Holding companies accountable...

Being held accountable – what a concept!

Source: Dow Jones Business News, Jared A. Favole (10/20/2010)

U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan said Wednesday that the onus is on banks to fix whatever foreclosure-related problems are found.

Donovan, who made the statement during a White House briefing about the matter, said problems found thus far haven’t appeared to be very serious, but the full investigation won’t be finished until the end of the year. If more serious problems are found, possible penalties could include fines and a ban against writing mortgages for more serious violations, he added

What a concept – holding those who seriously abuse the public’s trust accountable. One can only wonder what would happen if this concept caught on?

I can see it now. Headlines that read -

The U.S. Transportation Department today banned Toyota from selling cars in the United States because of serious problems with how they handled safety issues and recalls.

The top 5 U.S. investment banks were suspended today from making further sales of derivative products because of past fraudulent or inaccurate sales claims made by their employees.

Both major political parties and several large political action committees were today banned from placing any further television commercials based upon the misleading nature and blatant lies of their past commercials.

Recruiting for all of the U.S. armed forces was suspended today until the Pentagon can produce a coherent policy for gays in the military. The Pentagon immediately denied being incoherent and said of course there is room for happy people in the military.

The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that lawyer’s fees for class-action law suits must be restricted to no more than 5% of the overall settlement amount. Over 300,000 class-action law suits were immediately dropped.

A teacher in Ohio was actually fired today for poor performance. The teacher’s union has agreed that the teacher in question not having actually been in the classroom class over the last two years is perhaps grounds for review, but has vowed to fight the termination anyway.

Ahhh, well; we aren’t likely to see any of that, just like we aren’t likely to see any banks banned from again foisting bad loans off on consumers and then getting bailed out. But, it does make for a good headline occasionally, especially in the “feel good” election season.