The foreclosure crisis continues. This is a nice piece of writing highlighted by intelligent illustration. The author has my admiration.

Often, when we have been dealing with a crisis for a long time, we want it to end, to find closure. I promise you my delight in another days’ fukushima crisis is very small. I want that thing to be fixed and stop hurting people every single day. I want to write about other stuff but the nuclear industry has conspired to create a disaster that will run at least ten years. So, I continue writing about it.

I am more than a little afraid this one, the foreclosure crisis, may come to a sudden end. Let me tell you why. There is talk of a settlement of 20 billion dollars by the states attorney generals. Many of our more loathsome congressman are complaining that this is too punitive. It takes a very comfortable distance from the situation and the facts to find compassion for the financial industry. They have in many cases either directly committed crimes, assisted in illegal activity or parsed the law so closely as to send shivers up the spine of the most casual moralist.

Well, these financial industry zealots are likely to ride like some debauched cavalry to the assistance of these banks. They intend to cut the amount and it is quite likely they will gut any proposals to rein in the illegal practices of foreclosure industry. The reform they will aim at with great intensity will be the one ending the abuses of foreclosing without a proper title. Allowing the banks to foreclose with a paper trail will greatly cheapen their costs and make it extremely difficult to police the industry.

So, I want stretched out court battles to reveal to millions of Americans how cruel and unfair this process has been. I want charges filed for false affidavits, penalties assessed for failing to pay state and county fees, and I want justice for those who have suffered fraud during the housing bubble.

James Pilant

A Frightening Satellite Tour Of America’s Foreclosure Wastelands From Business Insider Gus Lubin | Jan. 30, 2011, 3:42 PM | 693,239 RealtyTrac is out with the total foreclosure numbers for 2010. On the whole things are getting worse. 72 percent of major metro areas saw an increase in foreclosure volume. Although some of the worst hit areas in Nevada, California and Florida improved from 2009, the foreclosure rate in these areas remains shockingly … Read More

via Short Sale and Foreclosure Blog