Private property is inherently messy, especially when a lot of people have a right to it thanks to a constitution, democracy, due process, etc. Millions of mortgages screw things up. When the King owned everything, there was clarity. Thankfully we’re well on our way back to that state of affairs.

Thanks to Mr.  Scheer other shoes will probably fall,  but class actions are not the way to go.  They deliver enmass solutions with incredibly complex restitution formulae that seldom if ever make any individual whole,  but deliver huge windfalls to the lawyers involved,  as I’ve learned from the many shareholder class actions I’ve read about. In these cases there are huge amounts of loses and pain and suffering to individuals and families.  There’s no way a single court is going to be able to handle that sort of responsibility equitably.  Because they will always have to consider the impact on the institutions in the dock.

No,  this is one better done on a case by case basis.  You were either a “robo signing” victim or not. You need to preserve “one house one judge” for yourself.  Don’t go after a class (one size fits all) action.

Judges are JUDGES!  They are not defense counsel. Except in the most egregious cases of clear violation of law,  brought to their attention in the course of a matter,  they are not required,  or even supposed to look much beyond the issues presented and claims raised.  They certainly are not entitled to question the veracity of documents on behalf of either side.  If you are “lay” going “pro se”, the Judge has discretion to get more involved by way of making justice serving suggestions and/or ignoring imperfections in submitted materials.

Most people took the banks and their lawyers at their word as credible parties who would not engage in egregious wrong doing. Unfortunately,  the record with regard to GMAC, in this matter shows that’s not the case.
They were ordered by a Florida court to stop these practices,  yet they continued to routinely engage them,  probably because they had been so effective in so many other areas of the nation.  They had no reason to believe they would ever get caught.

Now,  just such a reason has reared it’s ugly or beautiful (depending on which table you stand at) head.

I don’t know if there’s a way to recover, if you’ve already been foreclosed by these illegal methods, made even more doubtful in the long ago if it were.  But,  it does seem to me that some action is available, if only fraud.  Then there’s breech of fiduciary warranties,  violation of trust and the great harm done by a bankster having succeeded using a fraudulent practice that resulted in unjust rewards or losses as the case may be.

Not a wonder then that the foreclosure machine is locking up.  But it had to happen sooner or later,  and better sooner than later,  since who can know who has clear title now?  And clear title is needed before the markets have any chance at ever moving forward.  Since I believe these practices may very well become fodder for future challenge torts concerning real property ownership. 

Suffice it to say if you’ve been foreclosed in the last decade (or you are invested in someone who was),  you need to start digging and start some sort of action now,  before Congress steps in and tries to munge the law in the banks favor.  You may be very glad that you did.  And there’s pay for pro bono’s in the offing in many states,  since these practices are found to have been so egregious as to be “bad faith” activities.

Get to work bloggers,  read the transcripts and start spreading the word.

Micah - I think I’ve figured out why the sudden,
blanket foreclosures signed off on.  It didn’t seem
to make sense that lending agencies would want to
have a bunch of fast depreciating houses (given they
were dumping them en masse on the market) on their
books nor did it make sense to foreclose on loans
that could have been rewritten so the home owner
could continue living in the house and making
payments.

I’ve figured that short of shredding the
incriminating documents (mortgages etc.) (that would
have really raised a red flag) if they just
foreclosed, finished, over with, no need to examine
them, the massive fraud and other crimes committed in
writing the mortgages would not have come to light. 
In other words, they were getting rid of the
incriminating evidence.

Help! Stop the World! How did it get this far? There
is clear answer. It’s your local judges, dudes!. That
name-less judge you voted for is a crook. Who else
would allow dis-honest contracts cooked up by the
banks to be enforced and thus defraud the home-owners
in all your states of this land?

I recently had a case where my 30 year home mortgage
turned out to be set for 63 years. That’s right. My
30 year mortgage turned out to really be a 63 year
loan!!! Even my thousands of dollars had not even put
a dent in the principle after three years of payments
on my modest house that was built in 1924.

It was only in court and after four separate judges
“punted” my case that by some luck, and a major
mistake on the Bansters and their lawyers part by
giving me and my lawyer the “missing” note on the
mortgage, that I prevailed. On intense inspection of
the Banks records, this serious fact was “discovered”
and thus entered, proven and reluctantly decided on
in my rightful favor.

