Chicago may not have won the 2016 Summer Olympics, but, hey, they were chosen to hold the annual American Bankers Association conference. The city’s festivities kicked off yesterday, reports the Chicago Tribune’s Kristen Schorsch, with protests against the ABA:

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and nearly a dozen protesters called Sunday for banks that received billions in bailout money to help consumers who have fallen victim to bad loan practices and are losing their homes to foreclosure.

“I would like the bankers who come to Chicago … to visit 60629,” Durbin said, referring to the city’s Marquette Park neighborhood near Midway Airport. “Nice neat little brick bungalow homes well kept. Some swimming pools in the backyard. A lot of hardworking families. On every single block … know what you’re going to find? A foreclosed home.”

Durbin and the demonstrators are protesting about the right issue. There are no shortage of complaints that consumers and even members of Congress have lodged against federally bailed out banks. But the clearest example of injustice and unfairness in the bank bailout is that when the Bush administration injected direct capital into the biggest banks, they provided no conditions that banks had to participate in mortgage relief programs.

Obama had, and continues to have, a chance to try and change these rules, but the administration largely hasn’t. Bailed out banks still aren’t required to modify the mortgages of homeowners who face foreclosure. Unable to take their mortgage to bankruptcy court, homeowners just have to cross their fingers that banks feel enough political/social pressure to participate in the TARP mortgage assistance program.

CEO pay is a less complicated, more soundbite friendly outrage. But whatever the Wells Fargo CEO takes home in bonus pay doesn’t directly affect me if I were a distressed homeowner. The fact that Wells Fargo claims I’m ineligible to get my mortgage interest rate modified does.

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