As Badtux points out, the real impact for normal people is going to be in the validity of land titles. If you want to buy a house, how do you know for certain there isn’t an existing mortgage on the property?

It isn’t just homeowners who are being screwed over in this mess, bond holders are filing law suits over the mortgage-backed securities that weren’t exactly as advertised by those issuing them.

And Banks are suing over double- and triple-pledging mortgages, i.e. the same mortgage was sold to more than one bank by mortgage companies.

Now, we have been told that we can’t be too hard on the financial sector, because they have been expanding the US economy with “innovative products”. That is pure, unadulterated bovine excrement. Charles Ponzi was operating the scheme named for him in the early 20^th century. Charles Dickens wrote about a similar scheme in Little Dorrit which was serialized beginning in 1855. All of these schemes are “innovations” that magically produce huge profits until the bubble bursts.

As noted in the Wikipedia entry on Ponzi schemes: “Knowingly entering a Ponzi scheme, even at the last round of the scheme, can be rational economically if there is a reasonable expectation that government or other deep pockets will bail out those participating in the Ponzi scheme.” Can you say “TARP”? How about “Too big to fail”?

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Position: 17.5N 81.1W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: East [100°] near 2 mph [ 4 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1006 mb.

Currently about 125 miles [200 km] South of Grand Cayman.

This system has been in the Caribbean as a low for a while, but the wind shear finally backed off enough for it to form. It has very weak steering, so it is uncertain where it will go.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]