After Clinton killed Glass-Steagall, we had an 8 year perfect storm of Republicans fighting finance regulations, Democrats promoting schemes to get home loans into the hands of the "poor & disenfranchised", traders getting involved with mortgages & investments and Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac buying as many shitty loans as possible knowing they would never be held accountable if the whole thing went belly up - the shit hit the fan.
Now cities across America, like Cincinnati, are saddled with a huge number of abandoned vacant houses that blight neighborhoods, invite crime & pests and lower nearby property values.
The cities can't afford to maintain the homes, neighbors can't legally maintain them (they'd be trespassing) and the banks who have evicted the owners who defaulted on their loans won't take care of them even though they're flush with taxpayer money.
Cities have passed laws requiring the banks to maintain the properties they claim (when convenient). Now the fattest whores at the party, Fannie & Freddie are suing Chicago in a test case to see if they can squirm out of such laws. If they prevail in Chicago, towns like Cincinnati will follow & banks like Wells Fargo & Deutsche Bank will follow Fannie's & Freddie's precedent.
Maybe we can issue them licenses to kill, too.
NPR story here
Fishwarp story talking about the problem back when it started here
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