Armed with a library card, big ears, lot’s of
footwork, a basic knowledge of justice, a faithful
dog and a few courageous (crazy) lawyer(s),some
street-smarts, sued and won against Wells Fargo for
mortgage fraud. Take that to the bank!

What I learned in those two years of hell, was the
fix in the system from district to county court
houses. The “pay to play scam” that the vast judges
through-out the states are involved in… are deep in
it!

In Most cases the American Judge sides with the
Banksters and in almost each and every case of
mortgage fraud, these judges openly looked the other
way when a fraud case is trying to be brought to
their
attention. These judges take envelopes of money from
Servicers and Banksters for their easy-boy
cooperation that involves them “looking” the other
way.
It’s an age old,perverse twist on the notion of Blind
Justice.

Anyone can simply go to the court sessions and watch
these judges in action. Hang-out in the county court
house and there’s so much scamming and thuggery going
on it’ll drive you to drinking. Also, ask a judge who
is running for office if he or she takes money from
these hoods and you’ll either get a blank stare or a
down-right lie thrown at you.

So be a court-watcher in your town, city, county.
Learn who these fat-cat judges are and how they rule
in these case. If you find what you think is an
honest person that wants to hold office, give your
time and not your money to their election fight and
if they win…show up at all the home-owner cases,
listen, complain, hold these judges in check.

If there is corruption and bad lawyering going on
record it and report it. Report it at every level.
Write your local paper. Blog it. Warn your friends.

For the judges of this land of ours are greedy and
dis-honest. There my fellow Americans is the source
of this horrid mess. To that end, here is a new motto
” It’s the Contract, Stupid ”

1930s: Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal
Fannie Mae started as the Federal National Mortgage Association. Fannie Mae provided local banks and thrifts with money needed to finance home mortgages.
1968: Lyndon Johnson converted Fannie Mae into a public-private hybrid called a “government-sponsored enterprise” [GSE].
1970: Freddie Mac, was created so Fannie Mae would not monopolise mortgage buying (but they have, in fact, marched in concert).
1977: Under Jimmy Carter, the Community Reinvestment Act [CRA] compelled banks to make loans to poor borrowers.
1999: Under Bill Clinton, banks were given strict numerical quotas for forcing sub-prime loans.

Freddie and Fannie, they are supported by Congressiaonal Dems that’s why there is no action being taken. Why the Feds ever allowed the mortgage business to become corrupted by government run entities is criminal. This is not in the Constitution, they should be privatized and run like other lending institutions that have to abide by the law or be curtailed from making loans. Now the Feds want to get their grubby paws into the health care business, dare I say that this will become equally as fraudulent. We never learn, we just keep compounding the corruption until the whole economy is thrown into the racketeering business.
Seventeen. That’s how many times, according to this White House statement (hat tip Gateway Pundit), that the Bush administration has called for tighter regulation of the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Congress has cooperated only once. In spring 2007, as House Financial Services Committee Chairman (Dem) Barney Frank likes to point out, the House did pass a bill in response. The Senate did not act until 2008; Senate Banking Committee Chairman (Dem) Christopher Dodd spent most of 2007 camped out in Iowa running for president. The legislation passed by Congress in 2008 enabled Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to put Fannie and Freddie into federal conservatorship this summer when they failed. But it didn’t prevent them from spewing a huge amount of toxic waste, in the form of subprime and Alt-A mortgages, into our financial institutions from 2004 to 2007. As Stephen Spruiell points out in The Corner on National Review Online, Fannie and Freddie spewed out $1 trillion worth (face value) of subprime mortgages between 2005 and 2007. That’s a whole lot of toxic waste.

Capitalism is all about accruing capital.  Whether by
design or as a natural phenomenon, investing in
financial instruments has become more profitable -
more capital accrued, a faster return on the
investment and less risky -  than investing in
manufacturing.  (Remember the GM executive who
admitted that GM made cars only so it could make
loans.)

Capitalism works efficiently, in fact some contend
it’s the only way works at all, when manufacturing
flourishes, when making things. America’s financial
sector in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s was 1/5 as big as the
total profits of America’s non-financial firms. 
After 2000, it was 1/2 as big.  A clear picture of
where the money is going and where it’s not going.

