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Apparently they don’t have enough parking for all those attending the Climate Change Conference.  Unfortunately  I am not talking about cars.  They don’t have enough parking for all the private jets!  That’s just terrible…

Now that Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard has been replaced by Labor Party member Kevin Rudd, the United States will be the only major economic power to not ratify the Kyoto Treaty.

I know many of you are thinking we need to hurry up and jump on the bandwagon and start curbing our carbon emissions. Yes I think doing so is a very worth while cause. Do I think we have to sign a treaty that doesn’t force any restrictions on up and coming countries such as China? Not really.

I don’t think the treaty is all that effective because China is such a large producer of CO2 emissions, yet has no obligation to control their emissions. I don’t see how it is okay for China to still increase its pollution when pollution is reaching deadly limits over there.

If anything, I believe that we do need to review our emissions and think that it would be in our best interests to lower emissions of our own accord. The only thing signing Kyoto could really do is be a sign of good faith that America is still willing to work with the rest of the world. I still think its a bit absurd to curb emissions in one area and grow it in another. Reminds me of when I was paying down one credit card while racking it up on another.

In about 10 years they’ll look back and show that the major economic powers have cut their yearly emissions and give themselves a big pat on the back while turning a blind eye to the fact that global emissions is still on the rise, and much sharper than predicted. Its only going to get worse as the up and comers like China double and triple yearly emissions.

But go ahead and get pissed at our current administration. Drive your SUVs, and fly your personal jets (like your poster boy Al Gore) to all of your protests that make us highly aware that you are concerned about the issues. Its really helping.

So I was doing some Redditing tonight and found and interesting article on this blog called “web of debt“. In the post she talks about a judge’s ruling in Ohio that kept a bank from foreclosing on 14 properties.

“Judge Christopher A. Boyko of Federal District Court in Cleveland dismissed 14 foreclosure cases brought on behalf of mortgage investors, ruling that they had failed to prove that they owned the properties they were trying to seize.”

Apparently they are having trouble finding all the paperwork that shows who owns the properties in question. When you get a home loan, the bank then packages that with other home loans and sells it to investors on Wall Street as mortgage-backed securities. The problem arises because the mortgage notes are not sent to the trustees that buy the securities, they are kept in a repository run by another company. By not sending the actual note, the process goes faster and money can be shifted around a lot easier. When you make your payments, a trustee bank that manages the security makes sure the money gets shifted to the proper investors.

So since the holders of these securities can’t produce the actual notes, technically they can’t foreclose on you.

Now this doesn’t mean you can just stop paying on your house. This is apparently just in some cases. (but sadly, a lot of cases) Apparently this could cause a huge stir with the sudden rise in foreclosure on sub-prime mortgages. The case will surely be refiled and sent up to higher courts but it will definitely be interesting to see how this all pans out.

If you do wind up in a foreclosure situation, definitely fight it. Get a lawyer and make them produce the note. Now that there has been a case settled in the favor of the borrower, there is a precedent your lawyer can call upon in your case.

A good comment about this that I saw in another blog about this called “The Emperor Has No Clothes - And Neither Do Banks - Kiss your Mortgage Payments Goodbye!“, states some interesting things to remember about this whole thing:

“Read the whole post and read through the four comments to it.

At first glance, I can tell you that detractors make some good points, like the following (to name a few):

• 1. this problem doesn’t affect all lenders, just the ones who will have trouble locating their notes,
  2. the case was dismissed without prejudice, which means as soon as the defect is cured, the banks can file again, and
  3. the struggle is by no means over

However, (1) lenders who potentially cannot find evidence that they own the note represent a good chunk of the market and the shadow that this ruling casts could be huge since the securities market is ALL about confidence; (2) some of the “cures” that they’re talking may not be something that they can do without getting the borrower to recommit to the obligation - SO, BEWARE OF LETTERS FROM YOUR MORTGAGEE ASKING YOU TO SIGN SOMETHING!!! and finally, (3) the struggle may not be over - but, we have to start somewhere - and this is a great place to start! ESPECIALLY if massive numbers of homeowners question their mortgage commitments all at once.”

So again, don’t just quit making payments.  I don’t even want to think about what this could do to the strength of the American dollar. Even worse is what our whole housing problem could do to the global markets.