Thank you for airing the follow-up story to the crash in April that killed a mom and her daughters Courtney and Sophia.  I was one of the people who simply moved on.  Yes, it's sad that a 3-time offender killed three innocent people, but I felt that if I grieved for every death I heard about on the news, I'd be in mourning for a long time.

I actually cried after the newscast was done.  The only time I've ever done that was following "Heroin in the Suburbs" when I saw a girl my age lying in a coffin with her baby doll by her head.

What made it for me was the baby feet . . . I still tear up when I think about them.  Doctors reportedly made imprints of Sophia's feet following the crash--Sophia was the unborn baby--and the dad had three of them tatooed on his arm; one for each of the lives lost.

It's so easy to forget and move on.  It's so easy to whine and complain about our seemingly nonexistent bills and restrictions on drunk driving.

I just wish there was something we could do about it . . . what can be an hour of sadness for us can be a lifetime of grief for someone else.  I usually end my posts on a positive note but it's hard to find anything good about this situation: destroyed families, a saddened community, and bills and resolutions that seem doomed to idle in Congress for . . . months, years, decades.  Something has to change and it has to change soon . . . pray to God it doesn't take many (if any) more deaths before a change for the better occurs.

A New Zealand judge recently made a nine year old child a ward of th ecourt so that she could CHANGE HER NAME.  What was her name?  "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii."

Apparently parents in New Zealand are getting a little too creative with their baby names, and officials are apparently finding themselves having to block some of the more bizarre choices parents have made, such as "Sex Fruit", "Keenan Got Lucky", and "Yeah Detroit".

Now we have plenty of examples of irresponsible parenting here in the United States, and even in Southeastern Wosconsin.  It really bugs me as a teacher when I get the children of one of these irresponsible parents and the parent works against the school and it's mission of educating their children. 

As a local talk radio host says: you need a license to fish but apparently anyone can have a baby.

Read the whole article here.

What is so good about turning 18? Nothing really I still do the same things that i was doing when i was 17 and even 16....i wanna go get my L's..and i know i need to get me a state id but what changes? Nothing but more responsibility WAHT DO YOU THINK?

As the end of my summer is quickly approaching, I've realized that more than ever I am ready to get back to school. I guess I'll factor in the stuff thats happened this summer and I've most definatley have had my fair share of my family - seeing as my brother and sister-in-law (and their two kids) just moved into what used to be just my mother and I. Its definatley a change, and one I really havent been used to.

I am ready to go back up to school and be on my own again. Do things on my time, instead of scheduling my day around everyone else. As much as I love my family, Im ready to jetset to Marquette and finish off this degree of mine (ONLY a few more months and I'll be walking down the stage with a degree in my hand.)

On the other hand, Im sad, cause I absolutley love working and is a passion of mine and with school and other activities that I am involved in, this isnt really allowed in my time slot when Im up at school, tho it can be extremely relaxing. So I am most definatley going to miss this internship, which has taught me so much, and made me learn so many things.

OK, but anyways, I feel like I really am just blabbing about nothing because IVE been so overtired, So Im going to finish up the last few things here and eventually head on out around 4. THEN its nap time for this one...a very much needed nap by the way.

WHO doesnt love naps?

For over a year now I have amassed nearly a ream of paper that is faxed advertisings from many different places.  These advertisments were  faxed  to my fax maching from places that do not include the fax number they are faxing from, nor do they include the name of their company!  I have to ask, is there some deception going on with this?  Is what they are doing in violation of some law?  Without my permission they have used up my paper and my ink, not to mention the telephone call to my fax!  Their advertisment  is costing me!    Is there anyone else who has a problem with this? I cannot afford to pay for their advertisments.   I did not ask these places to fax me anything, nor would I consider something from this type  of their advertisement anyway. These faxed  advertisments are for trips to Cancun or Orlando and other vacation packages. Some are from health care  companies and finance companies.   Each fax states you can call a separate number to have your fax number removed from their list.  I tried that but the faxes keep coming.  I called the number on the Cancun fax that just came in and the young man answering was hesitant when I asked what the company name is. He said Choose Cancun but was not friendly about it. After another questions,  the young man  abruptly hung up.  Is this the new telemarketing?

