Rush Hour: Foreclosing on Foreclosure

Today's hot business topic, boiled down to arbitrary quotes, comments, and tweets:

On the trade group Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association warning that a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures to fix shoddy paperwork could have "catastrophic" consequences for the housing market. (About 40 state attorneys general could announce an investigation as early as Tuesday):

"It would be catastrophic to impose a system-wide moratorium on all foreclosures and such actions could do damage to the housing market and the economy.… It is imperative…that care be taken in addressing these issues to ensure that no unnecessary damage is done to an already weak housing market and, in turn, that there is no further negative impact on the economy." —SIFMA chief executive Tim Ryan, in a statement.

“Kansas City families are hurting. Nationally, there have been enough questions raised about foreclosure procedures that a temporary moratorium is more than justified. I urge the attorney general to give Missourians some time to get back on their feet and negotiate in good faith with their lenders.” —Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser, in a statement.

"It’s far from clear that a foreclosure moratorium would hurt house prices…indeed, it’s pretty hard to see exactly what Ryan and Sifma are worried about. They say that they firmly believe that the mistakes made in relation to foreclosure processing should be corrected, but they don’t bother to tell us how that’s meant to happen. It would be great if Sifma were to take the lead on this issue and come up with constructive solutions to a serious problem. Instead, they’re just delivering an inchoate and unhelpful blast of opposition. Sad." —Felix Salmon (a former Portfolio writer) blogging at Reuters.

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