Thursday, March 10, 2011  The economy, bankruptcy, foreclosure,
unemployment; well here's another fine mess  In the news today
it was reported that the stock market fell below 12,000 today
partly on news that China's economy isn't growing, and partly
due to news that initial unemployment claims increased by 26,000
to 397,000 in the week ended March 5.  Bankruptcy filings
nationwide reached 1.53 million last year making it the largest
number of cases filed nationally in a year since 2005.  The good
news is there were only 225,101 new foreclosure cases filed in
February this year (still a lot, but the lowest in one month in
a long time).  One would think that was a great thing -
foreclosures are dropping.  But given all the news about
foreclosure fraud over the last few months, and MERS instructing
their members that their name could no longer be used on a
foreclosure pleading, it would appear that the dip is due in
part to the mortgage companies fear of filing, and not a sign
that things are improving.  Oh, do