Larry Kudlow: “The $16.65 billion settlement by Bank of America over financial-crisis-era mortgage securities ‘highlights a pattern of the government extorting the banks,’ Dick Kovacevich said on CNBC [last] week. Kovacevich is the former Wells Fargo chairman and CEO. … Kovacevich is right on target. These huge bank settlements are election-year ATMs for the Obama administration. … [N]o one even remotely knows how these penalty-payment numbers are calculated. And the federal government’s disbursement of these funds is equally mysterious. As the Wall Street Journal editorial page has pointed out, a lot of money has gone to states run by Democratic governors. … And now, in the saddest of ironies, the Obama administration is again loosening credit standards for ‘affordable’ home purchases and expanding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is incredibly stupid. The same mistakes are being made. But it’s all part of Obama’s election-year strategy. Blame it all on the big boys. Pull out the class-envy cards. Rekindle divisive resentments and anger.”