The task force that President Obama on Tuesday said he’s setting up — to expose supposed mortgage fraud and to be co-chaired by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman — is both troubling and absurd.
Absurd, because it’s redundant; troubling, because Schneiderman is in charge.
Fact is, despite Obama’s spin, the so-called Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group isn’t exactly new: A Justice Department financial-fraud unit — the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force — already oversees mortgage fraud.
The Schneiderman-led team will be wrapped into this entity and use its staff.
Indeed, he is really the only new thing in the mix. And that’s the troubling part.
Because, given the AG’s left-wing leanings, particularly on this issue, there’s little reason to believe he’ll approach this mission in good faith.
For more than a year, 50 state attorneys general and federal officials have been hammering out a foreclosure settlement with five big banks. Schneiderman claims it doesn’t go far enough.
The deal would shake down the banks for some $25 billion to compensate homeowners; the AGs say the banks used inappropriate methods in many foreclosures.
That may or may not be the case.
But Schneiderman & Co. want to leave the door open to yet more litigation.
Why anyone would agree to terms like that is beyond us.
Besides, the prospect of future court action, should Schneiderman prevail, sure won’t help the economy.
On the other hand, demonizing financial institutions in populist fashion might help rile up the left — which, no doubt, is what Obama and Schneiderman care about most.
New York’s union cat’s-paw, the left-wing Working Families Party, is already tickled pinko — er, pink — with Schneiderman’s appointment, calling it “a big victory for the 99 percent.”
For America and New York, a world financial center, it sounds more like disaster.