http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/05/banking-mortgage-arrears
America no longer has a "rule of law"
If it actually did the major investment banks would no longer be in business.
Rewritten bankruptcy provisions reduce indebted homeowners to servitude. What has become of the rule of law in the US?
The mortgage debacle in the United States has raised deep questions about "the rule of law", the universally accepted hallmark of an advanced, civilised society. The rule of law is supposed to protect the weak against the strong, and ensure that everyone is treated fairly. In America, in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis, it has done neither.
To some, all of this is reminiscent of what happened in Russia, where the rule of law – bankruptcy legislation, in particular – was used as a legal mechanism to replace one group of owners with another. Courts were bought, documents forged, and the process went smoothly. In America, the venality is at a higher level. It is not particular judges that are bought, but the laws themselves, through campaign contributions and lobbying, in what has come to be called "corruption, American-style".
When it became clear that people could not pay back what was owed, the rules of the game changed. Bankruptcy laws were amended to introduce a system of "partial indentured servitude". An individual with, say, debts equal to 100% of his income could be forced to hand over to the bank 25% of his gross, pre-tax income for the rest of his life, because the bank could add on, say, 30% interest each year to what a person owed. In the end, a mortgage holder would owe far more than the bank ever received
