POSTED: January 1, 1:25 PM EDT | By Matt Taibbi
Happy New Year, America…
Have multiple relatives en route to my home this morning, but wanted to post a few thoughts on an interesting story that came out this week before I disappear into a weekend of overeating and meaningless NFL games.
The piece, which came out Thursday, is the Washington Post’s feature on MERS, the electronic mortgage registration company that is at the center of the foreclosure/mortgage bubble mess. MERS is the brainchild of the mortgage-lending industry and is essentially an effort at systematically evading taxes (more on that in a moment) and hiding information from homeowners in ways that enabled the Countrywides of the world to defraud investors and avoid legal consequences for same.
The idea behind MERS was to wipe away centuries of legal tradition that mandated the physical transfer of loan notes and ownership information. Whereas lenders once were required to physically register with county clerk offices every time a mortgage loan was extended or re-sold, MERS provided an “electronic registry” of mortgage notes where all such transfers were recorded in the wiry brain of a giant computer instead of on paper.
Related posts:
- Matt Taibbi: Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners Retired judges are rushing through complex cases to speed foreclosures...
- Potential Liabilities for the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) and its Affiliates By John Lux Introduction This article discusses some of the...
- Wall Street's Naked Swindle by: Matt Taibbi Short-Selling Vs. Naked Short-Selling: An Explanation In “Wall Street’s Naked...
- MATT TAIBBI: Goldman Sachs "VAMPIRE SQUID" The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs...
- Response to Request from John O’Brien (Essex, Mass. Co. Register of Deeds) to Mass. AG Martha Coakley to Investigate MERS In response to questions regarding the letter from Essex Co....
