03 Jan 2011
An Extremely Long Metaphor to Explain Mortgage Chaos

If you're looking for the genesis of the mortgage crisis, this is as good a place to start as any.

The idea behind MERS was to wipe away centuries of legal tradition that mandated the physical transfer of loan notes and ownership information. Whereas lenders once were required to physically register with county clerk offices every time a mortgage loan was extended or re-sold, MERS provided an "electronic registry" of mortgage notes where all such transfers were recorded in the wiry brain of a giant computer instead of on paper.

(link) [Rolling Stone]

via Masson's Blog

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