Weigel

Bank stocks tumbled for the second consecutive day as more details about cut corners in their foreclosure processes. For example :

A Wells Fargo employee in South Carolina said ina March deposition that she typically signed 300 to 500 foreclosuredocuments in a single day and that her only other responsibility was tomake sure her name and title were written correctly.

Shown a foreclosure affidavit that she had signed in 2009, she said she did not know if the information was accurate.

"My knowledge of this affidavit is very minimal," she said in the deposition.

Felix Salmon explains , convincingly, that awareness of this problem goes back three years. The financial reform bill included regulations aimed at combating it. What I wonder is whether there's any response to this, like a real moratorium on foreclosures, that can move through Congress. Obviously, nothing will happen before November unless President Obama 1) calls back Congress or 2) issues an executive order. And both of those options look like political kryptonite. Recall how the Tea Party began: With Rick Santelli decrying a plan to assist people sinking under the weight of their mortgages. And think through the economics of this -- how many banks can take the hit if foreclosures are halted?