naked capitalism

Diogenes says:

I am going to go out on a limb and and conjecture that the Supreme Court may need to nullify the tenth amendment in order to address this problem.

State law governing title transfers goes back deep into the nineteenth century and before. It developed in response, in part, to the many incidents of land fraud that occurred throughout our nation’s formative years as the frontier expanded and speculators played upon the hopes of a growing nation. These laws, moreover, while differing in degree and detail from state to state, are uniformly and firmly principled upon the premise that a proper transfer of ownership must be evidenced by a satisfactory and demonstrable paper trail.

Today it appears that some vast number of mortgages have been transferred in a manner directly forbidden by as many as 45 of our United States. Moreover it appears that this practice has been ongoing for five or more years and that the dollar amounts involved may reached upwards of four trillion dollars.

The political powers that be in Washington today cannot possibly bring themselves to reach the conclusion that all of those trillions in mortgage securities which are backed up by these fraudulent conveyances are in fact worthless pieces of paper and that, in consequence, hundreds of thousands of individual home owners (whether deserving or not) have been deprived of property though a fraudulent foreclosure practice. In short, the only solution that will protect the interests of those who lobby our great legislators must be an ex-post federalization of all mortgage law and, with it, a wholesale repudiation of the tenth amendment. Anything less, even with the help of understanding and co-operative judges (e.g., Palm Beach’s notorious “Rocket Docket”) will leave the resolution of this problem to disparate judges throughout the country to decide. And, it may well be feared, if this were allowed to happen (as it most certainly would without strong federal leadership), too many of these jurists would be liable to reach conclusions insufficiently tempered by economic reality and overly infected with a romantic affinity for “due process”.

I rather expect Team Obama to spin this somewhat differently with language that suggests that the government is stepping in to shore up the real estate market, to stabilize home prices, and to assure stability in the world’s largest securities market.

Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark:–”I wasn’t worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.” — The Gilded Age

Neil D says:

You can say the Wall Street banksters are corrupt and I agree, but there are lots of other people all over the country participating in this corruption. The anger focused on the few bankers at the head of corporations is wildly misplaced. Your neighbor working for law firms and companies like ProVest are corrupt too. Jobs are hard to come by? That’s no excuse. We should all be ashamed of ourselves.

RichardB says:

How would I prove that my property belongs to me?

If through some mistake of paperwork, my property were foreclosed upon, how would I respond?

i on the ball patriot says:

U.S. Issues a Terrorism Alert for Signing Contracts in Florida

By SCAM ERICA
Published: October 3, 2010

The State Department issued an alert on Sunday urging Americans in and traveling to Florida to be vigilant about signing any contracts, naming real estate contracts as one source of the concern. They have raised the threat of fraudulent contract terrorism in Florida to “high” from “general”.

The decisions to caution travelers come as counter terrorism officials in the United States assess intelligence about possible increases in fraudulent contract plots originating in; Florida, California, New Jersey and New York.

A “travel alert” of the kind issued Sunday is considered to be far less disruptive than a “travel warning” that would advise Americans to stay away from certain high-threat areas like banks and brokerage firms all over the country.

The dilemma for authorities will be how best to inform the public of a threat that intelligence analysts believe is real but whose contours remain vague – “credible” but not “specific,” in agency jargon.

http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&safe=off&rls=ig&newwindow=1&q=homeless+people&sa=N&start=20&ndsp=20&biw=1020&bih=616

Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.

WhiskeyJim says:

Consider the situation. Large banks wrote very questionable and risky mortgages and then sold them through group tested marketing vehicles to everyone, including NINJAS.

The banks went bankrupt. Allowing them to go into Chapter 11 would have necessarily re-priced millions of those mortgages and re-established the market.

But the government used taxpayer dollars to prop up those banks, including the politics, the regulation, and the financial positions of most of that hierarchy. Now, those same banks are foreclosing on taxpayers, their mortgages left without repricing even as the whole market is attempting to do so, and many of those taxpayers lost their jobs because of risky banking.

I smell a moral hazard. And there is definitely a rule for them, and a rule for us.

Opinionated Bloviator says:

For a heads up on where we’re headed google “The United States of Argentina” and follow the link. For those who believe the Tinfoil Hat is on to tightly ask yourself this – How long can we remain a first world country if we become ‘governed’ by the third world ‘rule of gold or whim’.