Foreclosure mill

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The dismal science
Economics
Icon economics.svg
Economic systems

  $  Free market
  €  Social democracy
  ☭ Socialist economy

Major concepts
The worldly philosophers

Foreclosure mills are usually third-party businesses that exist solely to sign off on home foreclosures. They sprang up all around the United States in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. These organizations employ a process called "robo-signing," in which the legal documents are electronically signed to speed the process up. Naturally, this has led to a massive number of wrongful foreclosures. In the most egregious cases, banks simply sent out movers without notice to break in to people's houses, haul their stuff off, and leave a nice present, an eviction notice.[1] In many places, sloppiness and fraud were encouraged as employees received gifts for signing more documents and altering their contents.[2] Banks have been getting away with this without even having to produce documents proving they own the mortgage. Various states and municipalities have put moratoriums on foreclosure for these reasons,[3] but the practice still continues in many areas.

Two of Trump's cabinet secretaries ran foreclosure mills, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross,[4] which was possibly the primary qualification for their positions.

External links[edit]

References[edit]