November 9, 2007

New York AG Andrew Cuomo may have helped spook Wall Street by suddenly focusing his prosecutorial attentions on the appraisal/mortgage sector; commenters at Calculated Risk, reading between the lines, think Cuomo may be targeting appraisers first with the expectation of developing a case against the big mortgage lenders. More from WSJ law blog. Meanwhile, the Barney Frank legislation previously discussed by Ted in this space does not meet with a favorable reception from Gregg Easterbrook (scroll a lot):

Frank's bill -- an obvious valentine to trial lawyers, who want new openings to sue banks and firms such as Merrill Lynch -- would make it the lender's legal responsibility to determine whether borrowers can repay, not the borrower's responsibility to be honest to the lender. Your Honor, the mortgage company is to blame for not stopping me from lying on my loan application.