Attorneys general in all 50 states have pledged a coordinated investigation into chaotic foreclosure practices by some of the nation’s largest banks. The Department of Justice is also looking into what happened, while some lawmakers are now calling for a nationwide moratorium on all foreclosures until the legal questions are settled. The Obama administration is insisting such a broad delay would hurt the economy.

There is plenty to worry about. But amid all this roiling, neither Congress nor the administration has found a way to address an even more fundamental problem: What government and banks need to do to finally stanch the flood of foreclosures wreaking havoc on the lives of millions of Americans and threatening the recovery.

According to the latest figures, 4.2 million loans are now in or near foreclosure. An estimated 3.5 million homes will be lost by the end of 2012, on top of 6.2 million already lost. Yet the administration’s main antiforeclosure effort has modified fewer than 500,000 loans in about 18 months.

Judges and investigators need to be unflinching in their inquiries into the paperwork debacle and must hold the banks fully accountable. What we’ve already learned is chilling  and suggests that bankers have learned little since the 2008 implosion and taxpayer bailout.