Amy Goodman: Produce the Note

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



Produce the Note
Posted on Feb 3, 2009

By Amy Goodman


Marcy Kaptur of Ohio is the longest-serving Democratic congresswoman in U.S. history. Her district, stretching along the shore of Lake Erie from west of Cleveland to Toledo, faces an epidemic of home foreclosures and 11.5 percent unemployment. That heartland region, the Rust Belt, had its heart torn out by the North American Free Trade Agreement, with shuttered factories and struggling family farms. Kaptur led the fight in Congress against NAFTA. Now, she is recommending a radical foreclosure solution from the floor of the U.S. Congress:

“So I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes. Don’t you leave.”

She criticizes the bailout’s failure to protect homeowners facing foreclosure. Her advice to “squat” cleverly exploits a legal technicality within the subprime-mortgage crisis. These mortgages were made, then bundled into securities and sold and resold repeatedly, by the very Wall Street banks that are now benefiting from TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program). The banks foreclosing on families very often can’t locate the actual loan note that binds the homeowner to the bad loan. “Produce the note,” Kaptur recommends those facing foreclosure demands of the banks.

“Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” Rep. Kaptur told me. “Therefore, stay in your property. Get proper legal representation ... if Wall Street cannot produce the deed nor the mortgage audit trail ... you should stay in your home. It is your castle. It’s more than a piece of property. ... Most people don’t even think about getting representation, because they get a piece of paper from the bank, and they go, ‘Oh, it’s the bank,’ and they become fearful, rather than saying: ‘This is contract law. The mortgage is a contract. I am one party. There is another party. What are my legal rights under the law as a property owner?’

“If you look at the bad paper, if you look at where there’s trouble, 95 to 98 percent of the paper really has moved to five institutions: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wachovia, Citigroup and HSBC. They have this country held by the neck.” ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090203_produce_the_note/

[villager]

1. Yes! "Show me the note!"

This simple notion should start sweeping the country...

[ColbertWatcher]

2. "should start sweeping the country" YES! Produce the note! n/t

[Xipe Totec]

3. We should not wait for foreclosure;

we should start demanding they produce the note before paying ANY mortgage payments.

You want my money? Show me you're the mortgage holder, or fuck off!

[aikoaiko]

4. hmmm, I don;t think this will work out well for the squatters except give them some more time.

[me b zola]

5. Mr Zola has an acquaintance that took the bank to court

Demanded that the bank produce the note. This was about a year ago. The judgment went in favor of the homeowner, and last I heard he was still in his home.

[ljm2002]

7. You have a Congresswoman who advises it...

...you have articles that spell it out, but you "don't think it will help"???

The law is a tricky thing. It demands that i's be dotted and t's be crossed.

Those financial wizard masters of the universe got so caught up in their shenanigans that they forgot a few details.

Well, since we the little people are constantly being held to the letter of the law, let's hold *their* asses to the letter of the law for a change.

I really, really hate defeatism. I understand the notion that one has obligations. It's just that right now, there seem to be no mutual obligations. Only one party to these sliced and diced contracts seems to have an obligation, and that is John Q and Jane Q Littleguy. The other party is free to change the terms, up the interest rates, foreclose and leave neighborhoods destitute, even when it ends up costing them more money. And why? Just so they can stick it to the little guys and gals, and tell them it was their "responsibility" to earn 3 times as much now as when they bought the house, because there was a line item on page 1071 of the contract papers, written in 1-point italics, that said they could do whatever they damned well pleased, that's why. And now you little guys are supposed to suck it up and feel *bad* because you couldn't live up to your "obligations".

Horseshit. Screw 'em. Produce the note.

(on edit): Also you should be aware that there are people, known cases, where this strategy has worked. From small homeowners, to millionaires in Florida. It's time we fight back with every possible tool in the book.

[aikoaiko]

12. We'll see --

I'm skeptical that it will work for most people, and, like you, I think people need to own up to their obligations.

But I do agree that owners of the property need to prove they are the owners, too.

[DCKit]

6. Anyone else think these mortgages may have been sold more than once?

Read something today that stated these mortgages have been leveraged into derivatives at 30-40x payouts for the brokers. At an average of 7% interest on the original note, I'm at a loss to explain this kind of profit.

