L. Randall Wray

I've been writing about the MERS monster since 2010. Here is one of my early pieces.

I suppose it is now safe to reveal that a staffer of Representative Marcy Kaptur put me on the trail of this fraud -- in dollar terms it has to be the...

No Hollywood scriptwriter could plot a more implausible story. Here is the plotline sequencing:

1. Bankers make NINJA loans, securitize them, and sell on to government GSEs


2. Bankers destroy all the loan documents and begin random and fraudulent foreclosures, throwing millions of innocent victims out on the street


3. GSEs...

It has been recognized for well over a century that the central bank must intervene as "lender of last resort" in a crisis. In the 1870s Walter Bagehot explained this as a policy of stopping a run on banks by lending without limit, against good collateral, at a penalty interest...

Since the global financial crisis began in 2007, Chairman Bernanke has striven to save Wall Street's biggest banks while concealing his actions from Congress by a thick veil of secrecy. It literally took an act of Congress plus a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Bloomberg to get him to...

Last week Paul Krugman again attempted to take-on Modern Money Theory (MMT), in his piece "Franc Thoughts on Long Run Issues."

He complained that he is being "harassed" by those who adopt the approach to money that has been labeled MMT. He conceded that on many issues he...

I don't know if I can stomach much more of the posturing in Washington. We know it is all about politics. And Congressman Ryan has yet again said that budget cutting is about "morality", not economics. The possibility that a sovereign government might be shut-down this weekend because its elected...

Approximately a decade ago I wrote a paper with a similar title, announcing that forces were aligned to produce the perfect fiscal storm. What I was talking about was a budget crisis at the state and local government levels. I had recognized that the economy of the time was in...

It looks like Washington will grant a two week reprieve, allowing Congress and the president time to identify spending areas where it can cut to "rein in" its "runaway" budget deficits. Let us take a look at budget realities.

First, it is useful to examine current spending by the...

In the depths of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt warned Americans that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Our great nation has at its disposal the means to ensure recovery. But a pernicious fear has yet again wormed its way into the public consciousness. We are told that...

United States Bankruptcy Judge Robert Grossman has ruled that MERS's business practices are unlawful. He explicitly acknowledged that this ruling sets a precedent that has far-reaching implications for half of the mortgages in this country. MERS is dead. The banks are in big trouble. And all foreclosures should be stopped...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

The Center for American Progress's Matt Miller has argued that liberals can learn a valuable lesson from NY Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget. With his state facing a fiscal crisis, the Governor has proposed to cap growth of state spending on...

President Obama gave a serious and subdued message that relied heavily on an American "can do" spirit by invoking the image of "our generation's Sputnik moment". He spoke of the domestic and international challenges facing our nation as we turn from fighting a deep downturn toward recovery. While I think...

It is now widely recognized that MERS facilitated fraud by lenders, servicers, foreclosers and securitizers. Even on the most charitable interpretation it is very difficult to believe that MERS was not fraudulent by design. So much of the story has already been told that we do not need to rehash...

In a ruling that could be historic, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled against two fraudster banks, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo, who illegally foreclosed on homes. In short, the two banks stole homes to which they had no legal claim.

This rattled stock markets, causing the broad-based...

In a series of pieces I have argued that MERS, a creation of the mortgage banking industry, has effectively destroyed the institution of private property in America. Ironically, MERS was created to facilitate quick and easy and cheap securitization of mortgages -- what are called mortgage-backed securities. In...

It is clear from the comments on our last piece that we might have raised more questions than we answered. Above all, we want to make clear that when we discuss the funding aspects of the Social Security program, we are doing so in a way that is...

One of the highlights of the president's compromise on the tax bill is a temporary payroll tax "holiday" -- something we have long advocated for along with others such as James K. Galbraith and Warren Mosler. The proposed deal would cut the tax by two percentage points from...

This is the final in a three-part series. Read Part 1 here and Part II here.

In the previous two parts of this series I have recounted the multiple frauds perpetrated by MERS: it defrauded counties out of billions of dollars of reporting fees, it defrauded...

In part one of this series I showed that MERS recommended that mortgage servicers retain the "wet ink" notes that borrowers signed. These notes are required in 45 states to foreclose on a home. Not only does the foreclosing party need to physically hold the note, but the...

In two recent pieces I harped on the problems at MERS, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System. ("Support Representative Kaptur's Bill: Time To Shut Down Mers And To Restore The Rule Of Law" and "Shut Down MERS"). Briefly, MERS purportedly offers an alternative to paperwork, maintaining an...