BLAME IT, BY AND LARGE, ON THE WARPED AND MISGUIDED ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF in certain scions of His Fraudulency's Great Within, but their belief in a Classless Ownership Society especially targeting the Lower Classes may be backfiring thanks to the meltdown in the "sub-prime" and "Alt-A" mortgage-lending crises aimed @ steering the Lower Classes into a healthy embrace of the Classless Ownership Society through owner-occupancy housing, for starters.

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FOR STARTERS, you've got what could best be called pure, unadulterated carpetbaggery by way of what could best be called Emotional Mortgage Rescue, which targets such with "sub-prime" mortgages in clear and present risk of foreclosure and ensuing eviction.

In such a scheme, the perpetrators claim to be either affiliated with some class of a "foundation" or have found "angels" among the wealthy who would be more than willing to take over the mortgage on the house of such targeted, allowing the same to remain and not face eviction.

But that's in theory.

In Reality, however, there are no "foundations" or wealthy "angels" extant; instead, those involved push documents on such in danger as actually sign over title to the "foundation" and advise the dupes to make all future mortgage payments to the "foundation" rather than the original lenders.

It's enough to wonder if Emotional Mortgage Rescue could be a cheap and cheerful fundraising front for the Extreme Right of the highest order, taking advantage as they enjoy doing of the vulnerable and easily-led.

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MOVING FROM THE RIDICULOUS TO THE DOWNRIGHT STUPID, you could just imagine where so-called "Christian" mortgage lenders, in their Zealotry and True Belief of homophobia being one with Christian Love, might try exploiting the "sub-prime" crisis by way of:

• Buying up whole neighbourhoods of foreclosed properties for what may turn out being their true value (IMHO, about 10% of the value of the last mortgage taken out on same) from real-estate auctions;
• Offering (you guessed it) "Christian" home mortgages through so-called "Christian" marketing channels as are financed through "convertible securities" (debt-backed such easily convertible into receivables under the right circumstances) sold to churches, mission societies and "Christian" investors (all the while claiming exemption under securities-registration laws); and
• Doing the "Minneapolis Flip" (as in inflating real-estate pricing based on arbitrarily-inflated appraisals having nothing to do with the real property value of the affected) before suckering in "Christian" homebuyers with claims that the neighbourhood is "emerging" as a major "Christian" socioeconomic centre.

And the obvious rationale they have is to prevent "further serious dilution of property values" by way of "morally deviant elements" (read: gays and lesbians) seeking to "exploit" such solely for profit above Healthy Regard for Family and its Values.

I admit this may be a stretch; however, you never can tell about just such a possibility.

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AND IT'S NOT JUST HOME BUYERS AND MORTGAGE LENDERS WHO WERE "taken to the cleaners," so to speak, in the whole "sub-prime" lending imbroglio:

New York and Connecticut securities regulators are reportedly looking into claims that "sub-prime" mortgage lenders managed to have debt securities backed by "sub-prime" mortgages bundled into debt securities offered en tranche to especially institutional investors and bond funds not expected to be consciously aware of the "sub-prime" mortgages being serious investment risks in their own right.

Next thing you know, expect these same lenders as are In Liquidation to resell such "sub-prime"-backed mortgages as "fully-secured, bank-guaranteed Accounts Receivable Acquisitions" paying (or so claimed) up to 40% p.a.--and sold all along as "low-risk" investments, even to the extent of resorting to patsies and bromides to explain why the marketers could not issue an Offering Circular as required by the securities laws.

Let alone fail to explain that any such securities advertised as "bank-guaranteed" all the while:

• are not considered bank accounts or products;
• are not FDIC insured; and
• carry risk for loss of value, including loss of all or significant part of the original investment.

And more than likely through "spam" e-mail, "cutting out the middleman" and "avoiding unnecessary regulatory burden"--or so the promoters think all the while.