningfully. The groups stress two elements that must be part of any resolution: principal reductions for homeowners victimized by foreclosure fraud, and criminal penalties for anyone who broke the law. You can find the phone number for your Attorney General at the link.

The sensible members of the FCIC referred criminal violations as they deemed appropriate. They properly did not discuss them. The Final Report gives clues about the crimes the sensible majority suspect.

In The Monster, Michael Hudson gives us a detailed account of the how Roland Arnall created Ameriquest and made it into the giant of subprime lending. In the process the book implicates the major Wall Street firms, most importantly Lehman, who eagerly packaged junk loans into mortgage backed securities and more complicated instruments. He also notes the corruption of the three major credit rating agencies, who received big fees for giving these assets investment grade stamps. The list of aiders and abettors includes Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, California Governors Grey Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and even the community group ACORN.

There’s a large cottage industry that would relish the opportunity to pore through BofA documents and take the bank down. This could prove far more damaging than the State Department cables, which have actually been substantive, but which have been drowned out by the focus on Wikileaks and Julian Assange.