Cramdown Has Returned

And it is about bloody time.

Barney Frank has announced plans to reintroduce a bill to give bankrputcy judges the ability to modify mortgages, it appears that the banks got cocky, and promptly forgot promises of voluntary mortgage mods, as the picture (from here) shows.

It appears that members of Congress are shocked that banks are not willing to do mortgage mods, when they:

• Cost them money.
• Require them to post the losses to their balance sheets immediately, as opposed to marking them to face value for the next few years.

Campaign contributions and lobbyists are a much better investment than helping people.