Part 1

Thanks Robert,

Does not it seem by now, to most people, that our
current system has been about making “industry”, of
the high probability, that these financial schemes
only work out a very small percentage of the time?
Let us say, that this very small percentage,
comprised of people who hold 95% of the wealth and
power in our society, well, that this small
percentage corresponds closely to the percentage of
people who ultimately benefit from such financial
schemes.

The key here is to understand the fake economy, or
the “money reducer defect”(as I call it), versus a
legitimate “money multiplier effect”, well,,, this
fake or pseudo economy is the goal.  A goal to create
an “industry” out of an economy’s rotting corpse.  A
fully anticipated,  profitable business(industry) of
picking up the shattered remains of these financial
schemes and calling those shreds, gold.

In a sense then, our economy is booming, and doing
what it should be doing, making “industry”, of the
sure bet, that some 95% of the citizenry did not, and
could not have, benefited from a massive financial
scheme like the securitization of mortgages. Some
part of that shadow or negative” industry”, which
profits from so many people’s misery, is the version
of politics, currently being wielded by the
Republicans, a coinciding “industry” of politics,
based on an equally dark and scavenging intention.
The Republican party has become no more than
organized political refuse, that enables and empowers
vulture economics.

You see, the schemers get the profit and we get a
brand new “industry & politics of decay”, a kind of
dark annuity, that the same small percentage of
people benefit from.

Rhuen Phreed
11 Marlborough Street, #22
Bostom, MA 02116

Part 2

Now, all that being said, about the securitization of
mortgages, should we not, early now, take a look at
the securitization of student loans, and the upside
down lives it has caused. Some of the largest banks
did not just spin off their student loan business,
recently, for no good reason. The mortgage disaster
is real, but has become a good distraction from the
student loan crisis, which is simmering, and really
the sister of the mortgage crisis. The key is to
focus on the bankruptcy code, a very tiny provision
only recently added, which made it impossible to
discharge student loans. This provision in the
bankruptcy code was put in place by the banks, the
same banks that just took us to the cleaners in the
mortgage disaster.

Debt should not be a moral loyalty to bad economic
policy, or financial policy run amok. Being saddled
for a lifetime with student loan debt or mortgage
debt is not an act of patriotism, but rather a
material deterrent to freedom & democracy, and
amounts to a type of economic treason on the part of
those who have imposed such debt, on the general
citizenry, as a result of their misguided and
selfishly anti-democratic financial schemes. 
Time now, to change the bankruptcy code, imposed on
us by the banks of ill repute, and follow the student
loan scrutinized trail. Analyze the “industry” is was
designed to create, the scavenger economics it
prompted. Or, why not create a new agency, aside from
bankruptcy court, a debt re-organization department,
within the treasurer, to stimulate the economy by
relieving a majority of its’ citizens of debt, debt
that was obviously gamed on them. 

The is another way to jumpstart the economy, aside
from extending the tax cuts to the rich(you’ve got to
be kidding) or massive new spending into
infrastructure(sane and right, but politically very
difficult), well, to forgive nationally, half of all
student and mortgage debt, that was at all tainted by
the securitization schemes, of the last decade.

Rhuen Phreed
11 Marlborough Street, #22
Bostom, MA 02116

The problem is no longer in the white houses domain.  It is in the domain of the courts.  Some mortgage holders will pay without question or allow foreclosure to happen,  again without question.  Others will have a clue and call for their lawyers to determine weather or not anyone has the right to foreclose them and that’s where the trouble will start.  As lawyers learn of successful strategies,  based on record imperfections,  they will begin to offer their services,  to do this, to the public. 

That’s what the “voluntary moratorium” was meant to head off.  The fewer mortgages that come under judicial scrutiny,  the less chance for discovery, and/or for such information to get out into “the wild”.  The White House acting casual about it, pretends that the problems are inconsequential, and therefore no one should be spurred to look into it further or on their own.

My guess is:  People will learn that there is something fishy about mortgages in general,  and that they should no longer assume anything and get legal help.  A home without a recorded legal owner will either default to the hands of the current possessor, or to the last clear owner of legal record.  So, if the banks munged their titles in illegal ways,  the previous seller and last owner of record is the only one the current owner has to deal with.  The house can pass either way dependent only upon what agreement can be arrived at. 

