By 12am tomorrow any hedge fond must declare all purposes and naked sales are prohibited then.

Ok, so that's not as liquid as I'd like it to be, but I've been preparing for the inflation to come..I've been following the markets, and stayed informed as we probably all do, as investors...Look, what is the difference between GM declaring BK today (and losing assets) than me, losing an asset, or two, (my properties).

That isn't difficult to do, as he did( it was in SF where he accepted the challenge to buy with no money down and bought 4 or 5 overpriced condos) but the trouble started 30 days later when he had to make the first mortgage payment on those alligators, Maybe that wasn't the greatest plan, as evidenced by how many people couldn't service the debts, lost the properties to foreclosure and declared BK, as did Robert Allen.

(A scarcity of buyers who can close quickly would drive price down, but no such scarcity seems to exist.)If there's just an "unspoken agreement" amongst investors (de facto price-fixing) that nobody will offer more than $60K for such a house, then wouldn't somebody who isn't looking primarily for a profit (such as a homeowner seeking to minimise the cost of buying their own home) wake up to this, and try and muscle in and buy the same house for $80K?

Damage is bad but could be much worse considering the other two properties attached (Row houses) are declared condemned termporarily.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.Thomas Jefferson - The Declaration of Independence

Well, who was in a position to declare such a shortgage?

The Declaration of Independence was just a piece of paper without the guns behind it.

Here is part of the Declaration of Independence, which, by the way, is NOT law.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Well at least they didn't declare "mission accomplished" before pumping gazillions more in war funding... ;)