Fri, 10 Oct 2008

Sheriff: No foreclosure evictions on my watch

My guess is that you'll be seeing a lot more of this as the political fallout from the financial crisis continues. No doubt that the good sheriff is flaunting the letter of the law - and no doubt that he'll use this to good effect in his next election campaign.

And while the banks certainly have a claim on the debt, the sheriff has a point, too. How you you feel if the sheriff threw you out of your apartment with no notice or warning - n indication, in fact, that anything was amiss?

There are other "gotchas" that are beginning to show up, too. Since so many businesses use credit ratings for employment, if you're job is sent to Bangalore and you get foreclosed you stand a good chance of not being able to find any other work because of the negative impact on your credit rating. Additionally, since apartments use credit scores to determine eligibility for residency, you might not be able to rent an apartment - which makes you homeless. Literally. Despite having cash to pay rent.

This thing could snowball very quickly into a scenario that makes the Great Depression of the 1930's look like a kindergarten picnic.

Some have estimated that the total value of the debt in our economy exceeds the GDP of the entire planet. It doesn't take an economist to figure out that a lot of this debt will never be repaid, nor does it take a mathematician to figure out what would happen if it actually were repaid (Weimar, anyone?).

We have surely worked ourselves into a fine pickle.

Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said Wednesday he is suspending foreclosure evictions in Cook County, which had been on track to reach a record number of evictions, many because of mortgage foreclosures.

(link) [CNN]

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