Derivatives?

Profits depend on who you know, and whether you can get a sweetheart price-discrimination deal.

"a fund might offer to pay $40 million for a $100 million block of mortgages from a bank in distress[,]"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/business/22loans.html

. . . a deal not offered to individual borrowers directly, to meet or beat such offer.

Distressed Oregonians ought to ask the Oregon Investment Council for advice on how to game the system like the big boys do it, and be able to play the game with them even if they are not public employees.

Alternatively: Oregon law should require that any legal claim made on any mortgage instrument must include evidence of a contemporaneous filing of any and all mortgage sales/transfers, including price and terms and parties, be made in county property records offices. This just adds transparency. Note holders could be given 90 days after enactment to make their filings, even though late.

Knowledge is a powerful tool.

Line from the story - "...depends on cars bringing tourists ..."

Whoa, hold up right there, we need to get rid of cars, just ask the whack jobs in Portland and other parts of the state. Guess Lincoln City is doomed ...

Just tram it to Lincoln City.

Native, you're right, cities that depend on tourists ferried by cars _are_ doomed.

That antique mall owner had it right even though he couldn't bring himself to admit what he clearly knows -- we're not going back to "business as usual." The price of oil that is needed to make it worth going after (north of $80) just happens to be a price that an economy built on nothing but consumption (i.e., ours) can't survive.

I didn't know there was a Lincoln City in Aregon.

George -
Peak oil stuff is a myth. My comment was tongue-in-cheek. While I agree an economy build on consumption can't last, I would disagree that our economy is that.