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Another take on the mortgage mess

By Mark Obbie

While the backlash from the housing-bubble burst has focused on Wall Street finances, the Miami Herald's "Borrowers Betrayed" investigation shows that the problems also involve crimes of a lower sort. In a series eight months in the making and a marvel of high-volume record-crunching, the Herald's Jack Dolan, Rob Barry (yes, Dave Barry's son), and Matthew Haggman pack a punch by showing how badly regulated Florida's mortgage business is. The series' taut writing belies the depth of its research and reporting, with hundreds of thousands of background checks on the state's felon-riddled ranks of mortgage brokers and hundreds of interviews. It's important stuff, and well told in a smart online package. The series' how-to is worth a look for would-be copycats, but I'm hoping the authors eventually provide more details (in the IRE Journal, for example).

Full post as published by Lawbeat on August 03, 2008 (boomark / email).