Good thing for Wall Street that moral bankruptcy carries no penalty. Once again, the big banks have used their lobbying power to bite the hands that fed them all that bailout money.

Remember Barack Obama's touted Helping Families Save Their Homes Act? The actual legislation is mostly an act. The NYT's Stephen Labaton points out that the bill Obama signed last month "was missing its centerpiece: a change in bankruptcy law he once championed that would have given judges the power to lower the amount owed on a home loan."

What happened? Labaton adds:

Throughout the bailout, banks' lobbying clout has been even more aggressive than usual, despite the fact that, arguably, they're doing it on our dime.

The worse the times, the more the big banks spend on politicians, as I pointed out in April.

This morning, ProPublica's Paul Kiel notes not only the lobbying that Labaton revealed but also the banks' successful lobbying to get accounting rules relaxed.