If I Bribe City Hall, Can I Reduce My Mortgage? - Jonathan Weil

``This is the nature of local government in much of the U.S. It tends to be corrupt. Or at least it has been that way everywhere I have lived, from Colorado and New Jersey to Texas, Florida and Arkansas. It's easy to see how a plan to grab loans from their out-of-town owners would inspire graft. Supposedly city governments would have to pay them fair compensation, but you can be assured most would offer less. The losers mainly would be bondholders that own mortgage-backed securities.'' -- Oh well. But this would probably lead to better pricing of pooled mortgage issues in the future!