Foreclosure and Politics

We have an odd sort of political system in practice and maybe in design. The founders assumed that we would be distracted most of the time and that those most adept at distracting us would assume power. I address here those people who have an interest in the outcome of the foreclosure mess, whether they are in foreclosure, have a family member in foreclosure or just have an opinion about it.

We could, if we wanted to, find the things we all agree about regardless of political ideology. For example, most of us would agree that bringing the housing mess to an end would be beneficial to the nation, the economy and therefore to oursselves nd our loved ones.  We could agree that the least number of people as possible should be hurt and that the taxpayer cost of bringing this to an end should be minimized as much as possible. And we could agree that the foreclosure mess and the investor/financial sector side is causing us all problems. Perhaps the readers could submit other areas of agreement, regardless of political ideology or party affiliation.

My perception is that competing ideologies prevents us from perceiving and considering the facts. For example, many readers here would argue that the entire financial services industry is based on something close to evil intent (greed) when in fact it is there to provide liquidity to the marketplace — the keystone of any succesful economy. The worst of the players certainly knew what they were doing and should be punished. The horror stories of abuses by financial insitutions are matched by horror stories of scam artists who created dozens and sometimes hundreds of fictitious transactions.

Those with the most power and money are usually closest to the microphone, so the story we hear is the one they spin out to the public, in endless loops, is that borrowers suddenly set out en masse to defraud innocent lenders. I think we have shown here that this was not a case of millions of people conspiring to short-cut their way to the American Dream of homeownership (refi’s outnumbered purchases) but rather a case where Wall Street was too successful at selling mortgage backed securities, created a fund of $13 trillion dollars (almost the same amount as the total gross domestic production of the entire U.S. economy)and could only justify their historic and unprecedented fees if they moved the money. For that they needed borrower signatures, even if some were forgeries. So it wasn’t borrowers suddenly increasing demand for money or housing, it as money suddenly increasing demand for borrowers. The facts show that very clearly.

Yet all sides of the multifaceted issues are correct when they focus on any one link of the “chain of blame.” there is plenty to go around. The question comes down to whether you want to spend time on blaming someone or if you want to spend time and effort fixing the PRESENT problem (as opposed to most proposals that seek to fix future problems).

For that, foreclosures must stop. It is ripping at the fabric of our society, creating societal isssues that are costing taxpayers billions of dollars already and getting worse. I’m all for fairness and justice and the rule of law, as you know from reading this blog. But those terms are relative and seen differently by different people. We need to agree that BOTH sides shuld be fully informed of all facts of this dispute so they can both have an opportunity to heard.

It is in that spirit that I refer to attorneys as the first responders in this emergency. And unless the attorneys are fully informed, the public will not have equal access to information to confront or work out there issues with the “lenders.” This Blog is dedicated to bringing that information into the public domain and increasing the number of people who challenge their lenders from under one percent of all foreclosures to 100%. walking away from your house, or just emplpoying delay tactics are not enough (although appropriate in some circumstances). You must seek to win.

If you look at the recent news, you can see that all the financial players are getting attention and bailouts — lenders, investment banks, and investors. It is quite clear that borrowers will ONLY get to be heard in court. If there was another, better way, I would advocate it.

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