A cynical judge might think that, if the guidelines clearly prevented Mr Phillips from getting his modification, the US Banks would have trotted out that fact in mathematic equations, pie charts, and bar graphs, all on 8 by 10 glossy photo paper, with circles and arrows and paragraphs on the back explaining each winning number.

U.S. Bank’s silence on this issue might heighten the suspicions of such a cynical jurist.

I, on the other hand, am sure that nothing of the sort could be true. Maybe US Bank no longer has any of the $20 billion dollars left, and so their lack of written explanation might be attributed to some kind of ink reduction program to save money. I’m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for why US  Bank will not print out the ONE page of figures that show that MR Phillip’s financials compared to the HAMP guidelines to clear this all up.