The fall and decline of an empire can take many years, but certain “benchmarks” (as imperial courts have been known to call them) can measure the progress in one year alone. Take, for example, the year 2010.

Here’s what I’m looking at as Congress returns for the last of the lame duck session today. . . .

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?

Of course financial lobbyists are working to indemnify financial fraud. This is a story with all the richness of “Breaking: Water Wet.”

So here’s a major breakthrough in the foreclosure crisis and in particular the failed HAMP program. It doesn’t mean anything’s going to happen, but it means a significant chunk of the majority caucus in the Senate wants a radical overhaul of HAMP.

On Tuesday, Iowa’s Attorney General Tom Miller testified to the Senate Banking Committee it would be months before the combined AG “investigation” came up with a settlement. That’s almost exactly the moment when the Washington Post posted a story reporting the AGs were close to a settlement.

Liveblogging of the Senate Banking Committee hearing on foreclosure fraud continues. Senator Richard Shelby was actually pretty good, but then Sens. Mike Johanns and Bob Bennett went to some length to try to pretend the banksters weren’t doing what they were doing.

This hearing is the latest example of national policymakers getting involved in the foreclosure fraud issue. The Congressional Oversight Panel warning of the enormous risk from the failures of servicers was the first report of its kind at the federal level to take full measure of the situation, and this is the first Congressional hearing. Senators on the Democratic side like Jeff Merkley and Sherrod Brown are sure to press the bank representatives aggressively on why foreclosure mitigation programs have failed, and why they used false documents to evict people from their homes. The ranking member on the Republican side, Richard Shelby, wants to investigate failures at the major loan servicers.

The money was authorized, but not appropriated. The appropriation has still yet to be made. It could be tucked into virtually any bill that comes up in the lame duck session, but that’s probably its last hope. After that, Republicans gain control of the House, and John Boehner doesn’t strike me as a “let’s give money to poor people facing foreclosure so they can have good lawyers” type.

Skepticism has crept into the system, and lawyers like the one Taibbi profiles are getting very adept at sniffing out the fraud. This is not hopeless. And actually, people like Taibbi writing about it for a large audience can be part of the solution.