Friday, July 8, 2011

FORGET THE DEFICITS, THIS IS (STILL) OUR REAL THREAT

While it's no longer big news, this story from the state of Washington is yet another example why our mortgage and housing mess is far from over. The key points about this specific house (which could be any foreclosed house in America) include:


* After the homeowners were evicted the house became both an eye sore and part time hotel for local vagrants and drug dealers.

* The mortgage contract that was foreclosed on had been bundled up with other mortgages and sold to investors as part of a security, so ...

* The market "owners" of the mortgage (American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc.) may have the title but claim they "don’t have legal possession.”

Huh?

In plain language - and as I pointed out in November - what all of this means is that because financiers, brokers, and investors have created a legal maze that only they understand (and benefit from), we're screwed.



Because private property lies at the heart of the American experience, if we can't figure out something as simple as home ownership, fixating on deficits won't mean a thing. Simply put, we're going to have much bigger legal and financial problems down the road if we don't deal with this Wall Street-banker induced mess.

Seriously, check out this trail of home ownership that took one market securities expert one year to put together ... (and it was his home!).


Now, ask yourself, Is this the way private property rights should be organized in America?

So, if you want to understand why homeowners are adrift, while the big banks are sitting on a pile of money after their bailouts, take a deeper look at our housing mess. Then take a look at how Wall Street both contributed and is largely to blame for the mess. It will leave you wondering why Wall Street isn't in jail.

When conservatives and their Tea Party overlords take a serious look at this stuff, and start fixing this banking-mortgage-Wall Street mess, then maybe I'll take them seriously. Otherwise, we're setting ourselves up for a trip down Bailout Memory Lane, again. What then? More deregulation and tax breaks for our Wall Street and banking gargoyles?


Until then, the GOP and their Tea Party noise machine need to take a seat, and quit yappin' about things they don't really understand.

- Mark

P.S. I'll have a post on the deficits next week.

1 comment:

Landon said...

One of your "better" (all things relative) posts, I must admit.

However, I am left to wonder how you would "fare" in the private sector with those of us who actually compete (albeit in your cohorts' induced "flawed-free market")to provide real goods for real consumers, where "common sense" ultimately prevails.

Your "sophomoric schtick" works with the public school inculcated minds of "progressive pablum" you teach, however I doubt they would work anywhere but in your self-congratulatory pseudo-intellectual "womb" of reverse economic Darwinism.

Just an "observation" --- ;)