In The Beginning… In 2010, when I started my solo real estate practice, QUERIN LAW, LLC, and launched my website, Q-Law.com, I had high hopes and aspirations, as discussed in my initial Mission Statement, here. Did I know, understand or appreciate what I was undertaking? No. But, after three years, I could not be more pleased.
Initially, it was my idea to continue to practice real estate law in much the same fashion as I had for the past 38 years, sans litigation. I knew I wanted to be more accessible to smaller clients than was possible at a big firm. This is not to say that big firms don’t or won’t represent small clients – but the cost of representation, including the administrative cost of simply opening a file, running a conflicts check, etc. makes no sense if the representation will only span one to two hours.
But after three years of watching the housing and foreclosure crisis wreak havoc on people from all walks of life, I believed there was an opportunity to provide legal services to folks that might not otherwise seek it. So I bundled that business model into the real estate practice I had nurtured and developed since 1972, and opened QUERIN LAW, LLC.
The last three years have given me exactly what I sought; a mature practice combining a stable of good, long standing real estate clients, plus an opportunity to provide legal counseling, guidance, and planning – mixed with a dose of compassion – to Oregonians struggling, in one stage or another, with some form of distressed housing event, such as negative equity, foreclosure, or an impending mortgage default.
Big Bank Scandals – The Gift That Keeps On Giving. As for my website and blog, I never imagined what a fertile source of content the Big Banks would become. For the past five years, they have been the gift that keeps on giving; never failing to provide one public outrage after another, quickly becoming the grist for many of my blog posts. And 2012 has not failed to disappoint. In fact, some might say that the Big Banks, and their apologists, shills, attorneys, CPAs, CFOs, investment traders, and others who have attached their fortunes to the darkest side of corporate finance in America, have outdone themselves. All I have had to do is regularly review the financial papers and websites, such as Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist; plus follow the well-researched public interest website, ProPublica and the occasional rantings of Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine. In short, 2012 has provided an endless source of material. I discussed some of this year’s more memorable Big Bank shenanigans here, here, and here.
Big Government To The Rescue [aka “The Political Kabuki Dance”]. In addition, of course, our dysfunctional federal government, from top to bottom, has exceeded itself – making the last five years of legislation useless when measured by its remarkable lack of success – where politicians of all stripes [but mostly of the blue persuasion] engage in puerile platitudes and pontification, enacting legislation that was not only ineffective, but likely counter-productive, prolonging the turmoil we continue to witness in the housing industry.
And what makes this kabuki dance of faux political activity most frustrating is that we are no closer today to solutions than we were when the politicians first jumped into the legislative fray. [Clearly, housing has improved, but this is mostly due to the lapse of time, resulting in the following dynamics: (a) Increased buyer demand due to the five year hiatus in new construction; (b) More families entering into the first-time purchaser demographic; and (c) A lack of inventory which is helping push up prices. – PCQ]
Lest anyone doubt my conclusions, just look at Dodd-Frank; a 848-page tome of wildly aspirational legislation passed in July 2010 that triggered the need for nearly 400 separate administrative rules before implementation. According to the Davis Polk Dodd-Frank Rulemaking Progress Report, as of December 3, 2012, “…a total of 237 Dodd-Frank rulemaking deadlines have passed. Of these 237 expired deadlines, 144 (61%) have been missed and 93 (39%) have been met with finalized rules. In addition, 133 (33.4%) of the 398 total required rulemakings have been finalized, while 132 (33.2%) rulemaking requirements have not yet been proposed.”[1] [Access the report here.]
So, Barney Frank, a subprime and Fannie Mae enabler during its “cookie jar accounting” hay days, and Chris Dodd, a member in good standing of Countrywide’s “Friends of Angelo” cabal, ceremoniously signed a law that made none of the hard decisions necessary to actually improve the financial excesses of the past. In truth, Dodd-Frank merely passed the buck to bureaucrats to write the controversial administrative rules because the politicians did not have the cojones to do so – they needed political cover. That way the bank lobbyists and lawyers could throw monkey wrenches into the rulemaking process, and the pols didn’t have to get their hands dirty. The predictable result has been very little progress on big issues: The Volker Rule on proprietary trading is still up in the air and the risk-retention rules under the Qualified Residential Mortgage [“QRM”] have yet to be settled – two years after passage. And the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau [“CFPB”], a Dodd-Frank creation – which probably represents the largest regulatory power grab the country has ever seen – is a consumer protection leviathan run by a single political appointee.[2]
Old Wine, New Bottles. So, now, after three years of adding content to this site, I have decided to give it a new look, but follow the same formula; i.e. filling it with articles and information on current national and local real estate issues; and at the same time, continuing to toss hand grenades at the Big Banks and their faux regulators.
My blog site will continue to address topics that I find interesting, generally from the banking, real estate, economic and finance sectors – especially if the news reeks of the amoral conduct we have come to expect from the Big Banks.
My posts will [hopefully] provide accurate and current information, thoroughly vetted, and oftentimes spiced with my editorial comment, which will either be expressly attributed to me, or bear the unmistakable mark of satire [e.g. the Belial Bank Transcripts], which, thanks to the nimble fingers of Julian Assange, seem to fall into my possession at the most propitious of times. To the charge that I have cravenly used these purloined posts for the personal enjoyment of myself and my readers, I gladly plead guilty.
Something Old, Something New. So, how will this new site differ from the old? At my new site it is my intent to break the content into more discrete sections, e.g. Realtor® Risk Management, News You Can Use, etc., including some serious thoughts, information, and perhaps an inspirational quote or two, designed to put into perspective the rule that we have to live life as it comes, including the rough patches, which is rarely as bad as we fear. The difficulty so many Americans have experienced over the last five years should not become an excuse for inaction – as tempting as it might seem. Socrates said“The unexamined life is not worth living.” So, if nothing else, my hope is to encourage readers who are struggling to survive one distressed housing event or another, to examine where they are today, determine where they want to be tomorrow – and then strive to make it happen.
Like I said in 2010, “This endeavor will take time. Q-Law will be a growing, evolving, and exciting project. Have patience.”
© Copyright 2013, QUERIN LAW, LLC.
[1] If Sarbanes Oxley, the legislation following the Enron off-balance sheet shenanigans, couldn’t prevent the accounting tricks of Lehman’s Repo 105, why should we expect Dodd-Frank to prevent another financial and accounting disaster? This law smacks suspiciously like Rahm Emanuel’s credo that politicians should “…never let a serious crisis go to waste.”
[2] I know that this anti-bank, anti-Dodd-Frank rant, makes me look like a political schizophrenic, defending the rights of downtrodden borrowers, and, at the same time, railing against the politicians purporting to “come to the rescue” by enacting make-work legislation after the horse has left the barn. Actually, I’d prefer to be viewed as an intellectually honest equal opportunity critic. In my opinion, no right-thinking American should forgive or forget the Big Bank excesses, circa 2004 – 2007; but neither should any right-thinking American permit those excesses to be replaced with nanny-state regulations that encourage a European-style dependency and stifles American ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and opportunity. Democracy demands individual responsibility. Sorry, Barrack, “I never knew thee.”
