The $25 billion settlement between banks and states over abusive and fraudulent mortgage practices has its upsides, especially for the banks. They get out from under a huge legal liability and enjoy headlines that imply progress is being made. Boosters of the deal claim it won't just help a million house owners who owe more on their mortgage than the value of their property, but it will actually cause the deeply wounded housing industry to recover.

Critics, including me, say the banks get off with little punishment. They and Wall Street (and their government, regulatory and political enablers) have done much damage to the rule of law and gotten away with it. The settlement won't help many people and will be extremely difficult to track and enforce. Some of the best analyses can be found here, here and here. About the best I can say is that the attorneys general of California and New York held out for a deal that will allow prosecution of other abuses. But federal and state authorities have shown little stomach to go after the biggest suspects in the gigantic theft called the bubble and Great Recession. Money talks.

So, today's poll:

Read on for the week's links and haiku:

This Week's Links:

• Why rational expectations can be wrong || Noahpinion


• What does construction have to do with it? || Economic Policy Institute


• How Romney would tax us || David Cay Johnston/Reuters


• Student loan debt: The new economic time bomb || AZ Central


• RIM and the Blackberry's rise and fall || The New Yorker


• Africa's chance to leapfrog the West || Harvard Business Review


• Manipulation and abuse in $350 trillion capital markets || Zero Hedge


• Mean spirited, bad economics || Simon Johnson/Baseline Scenario


• Is Amazon really that great? || Seeking Alpha


Today's Econ Haiku:

You can bank on it
Was the robo-signing deal
Robo-signed itself?