If you are in foreclosure you need a law firm that handles such things, preferably one that does no business with the banks,  and/or has a record of success in such things.  Consult the Attorney/lawyers directory,  available at most any good library.

Volma: Beautiful. Worth a 2nd or 3rd read, friends.

And I have to thank you once again Mr. Scheer. Your syntax consistently packs
more clarity and meaning into each sentence than almost any journalist out there.

Oh… a grander tighter better replay of the Europeans landing in America…

You arrive bearing gifts of blankets and beads, assuring the natives that you only want to coexist in peace and offer a less harsh, happier different way of life…

Then you pull out the pox infected blankets, the muskets, the military, proclaiming ownership over the land….

Ownership????You know the thing that controls others, the land the food, the bounty…
Acquire your Slaves and gather the savages into cages to neutralize, kill their bodies or spirits, either works…

The dupes, pawn, sheep who go along with the agenda, are spared, they serve their masters well from generation to generation…

This has been played out over and over and over for centuries…The game has not changed, much, it’s just been updated for current use…

The silly humans go along with it every time…All you need are promises, a little appeal to individual greed and appetites, authorship of reality, salt n peppa, and whoola, you control the land, the resources and the masses…

This Played Out, reality needs enlightenment…Human beings need to get a clue about the nature of being human, our true deep biological bonds as being literally part of this living organism we live in, and on called Earth…

No one can truly own land, and we need to focus on our true purpose for being, which I am sure is not to worship human made Gods (be it rulers, God Heads, money, power) for power fun and enslavement…
Not to hand over our human rights to exist as slaves in a controlled reality of a vile system that goes against all life…We allow this because we have no clue who we really are…

We hand over our freedom, the truth, our happiness, our humanity and our earth to truly Evil Overlords, who can’t possibly be human beings themselves and have no conscience as to what they are deliberately and methodically planning, and enacting….

The current overlords are the world bankers, the rich elite, who control the evil system of banks, ownership, progress…This is reality, reason with it, spin your gears on it…It doesn’t take a genius to see the true dynamic, look at the past present and whats being set up for the future…

This added mess is indicative of the inherent arrogance and predator nature of MONOPOLIES

Quick quesiton-
If a property is in foreclosure for non-payment, and nobody can produce a paper,
signed copy of the mortgage, to whom does the property default?

Who would have the authority to evict without first seeing an actual mortgage?

hello. it is because the government has ruined the
small business environment that our economy is in
ruins. banks committed fraud bundling phony titles
into derivatives, but the failure is because nobody
with legitimate paper can make payments without a
job. the government is destroying our economy, to the
delight of Wall Street. housing is the basis of
investment security in America, and now we have gold
ballooning beyond bubble status. the government with
cronies in Wall Street are destroying this country
through agencies, regulations, and now mis-
representation. i hope enough real change will
prevent violence, but the real change is coming. the
government should not be allowed to take over these
derivatives. they must fail, so we can proceed to
recovery. let’s begin putting the fraudsters in jail.

****************

““Yet the White House on Tuesday once again
manifested an indifference to the suffering of
victimized homeowners when press secretary
Robert Gibbs warned of the “unintended
consequences to a broader moratorium.” Which
presumably would be worse in his view than the
intended consequence of evicting people from
their homes, which has already affected some 20
million Americans and threatens many more.
What arrogance for an administration featuring
Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, who
created this mess back in the Clinton era, to
evidence such slight compassion for the victims
of their folly.”“
***************

It is not hard to see where this is going. Clearly o
will protect the criminals once again, whether to
keep from being assassinated or because he
stands to gain quite considerably from protecting
the corporate side, yet once again, thus verifying
his loyalty and fealty which does not include the
people.

But I still say, somewhere the people will have to
wake up and object, in whatever form, to this
continued subversion of our country and the
systems involved that should be conducive to a
settled order of beneficial function for all. One
would think of the legitimate mortgagors being
so outraged to to so or it may take the end of
money for the people, but something just has to
be a breaking point. Otherwise, it will just prove
the effectiveness of how well the whole system
has been subverted and with the MAJOR help of
the msm which for most all intent and purposes
is as worthless as the tits on a boar hog for
dispensing useful information to the people.

9/10ths of the law, indeed.