For the past 3-to-4 days, there has been not just one, but two gangs lurking around hiding in the 91ST, 95TH, and 96TH Street Blocks of West Brown Deer Road. The two gangs are the Meadows Boys and the Burleigh Boys (also known as the Burleigh Zoo).

Two nights ago, my sister told my mom and my mom told me that there was a shooting in the back area where the basketball courts are at and Woodlands Security and the K-9 Unit were called to some drama that was taken place that started in the first parking lot of the Woodlands Condominiums on North 91ST Street which probably then was led to the basketball courts back area.

This same week, it was brought to my attention that any of the North Meadows apartments on the main street of Brown Deer Road next to the Kwik Pantry corner store, someone or some people of a gang had shotgun rifle and who knows what else is being held between these two gangs. It's not known whether if it's just gang related, drug and drug money related, or anything other suspicious criminal activity.

Just last night (on Wednesday) after 10:00PM as I was going home and getting dropped off, my mom came back home and she told me this morning as I am here telling you this now that there was so many unknown cars in the parking lot she lives in and it mostly all had to do with all the stuff that was going on. What makes matters worse is that the back alley way which is a shortcut to lead you to the main street of Brown Deer Road can't even be walked through to go to the corner store or the gas station or even get through to go to the bus stop safely without someone or some people in one of the two or both gangs hanging around in the Historic Granville Neighborhood between 91ST through 96TH Streets hearing from other people who live in the neighborhood saying that "Anyone who walks through the back alley way will be shot" and that even means little kids as well.

Neighborhood residents have had just about enough of all they can take with all this drug and gang business here in Milwaukee including those who've been living in Historic Granville Neighborhood for a long time. The Mayor, the Police Chief, the Police Captains and Officers MPD District 4 and District 5, MPD S.W.A.T., K-9 Units, U.S. Marshals, F.B.I., ATF, DEA, and all other law enforcements will have their hands full trying to take down two gangs in one or two different neighborhoods whether if it's the deep inner North Side of Burleigh Street or right in Historic Granville Neighborhood off of Brown Deer Road, it's about time for another neighborhood or neighborhoods to be taken by the residents and their police districts so that neighborhood residents can go back to living peaceful and quiet lives without gangs running around causing harm and danger to random people.

I've done my research and it looks like other myfox websites don't have a problem with reporters and anchors responding to their blogs. Heck a lot of them have full conversations with users and reply multiple times. What's going on with FOX 6? Yes you guys do blog, but you never come back to them. This is a big blogging no no. It's actually kinda rude.

I like watching FOX 6 and you guys are really great at what you do, I'm just asking for you guys to join us lowly viewers in some debating. Hopefully this doesn't get deleted... 

Mother, 53, Kills Self Before Foreclosure

 

 AP Posted: 2008-07-23 17:45:06 Filed Under: Mortgages

 

TAUNTON, Mass. (July 23) - A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself soon after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house that day, she would be dead.
Police in Taunton said Carlene Balderrama used her husband's high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m.

The mortgage company called police, who found Balderrama's body at 3:30 p.m. in her brown-shingled raised ranch house. The auction was scheduled to start at 5 p.m. and interested buyers arrived at the property in Taunton, about 35 miles south of Boston, while Balderrama's body was still inside, according to police chief Raymond O'Berg.

Police did not immediately release the name of the mortgage company. O'Berg said Balderrama's fax read, in part, "By the time you foreclose on my house I'll be dead."

O'Berg also said a suicide note found next to Balderrama told her husband, John, and 24-year-old son to "take the (life) insurance money and pay for the house."

Joe Whitney, who works with Balderrama's husband, a plumber, said Balderrama handled the bills and her husband didn't know about the foreclosure.

"John didn't even know about it, that's the surprise," Whitney said told The Boston Globe. "It's just one of those awful, awful tragic events."

Neighbors on this forested side street said the family had lived in the two-story, brown-shingled, raised ranch for about four years.

Noreen Mendes, who lived about four houses down the street from Balderrama, said she often stopped and chatted with her. Mendes said Balderrama never mentioned any financial problems, but often spoke about repairs the family was making to their house. Two weeks ago, a contractor came to the house to give Balderrma an estimate on a roof replacement, Mendes said.

