Coakley Steps up Probe into Foreclosure Fraud (via Marshfield Real Estate)

The mortgage foreclosure crisis continues to grow. We are not talking about just the number of foreclosures. We are discussing active serious wrong doing on the part of banks and foreclosure companies. The use of the MERS electronic system to determine property ownership outside the States’ legal rules is a particularly egregious situation. A number of financial institutions on their own decided to dispense with hundreds of years of property law and create a system that passed title electronically. They did this without legislative or court approval and then proceeded to use it on millions of properties. We should not allow banking institutions to create law on the spur of the moment for their own benefit.

There is plenty of evidence that properties were foreclosed on that banks did not own. I call for justice. I call for a return of these properties to their rightful owners.

James Pilant

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is beefing up her investigation into foreclosure fraud, targeting a powerful lender-created company in Virginia that claims to be the official owner of tens of millions of mortgages nationwide. Yesterday, Coakley said she will ask county registers to provide information to see if Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., known as MERS, is violating Massachusetts laws related to property seizures. … Read More

via Marshfield Real Estate

An Economic Wake Up Call (via Here’s What Nancy Thinks)

Income inequality in the developed nations is almost exclusively an American phenomenon. As you can see from the graph, we are more equivalent to African nations with limited economic development in terms of income

Another interesting article is the graph on the origins of our budget problems. Please pay attention to the enormous role played by the Bush tax cuts in destroying revenue.

James Pilant

I don't want a "share the wealth" society in the sense that Republicans like to threaten the people with… You have to admit, though, that there used to be a time when money made it to the top, the top would keep a little and spend the rest to grow their business by hiring new people and so forth. When the money trickled down, there was more money to trickle back up. Now, the mighty dollar is harder to come by because the money makes it to the t … Read More

via Here's What Nancy Thinks

Policy failures of the GOP: the debt could disappear if the rich paid taxes at 1960s levels (via Under the Mountain Bunker)

Well, yeah. I knew that.

James Pilant

Is anyone surprised by this? Yet discussion of increasing tax revenues from the wealthy and corporations is off the table,  no compromise, according to the teaparty Republicans. If Corporations And The Rich Paid Taxes At The Same Level As The 1960s, The Debt Would Disappear … [Institute for Policy Studies’ (IPS) Sam] Pizzigati cites an IPS paper from last spring to make the argument that if corporations and households making more than $1 millio … Read More

via Under the Mountain Bunker

Pictures—Ten Oldest U.S. Nuclear Plants: Post-Japan Risks (via Japan Nuclear Crisis)

Here are some new things (or old ones) to add to your worry list.

James Pilant

Pictures—Ten Oldest U.S. Nuclear Plants: Post-Japan Risks. Oyster Creek, New Jersey, September 1969 Nine Mile Point Unit 1, New York, November 1969 R.E. Ginna, New York, December 1969 Dresden Units 2 and 3, Illinois, April 1970 and July 1971 H.B. Robinson Unit 2, South Carolina, September 1970 Point Beach Unit 1, Wisconsin, November 1970 Palisades, Michigan, December 1971 Monticello, Minnesota, March 1971 Quad Cities Unit 1, Illinois, April 1972 … Read More

via Japan Nuclear Crisis

Japan Passes Law To Cleanse Internet Of ‘Bad’ Fukushima Radiation News (via THE INTERNET POST)

Predictable, I wonder why it took so long. As radiation is detected in larger and large amounts further and further away from the damaged nuclear plants, I guess things just started to get annoying. So, we’re just going to give all those nasty news agencies a good talking to!

James Pilant

'The supposedly free democratic nation of Japan, which supposedly values and promotes freedom of speech, has officially issued orders to telecommunication companies and webmasters to remove content from websites that counter the official government position that the disaster is over and there is no more threat from the radiation. The government charges that the damage caused by earthquakes and by the nuclear accident are being magnified by irresp … Read More

via THE INTERNET POST