By Pam Martens: February 10, 2012

Another press representative from a state attorney general who played a key role in negotiating the foreclosure settlement (see post below) says there is not really $14 billion missing from the foreclosure settlement.  The difference between the $25 billion settlement reported by the United States Department of Justice, and every major business newspaper, and the cumulative total of $39 billion being reported by the 49 individual states is – drum roll – hypothetical money. 

That’s right, according to this source, the foreclosure fraud that has caused more economic misery to families than any other event since the Great Depression, is being settled with $14 billion of  hypothetical money – not like the real money from the taxpayers to bail out these same institutions – but hypothetical money. 

The hypothetical part is explained as the difference between what the Wall Street firms will have to show as a net outlay versus the actual value of the reduction to principal bestowed on the homeowner.  Got that? Of course, that assumes that over the 3 years that Wall Street has to perform under this settlement that they actually perform and that home prices don’t decline further, making the hypothetical value of the $14 billion essentially bubkes.