Having the President of the United States in their corner, publicly and resolutely stating that the “stuff” banks did “wasn’t necessarily illegal,” may not give a great deal of aid and comfort to middle-class Americans who saw their real estate wealth evaporate. It may not comfort folks illegally evicted from their homes, or those illegally foreclosed upon.

Obama’s words must comfort the comfortable most of all.

A couple stories today show regulators engaging in the absolutely shameful tactic of looking backward and not forward when it comes to the systemic fraud in the mortgage market, in the mistaken belief that crimes perpetrated in the past should be punished. I don’t know where they got this idea.

Many observers have noted that one of the few bright spots in the Justice Department under Barack Obama has been the Civil Rights division, under the direction of Thomas Perez. They have restored that division to its core mission of protecting minorities. So it’s no surprise that they, not the new financial fraud task force, not any of the other enforcement and regulatory bodies, would be the ones to pursue an investigation into the banksters.

Almost as astonishing is that it took them a year to determine the settlement terms. Now that we see it for what it is, you’re talking about hundreds of dollars per borrower, not thousands, on systemic abuses. Remember, Countrywide’s CEO Angelo Mozilo isn’t going to jail for any of this.

Many observers saw the Bank of America settlement with a group of investors on Countrywide-originated mortgage bonds as an attempt to secure a broad waiver on the chain of title issues that have plagued the industry and led to foreclosure fraud. But in addition, they were a miserable deal for investors, a mere 2-3 cents on the dollar for a settlement that barely 1/4 of them agreed to. The settlement requires court approval. And a group of investors want to intervene to block it.

The next shoe is going to drop shortly as Private Mortgage Insurers are caught out with way too much liability and way too little reserves to pay them with. Ignoring the housing crisis means that it continues to do damage.

Federal regulators simply aren’t that interested in investigating foreclosure fraud and laying down the appropriate punishments. Tom Miller is too busy deflecting criticism about massive campaign contributions from the banking sector to run a proper state-based investigation. So it’s actually come down to the registers of deeds – the unassuming public servants working in county recorder’s offices across the country and carefully recording the transfers of land titles – to step up and deliver some measure of accountability on the banks for violations of law.

It’s unquestionably true that there have been virtually no major prosecutions stemming from the financial crisis. But yesterday we found the exception that proves the rule.

This is a reminder that the victims of Wall Street’s misconduct during the housing bubble actually include millions of responsible Americans who had zero involvement in the bubble, but are simply unfortunate enough to live in a community where the banks refuse to take care of their property.

I get the feeling that we’re sitting on a ticking time bomb, and we’ll replay this all over again soon.