“The FBI warned of widespread fraud in the mortgage
industry in 2004, and the Bush administration, and the
Federal Reserve refused to do anything.”

I respectfully disagree.
“Junior” Bush and the israeli “Federal Reserve” did
something. 

And we are now suffering the outcome.

It remains to be seen whether this issue is a matter of the Banks being lazy and pushing their foreclosures through too quickly.  I remember BofA announcing it was going to bump foreclosures up ten-fold in 2010.  So the question is can they backtrack and back out the proper paperwork, or manipulate the system to otherwise allow for their activities?  I would not bet against them.  However, it is an interesting potential Achilles Heel.  Greed clearly drove a racket made legitimate enough by bribing “our” government.  But that greed may not of allowed them to fully consider the Judiciary, which in spite of “our” SCOTUS, may be less susceptible to bribery manipulation and would have required them to comprehend the looming disaster .  Still, I wager they get out of this and are to cash in.  And realize they have already passed the worst of the worst on to their Fed servant.

Fat Freddy - The Federal Reserve is a joke, granted,
but what to say of the fact that in 2006, 30% of
mortgagees couldn’t make their FIRST house payment.
And nobody noticed?

Cowardice (don’t rock the ‘boat’ that’s signing my
paycheck) greed (self-explanatory) and stupidity were
rampant in the financial services industry and among
the politicians who aided and abetted it.  Yet, we’re
continually told that nobody saw this coming, that
the ‘criminals’ who brought it about were just as
surprised as the rest of us when it hit the fan in
‘08.  Bull shit.

The logical action on the part of a mortgagor, the
homeowner, would be to stop payment if the mortgagee
is unable to show a valid mortgage.

It’s not the ownership of the homes that is in question.  It is the ownership of the mortgage notes. Of course, after the foreclosure sale, if the foreclosing entity is not the note owner, then the ownership of the property would be in question.  If banks cannot foreclose when borrowers stop paying they will stop making loans, I guess.  Then what?

There may be one way of stopping such unscrupulous behaviour and that is to default the ownership to the present occupant.

I can’t imagine leaving my home without being presented with the proper paperwork. By which I mean MY mortgage (the institution’s copy), in one piece, signed and witnessed as being in foreclosure.

In the 1930s and 1940s (and even into the 1950s) there was a strong consumer movement in this country. How sad it now is that people have little concept of being an informed consumer with knowledge of their legal rights. I saw folks on TV who paid hundreds of dollars in bank fees each month because they didn’t keep track of their checkbook use. I cannot imagine being this wasteful and letting the bank have my hard-earned money.

It is time for a new consumer movement in the U.S. If we worked together, we could even demand the return of production to our own country, refusing to buy any unnecessary products produced in China.

One more thing, the “deregulation” you refer to, was a compromise for the Community Reinvestment Act.

Instead of mortgages being between customers and banks and then being properly recorded by local government agencies, they became poker chips in the Wall Street casino.

Hey, Scheer

Ginnie Mae guaranteed the first mortgage passthrough security of an approved lender in 1968.[7] In 1971 Freddie Mac issued its first mortgage passthrough, called a participation certificate, composed primarily of private mortgages.[7] In 1981 Fannie Mae issued its first mortgage passthrough, called a mortgage-backed security.[8] In 1983 Freddie Mac issued the first collateralized mortgage obligation.[9]

The disastrous disarray in the housing industry is a direct result of decisions taken during the deregulation frenzy of the Clinton presidency when the securitization of mortgage and other debts was removed from any regulatory supervision.

Wrong. The Federal Reserve has regulatory power over mortgage lenders from HOEPA. The Fed refused to act. It wasn’t lack of regulation, it was lack of enforcement. The FBI warned of widespread fraud in the mortgage industry in 2004, and the Bush administration, and the Federal Reserve refused to do anything.

Thanks for this succinct and clear explanation of what’s going on in the housing market today. This just astounds me:
“...a computerized program, the national Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS), that is often identified in foreclosure proceedings as the owner of record.”
Are attorneys for the financial corporations actually arguing that a computerized program is the owner of record? I guess if AIG is a person then a computer program can own a house, huh. This country has fooled itself into accepting this nonsense. It’s not the American people who are dumbed down. It’s the people residing in Washington and on Wall Street.

Possession is 9/10ths of the law.