The turnout was staggering: close to 45,000 desperate homeowners showed up during NACA’s five-day stand at the Cow Palace for the chance to renegotiate their disastrous subprime mortgages or sky-high interest rates or interest-only payments. For them, this event beat any chance at a star-studded concert — and best of all, it was free. – Andy Kroll1

It wasn’t long after we’d posted to the sidebar that quote from the CBS.com version of the story that the author himself dropped by the Castle to invite Doomers to take a closer look.  Well, tomorrow’s class prep will just have to wait.  This is an amazing text.

As a Doomer of a certain baldness, I remember a 50s TV program, one of the original "reality" shows, called Queen for a Day. Well thinking back to those "competitions" gave me quite a hollow feeling in the gut when I read this …

The process would save many of them thousands of dollars, defuse an explosive mortgage, even avert foreclosure. To boost morale, NACA officials occasionally ushered chosen homeowners to a makeshift lectern where each offered a glowing testimonial over a PA system to the work taking place. They spoke fervently of new fixed-interest loans and fought back tears, while thanking their counselors, friends, NACA, and — regularly — God.

The post is long and detailed, ranging as it does along a number of the eastern suburbs of the great CA cities.  After an exhausting tour through green-painted lawns and damaged community, Andy takes on some of the insiders and finance types who’ve profited handsomely from the backwash of all this misery.  Oddly enough, that brought to mind the theme of Marcy’s newly released satirical song.

So I heartily recommend that our readers think long and hard on these issues, because our politicians have got some pretty heavy policy choices to make to keep this stuff from flying apart into something nobody wants to see.

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[1]: "Tomgram: Andy Kroll, The Illusion of Recovery", by Andy Kroll (intro by Tom Engelhardt), TomDispatch, November 30, 2009.