Mortgages: Oh Shit. Ohhhh... Shit!

bmaz on emptywheel's blog:

There are rapidly emerging signs the Obama Administration and Congress may be actively, quickly and covertly working furiously on a plan to retroactively legitimize and ratify the shoddy, fraudulent and non-conforming conduct by MERS on literally millions of mortgages.

From CNBC:

When Congress comes back into session next week, it may consider measures intended to bolster the legal status of a controversial bank owned electronic mortgage registration system that contains three out of every five mortgages in the country.

The system is known as MERS, the acronym for a private company called Mortgage Electronic Registry Systems. Set up by banks in the 1997, MERS is a system for tracking ownership of home loans as they move from mortgage originator through the financial pipeline to the trusts set up when mortgage securities are sold.

Just to make clear the implications of this craven action, the White House and Congress are conspiring to give a get out of jail free bailout card to the biggest banks and finance companies in the country to cover up and mask their illegal behavior and behavior that did not conform with state, county and local laws throughout the United States. On at least sixty (60%) percent of the existing mortgages in America.

There are dozens of implications to individuals and both private and public entities. At a root minimum, it will likely decimate, if not bankrupt, most counties in every state of the union.

...

This is one of the few times I am grateful I am not a "homeowner" (give or take a mortgage). If you are one, it seems you'd better make alternative plans, just in case. You know Obama is not going to let the industry suffer, and you know from sad experience who is important to Congress; that leaves homeowners and the entities (counties, mostly) to which they pay taxes to take the hit. Please read bmaz's post and click through to the CNBC column by John Carney.

Good luck. You may well need it.