States as Bad as Countrywide

Yesterday Florida filed a lawsuit against Countrywide for misleading consumers. This is in addition to filings by Illinois and California. Unfortunately for the victims, past lawsuits by states have only been efforts to fill the coffers and ignore the victims. They tend to create new victims, such as the shareholders, which include groups like teachers (retirement investment fund). The only group that will benefits regardless if the states have a valid claim is lawyers. It is too bad victims have lost state governments as a means of justice. In this case the states are protecting the criminals. Some of these loans are for speculative house investments that would benefit if the housing market went up and stick Countrywide and eventually the federal government with losses. Given the states reaction there may be something deeper going on. Are states the real villains and are trying to deflect the focus to Countrywide. Who regulates these loans at the local level and who looked the other way so they could go through?