THE MEN FROM MERS

WARNING! THIS IS NOT A TEST. PLANET EARTH HAS BEEN INVADED. DO NOT RESIST.

I am sorry to inform you Klaatu; We are entirely capable of destroying ourselves. In fact, we are well on our way. Progress is ahead of schedule. We are ignoring this message and returning to our regularly scheduled distractions...thanks for coming.

MERS, MERS, MERS, just where do we begin?

Since roughly ten percent of the population has been impelled to believe that chemical lobotomies are required to survive; it might be wise to begin the exercise with a dose of Paxil followed up with a delightful Abilify chaser. (Only your Doctor will really know)

You Attorneys General can stop reading now; your vile and insulting accord with the bankers, regulators, and politicians is set; and you've earned, quite justly, well-deserved opprobrium from all but the sociopathic elite. The position of Attorney General (the chief law officer of the state) entails ensuring that the laws of the state are uniformy and adequately enforced. Now that you have soiled that position and perhaps perverted it's purpose forever, please go away.

Peering into the window of financial Gun Boat Diplomacy that is the MERS Secret Electronic Mortgage Society reveals clear evidence of the pathogen causing our collective economic sclerosis.

MERS is yet another clever ruse designed to facilitate peddling the spectre of wealth creation through such oddities as "rehypothecation" combined with virtually unlimited leverage. The most sigificant problem with this form of wealth creation is that it is not real. Since there isn't any real wealth left to steal; the theft of last resort is debt.

Before delving into the birth of "fraudclosure", let's wax nostalgic for a moment and roll out a few old investing axioms that in hindsight, seem rather silly.

"Buy and Hold"

"Real Estate is the safest investment. They aren't making any more Real Estate."

Ahhh...the good old days. These two sentiments have blended together to morph into a rather toxic result. In the Real Estate hay day, back when they weren't making any more Real Estate, money started looking for people. To this day, some remain stubbornly reliant on an obtuse and incomplete interpretation of the "Community Reinvestment Act" as a convenient neon red-herring on which to affix blame. To suggest (over and over again) that any politician, regardless of spot or stripe, would give a fig, lift a finger, bat a lash, or make anything more affordable for anyone other than themselves is mere cacophony.

Some will even put forth the equally absurd notion that lenders were strong-armed into making loans for fear of lawsuits from powerhouse organizations like ACORN. (Banks afraid of lawsuits...how cute)

The money was looking for people for one reason and one reason only.

We've said this before, aided by the clarity of hindsight, but the sociopaths had the vision to see this coming and acted accordingly. Presently, there isn't anything left to steal except debt. How do you steal money from those who don't have any?

Simple. Just give it to them.

This seemingly chivalrous and selfless act of making the "American Dream" of home ownership more affordable to minorities or the otherwise disenfranchised was actually anything but chivalrous and selfless.

It was the perfect crime.

While keenly focusing on the fact that no one was making more Real Estate, it was triple A safe to assume the value of Real Estate would never do anything but go up. This "conventional wisdom", often called "speculative", was repeatedly and professionally affirmed by experts in the form of property appraisals.

The zenith of all this chivalry is the appraisal and exemplifies the brilliance of the perfect crime.

Precisely at that moment, the vaporous, phantom, wealth of debt is born. Hold on to your hats all you disenfranchised minorities, you will soon be disemboweled. The money has found you and welcomes you aboard the "American Dream".

Fast forward...

There is actually plenty of Real Estate and it never does anything but go down in value. In keeping with the state of affairs we find ourselves in; we are forced to re-examine the definition of "value".

Once upon a time, the value of something was a direct corollary to what someone would pay for it.

Not anymore. Value is defined in a cell on a spreadsheet[s] and that never budges.

Enter the Credit Default Swap.

As chivalrous as the lenders were, way back when they weren't making more Real Estate, they had a sneaky suspicion the disenfranchized minorities they tried to help were secretly chiseling deadbeats. They had to buy insurance in case they didn't pay back the captured amount in all those spreadsheet cell[s].

Buying and selling this insurance was especially lucrative and worked like a charm for a few, but was really bad for many. You see, there was never any intention by these insurance companies to actually pay, much less have the ability to pay any of these claims. The only logical and prudent thing to do, absent any other possible option, was to once again foist this on the sap of last resort, the taxpayer.

This might be a good thing because so many things have been stolen, it's really hard to find anything to steal. And now that debt is wealth and never goes down in "value", this must be a windfall for taxpayers somehow. Buy and Hold? Silly me, I'm all confused but quite confident the AGs have this all figured out?

This fun little story is getting rather long in the tooth and has been covered in detail here, here, here, here, here, and here, and about a thousand other places, so let's move on to something from yesterday.

Every state is embroiled in this foreclosure fiasco, none more so than the tiny state of Rhode Island.

This Court Orderwas signed on January 5, 2012 by the Honorable John McConnell Jr., United States District Judge. Judge McConnell was very clear in his Order. All foreclosures under this order were "STAYED". Meaning STOP. Right now. STOP.

Well now, in what is impossible to view as anything but a clear and deliberate violation of the Order, the Law Office of Nicholas Barrett & Associates, specifically carried out by Foreclosure Mill Attorney Joseph Dolbenon behalf of their TBTF clients.

Cooke vs. Option One Mortgage, et al

In case there is any doubt that they knew exactly what they were doing when they brushed aside Judge McConnell's Order and sold the Cooke's home at auction, I direct your attention to "Exhibit A"

Cooke vs. Option One Mortgage, et al - Exhibit A

Judge McConnell, the ball is now in your Court.

Between "Attorney General" Kilmartin and his campaign against "texting while driving" insurgents, and Judges Rubine and Silverstein and their repeated and embarassing inability to understand Rhode Island statutes (more on those two later) it seems your Stay Order was absolutely necessary.

The integrity of your Order must be preserved.

Even pirates like Thomas Tew found safe haven in Rhode Island. Please tell us it isn't still.

If the imaginary instant matter of France vs. The United States Louisiana Purchase (MERS as Nominee) were before Judge Rubine or Judge Silverstein we'd be in trouble.

Both of you would rule that we'd have to give back 828,000 square miles to somebody. You wouldn't be sure who that somebody would be, but that wouldn't stop you.