I say audit the MoFos and find out how many of them were selling fraudulent securities then start the prosecutions and take away all their money and toys.

[SoCalDem]

8. Perhaps even by "year"..30 yr mortgage broken into 30 "segments" year by year?

nothing would surprise me, with the crooks we were in charge

[Bigmack]

10. You bring up an interesting point....

I don't have a mortgage, but has anybody in DU ever traced out who actually owns their mortgage?

I'd be nervous about sending money away to somebody as a mortgage payment if I didn't know for sure they owned the mortgage.

[DCKit]

11. That's the thing. The company that services the mortgage now rarely owns the mortgage.

And, since not even most of the brightest economic minds comprehend derivatives, who knows?

[wellstone dem]

9. Legal Aid has been bringing this issue into law suits in many areas

of the country. Donate to Legal Aid.

[shugah]

13. "Produce the note!" act quickly!

i don't know how effective the "produce the note" movement actually is. i hope it is helping some people in dire straits. even if it serves only to buy some time, "some time" may be all that homeowners need. ideally, this would be a good method if it can be used as leverage to negotiate an affordable mortgage payment for those who were victims of predatory lending or have become unemployed. that would be great, and a win/win (homeowners and lenders) over the long term.

but, as sure as the sun rises, if this is something that will actually help homeowners who are facing foreclosure, congress will act quickly to safeguard the banks. if this "produce the note" method is actually a legal means for homeowners to stall or stop foreclosure i'd wager that congress will act to close a "loophole" that would actually help the people on "main street" (as they like to refer to it) so fast it will make our collective heads spin. it'll pass far more quickly, and with far more votes than the so-called stimulus bill that doesn't address the foreclosure crisis at all. hell, they may even amend the stimulus bill to take care of it.

i recommend that anyone who is going to try "produce the note" and then squat, that they should probably do it now.

note: yes, i am somewhat cynical ;-)

[ljm2002]

15. Based on some of the videos I've been watching...

...over the last couple of days, some of our congress critters are starting to feel the outrage.

Bernie Saunders (sp?) of Vermont recounted how PO'd his constituents were at a town hall meeting where 800 of them showed up. Dennis Kucinich said on Faux News that we are at the point where we need to replace golden parachutes with golden handcuffs. Marcy Kaptur is openly telling her consituents to insist that the lender produce the note. Senator McCaskill is promoting a bill that would cap the salaries of CEOs of bailed-out companies to $400,000 -- same as the President's salary. Barney Frank is out there pitching as well. One company (I forget who) had to cancel their order for an expensive French jet; Wells Fargo just cancelled their fancy Vegas "rewards" trip. Obama is lecturing all of them, and I think I heard that he will propose a cap on CEO salaries for bailed-out companies.

Feels to me like something is starting up here. And it's about damned time.

I think what we need right now is a reset -- a declared Jubilee year, where debts are forgiven and people get to start over with a clean slate. Maybe not every debt, I don't know how it would work. But we really, really need to acknowledge what a hash we've made of it and figure out a way to make it better, and make it work for most people rather than having a few big winners while society disintegrates around us and suffering increases for not reason other than twisted rules that benefit only the greed heads. Along with that, we need to bring the greed heads back down to earth, and yes, slap some of them in handcuffs.

I said it at the beginning of this mess, when the bailouts were first proposed: the only thing we should be negotiating with these financial geniuses is how long they will be spending in jail.

In the meantime we need to stop blaming everything on the little guys and have those big puffed up egotistical assholes take some actual responsibility for the havoc they have wrought.

[shugah]

16. i hope that your optimism trumps my cynicism :-)

it's just that we've all been outraged for quite some time now, but the wall street greedy bastards are still getting million dollar bonuses, and congress can't (won't) even try to make them give it back. the bailout thus far has helped no one except wall street - jobs are still being lost every day, homes are still being foreclosed every day, and credit has not loosened for small businesses or any one else... how can we so quickly fund BoAs $10 million superbowl party, but it's going to be months (according to our President) before there is any sign of relief for the rest of us?

and it's not even a bailout that main street is crying for. it's jobs. "JOBS! JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!" cries main street.

[Fireweed247]

14. I don't know if it will work

but for people losing their homes it is damn well worth a try.