From an Unlikely Source, a Serious Challenge to Wall Street
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/from-an-unlikely-source-a-serious-challenge-to-wall-street-20120720
I like this idea _a lot_! I am generally not a fan of using eminent domain for anything other than public utilities or the equivalent and I have a strong moral objection to seizing property to turn over to developers. However, since our Great Supreme Court has weight in and said it is totally OK for localities to seize properties and turn them over to developers, I see it hard to justify a legal objection to localities seizing blighted communities via wholesale purchase of loan instruments then ‘turning those properties over’ to the current owners. Like Matt says, it is a great way to stick it to Wall Street and the core problem in our economic downturn is that the massive losses due to the loss of home values is not being recognized on the books (i.e., written down). This approach (I sure hope it is successful, but you can be positive that Wall Street will use any means at its disposal (including lots that are illegal!) to keep it from happening) is a fabulous way to go about it. It should get full support (but almost surely won’t) by the Tea Party and all the other conservatives who insist on non-Federal solutions.
I will watch this with interest as even if it gets torpedoed, the methods that Wall Street would use to destroy it will be instructive.
