GRETCHEN MORGENSON ON CNN TONIGHT WITH SPITZER

GET COMBO TITLE AND SECURITIZATION ANALYSIS – CLICK HERE

Her new book “Reckless Endangerment” is a good read. Gretchen was amongst the first to drill down on the mortgage meltdown and expose numerous illegal practices of lenders and foreclosers (different parties, as we know). In many ways she has led the way for other journalists who bothered to take the time and really look at the crisis instead of carrying Wall Street’s spin. Buy her book — it’s available on Amazon and Kindle.

That said, Gretchen has not fully embraced the entire picture — probably because she is not a lawyer and lawyers she might have interviewed would have been reluctant to state outright what we already know: that the mortgages were defective, fabricated instruments that the homeowners were tricked into signing without all the terms being disclosed anywhere at the closing or before it. She hasn’t done much yet to dispel the myth that the homeowners have a moral duty to repay a valid debt.

It isn’t a valid debt and the moral decision of whether to pay is an individual one based upon the circumstances of each homeowner, most of whom were tricked mostly by the lender’s endorsement of a false appraisal on the home leading the homeowner-borrower and the investor-lender to believe that the property was worth more than the debt. The moral duty myth has been flipped on its head.

Nobody would say that the investors have a moral duty to take the loss from this scheme, so why say that the homeowners have a moral duty to accept the loss? It wasn’t their idea.

Slowly but surely though Gretchen has been evolving into a full understanding of the issues, so give her time. She is persistent and thorough. Her analysis and commentary is precise and well-reasoned.

Tags: foreclosure, foreclosure defense, foreclosure offense, fraud, GRETCHEN MORGENSON, moral duty, Reckless Endangerment
Posted in bubble, Corruption, Eviction, securities fraud |