(...or is that "seldom correcting?).

An Associated Press article, bounced in from Yahoo News:
( link... )

41 people in 4 states charged in mortgage fraud

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer Larry Neumeister, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK ? A mortgage fraud crackdown announced Thursday resulted in the arrests of dozens of people, including six lawyers, seven loan officers and three mortgage brokers in four states.

Thirty-one people were arrested in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina. They were among 41 people charged with engaging in mortgage fraud scams that defrauded lenders out of more than $64 million in home mortgage loans.

Of the 10 other defendants, one was expected to surrender later Thursday, four were previously charged and five remained at large.

Authorities gathering for an afternoon news conference in Manhattan said the crackdown, dubbed "Operation Bad Deeds", was aimed at the failure of gatekeepers in the mortgage industry to act responsibly and legally.

"Unfortunately, instead of protecting our financial system, in some cases they abused their positions and joined criminal schemes to steal millions of dollars", said Richard H. Neiman, the superintendent of banks for New York State.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement that he found it "especially alarming" that lawyers, loan officers and mortgage brokers treated their professions as a "license to loot banks and profit from other people's pain." Those charged also included an accountant and a residential property appraiser.

Authorities said the arrests resulted from a series of investigations conducted by state and local authorities along with federal prosecutors, the FBI, the New York State Banking Department, federal housing authorities, the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Postal Service investigators.

Most of the bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy charges brought against the defendants carry potential prison terms of 20 to 30 years each.


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"...the failure of gatekeepers in the mortgage industry to act responsibly and legally."


But is this crackdown enough to curb the corruption of those who haven't been caught doing similar things?
In thus, we see the need why oversight is necessary, because far too many people have taken it upon themselves that they answer to no one.
These 41 (and counting?) have learned otherwise.

People frown on the government today getting its paws involved in eveything, but who's got a better suggestion how then do we keep people such as these honest?

If we need government people exercising massive government regulation to protect us from the occasional shady operator, then who is going to protect us from those government people?

Isn't government corrupt and dishonest too?

 

Maybe the cost of the occasional shady operator is lower than the cost of out of control government.

(...or is that "seldom correcting?).

An Associated Press article, bounced in from Yahoo News:
( link... )

41 people in 4 states charged in mortgage fraud

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer Larry Neumeister, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK ? A mortgage fraud crackdown announced Thursday resulted in the arrests of dozens of people, including six lawyers, seven loan officers and three mortgage brokers in four states.

Thirty-one people were arrested in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina. They were among 41 people charged with engaging in mortgage fraud scams that defrauded lenders out of more than $64 million in home mortgage loans.

Of the 10 other defendants, one was expected to surrender later Thursday, four were previously charged and five remained at large.

Authorities gathering for an afternoon news conference in Manhattan said the crackdown, dubbed "Operation Bad Deeds", was aimed at the failure of gatekeepers in the mortgage industry to act responsibly and legally.

"Unfortunately, instead of protecting our financial system, in some cases they abused their positions and joined criminal schemes to steal millions of dollars", said Richard H. Neiman, the superintendent of banks for New York State.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement that he found it "especially alarming" that lawyers, loan officers and mortgage brokers treated their professions as a "license to loot banks and profit from other people's pain." Those charged also included an accountant and a residential property appraiser.

Authorities said the arrests resulted from a series of investigations conducted by state and local authorities along with federal prosecutors, the FBI, the New York State Banking Department, federal housing authorities, the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Postal Service investigators.

Most of the bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy charges brought against the defendants carry potential prison terms of 20 to 30 years each.


-------------------

"...the failure of gatekeepers in the mortgage industry to act responsibly and legally."


But is this crackdown enough to curb the corruption of those who haven't been caught doing similar things?
In thus, we see the need why oversight is necessary, because far too many people have taken it upon themselves that they answer to no one.
These 41 (and counting?) have learned otherwise.

People frown on the government today getting its paws involved in eveything, but who's got a better suggestion how then do we keep people such as these honest?

What was that criticism during the Vietnam War - "They destroyed the village to save it"? That makes about the same sense as destroying the free market's ability to create wealth in order to deal with a few crooks.

I remember a friend I had at one work place. His repeated criticism of management's practices was that they would spend a dollar to save a nickel. Sounds like spend-dollar-to-save-a-nickel big government logic here.

 

 

Who taught you this laughable idea or you actually came up by yourself?

 

Tell that to a group of survivors in Bhopal.

 

 

 

Who taught you this laughable idea or you actually came up by yourself?

 

Plant design modified by Indian engineers to abide by government regulations and economic pressures to reduce expenses contributed most to the actual leak. The problem was then made worse by the plant's location near a densely populated area, non-existent catastrophe plans and shortcomings in health care and socio-economic rehabilitation. Analysis shows that the parties responsible for the magnitude of the disaster are the two owners, Union Carbide Corporation and the Government of India.

Power corrupts.

We all worry about absolute power corrupting absolutely.

But we forget that incremental power corrupts incrementally.

 

The problem with "minimal government involvement" in anything is that each generation of officials making laws--whether they be elected representatives of the people or appointed administrators--will each add a bit more government control.

Meanwhile such laws and agency rules are almost never repealed no matter how antiquated they become.

Eventually what was once minimal government involvement has now become a suffocating mass of regulation.

 

And while the abuse of absolute power can spark the ready tinder of public disatisfaction,

The slow corruption of incremental power goes so utterly ignored that we are fighting to defend our "free marked" of today against "socialism", even though of the twenty some-odd planks of the original communist party of America platform, only one remains to be accomplished.