Former Obama Administration transition official Mike Lux was the first to report that the liability release on foreclosure fraud “looks tight.” In other words, the release is limited to mostly post-crisis conduct, basically robo-signing and servicer abuse. Private right of action would still be available under any settlement – Attorneys General cannot stop the right of an individual to sue over misconduct – and there would be no criminal liability release. In addition, these avenues of inquiry would still be available.

First, let’s talk about the settlement. The good news here is that the Justice Democrats aren’t jumping off the boat just yet. Delaware’s Beau Biden reaffirmed his stance against the settlement because he wanted to pursue his own investigations. And California’s Kamala Harris reiterated her stance last night.

There’s already a financial fraud task force. In fact, this Unit on Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuses will be part of Obama’s “new” Financial Fraud Task Force. That originated in November 2009, based on legislation from Congress. And the same ineffective enforcement people are on the original group.

Student loan lobbyists have been distributing a memo around Capitol Hill, with the misleading claim that if the FFEL program is eliminated in favor of direct lending, all of these jobs in the industry will be lost.

The bottom line: job losses in a tough economy are nothing to treat lightly, but the claims made by lobbyists don’t hold to close scrutiny, and the jobs impact must be weighed against the number of students currently enrolled in each state if money that could be going to schools is instead propping up a costly and unnecessary industry that is surviving only because of government subsidy.

Find out more about the Students, Not Banks campaign and sign the petition.