Michael Barr, who is leaving the Treasury Department, made a few calls to the financial press in recent days (still waiting by the phone, sigh) to update them on the government regulator’s efforts in combating foreclosure fraud. He spoke with Felix Salmon and focused on an “11-agency, 8-week review of servicer practices, with hundreds of investigators crawling all over the banks.”

How in hell could the government give those who have been harmed redress if the government is only reviewing a select subset of the loan files? Is the government going to provide everyone who believes they were screwed some legal aid to prove their claim?

The Financial Stability Oversight Council met today; they discussed foreclosure fraud and securitization. For less than 15 minutes.

The optics of it — this apparent lack of concern about the way the banks will postpone admitting to their own insolvency by degrading the private property system in this country at the expense of real people — suck. They sure provide zero confidence that the FSOC intends to do its job to prevent this from becoming a systemic crisis.

The key person from Treasury working with the Attorneys General investigation into foreclosure fraud is leaving almost immediately, although he doesn’t appear to have his next teaching gig lined up. Rather interesting timing, yes?

When wondering what will happen in policy in the near term, I don’t think it’s possible to go wrong betting on what Wall Street thinks. And they think Elizabeth Warren will be nominated to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been created, everyone is waiting for Obama to nominate someone to head it. The longer this drags on, it becomes a less a question of “Who?” and more a question of “Why not Elizabeth Warren?”

That’s a question that the Obama White House does NOT want to answer.

The people who don’t want Elizabeth Warren running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have consistently sought other options.

“I don’t know where that (report) came from,” Barr said. I asked him if he thought Warren was well-qualified for the position and if anyone at Treasury would stand in her way if she were the top choice. “I think Elizabeth is absolutely terrific,” Barr said. “She’s been working closely with me and Geithner for a year and half to push for this consumer protection bureau. I believe and Secretary Geithner believes that she’s exceptionally well-qualified to run it.”