"She was just so sweet, so nice. I never realized she had any problems, so it is just shocking," Mendes said.

warning:must feature for all female bloggers to read and repsond to.  vital information.  only female bloggers respond to this blog.

how many of you bloggers watched oprah today?  her show was about spousal rape.  let me tell all of you bloggers that this show is an eye-opener.  this is a very serious show that all of you female bloggers should have been watching. 

the first lady that oprah had on the show told her about her ordeal when she ws married.  she was raped and sodemized by her own husband.  he is up for parole as of 2019.  if you ever saw the show today, and saw the pictures of what happened to her.  you'ld be shocked and mortified.  thank god she did report her husband to the police.  while the husband was still sleeping, she escaped through a window.  her ex-husband was verbally abusive toward her as well.  she was explaining what happened was very shocking.  this guy would punch her, make her perform sexual acts that she did not want to do, and rape her.  he even said horrible things like how does it feel to be used and other things.  the lady in the first story said to oprah that she was laying on the bed and her ex would force himself on top of her.  he would put the sofa in front of the front door and the dryer at the back door, and he told her that no one is going to save her.  before that she was dragged outside and screaming for help.  he said to her that he would have the opportunity to kill her outside or in the house.

the second lady,who was a deuputy police officer, that oprah had on the show today, told her what happened to her.  she told oprah that she was raped by her ex-husband as well.  she was having arguments with him over a single subject-sex.  her husband was good at manipulating her.  he would ask her to have sex with him and she said no.  one night her ex tried to kill himself, by holding a knife to his neck crying and saying that he would kill himself because she would not have sex with him.  she got him to calm down and both of them went into the bedroom.  on the program, she told oprah that wa when he forced her to have sex with him.  he would tell her that she doesn't love him because she would not have the sexual contact with him.  one night she came home from work, her ex was hiding under the steps of her home.  down the road from her home, the ex forced her into his car and drove her to a small town in colorado and raped her.  this guy was even carring a gun.  she was even carring a restraining order paper in hand.  in court, one of her kids at the sentencing hearing said that what happened to her mom was horrible and if she would ever see him, she would fear for her own life.  this lady was doing the right thing by changing the locks on her house.  the ex husband was sentenced to prison for life.  she did not report it the first time because she was in denial.

the prosecutor that was on toward the end of the show told oprah that there are some tings that victims of spousal rape should do and they are the following:

(***)keep a journal

(***)go to the hopsital and have a rape kit collect evidence

(***)go to the police

(***)get a restraining order

(***)tell someone

...and i can also down a Box of Lucky Charms in a half/hour sitting.

I'm Proud of it too!!!!!!!

So Take pride in over-eating or piggin' out...........on occasion.

Pea--<>-----ccceeeeee

.....(excuse me)

Here in Wisconsin, namely Milwaukee we have one person on the South Side that is selling "International Drivers Licenses" .

I know that there are persons being scammed by this guy, and really what about the laws regarding “shady business practices”? How can this guy practice unimpeded by law enforcement? I am all for the start up businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit but to take advantage of persons when they are already possibly having problems with the law with being illegal aliens; it has been reported that Credenciales USA is providing these ID’s to persons that may not otherwise be eligible for identification yet he stated in the Fox 6 interview that he is NOT doing that, why then are the South Side Coalition against him? Why has Voces run a front page article about this not being legitimate?

Another story regarding Identity Theft Protection; in recent weeks more customers of Lifelock are fighting back against misleading statements made by the company as well as Their $1 million guarantee that is not paid to the customer.

It is amazing to me that in this day and age that a company can and does basically scam the common man, and we have businesses here in Wisconsin that help them by promoting Lifelock I wonder if that means that they are endorsing Lifelock business practices?

I know that an individual can perform the same thing as Lifelock, and they are “promoting” a service much like taking your car in for an oil change, you CAN do it yourself but don’t want the hassles.

Realistically you as well as I have to read the fine print, what can any business do for you that you can not do yourself? What is more feasible for your life?

I have spoken to the attorney leading the Class Action Law suites against Lifelock, and he has approved my giving his information out to potential victims/subscribers to Lifelock for possibly starting a class action suit in Wisconsin.  This firm is not in any way associated with Pre-Paid Legal, I am just trying to help persons that feel they need the information.  http://www.lifelockclassaction.com/

If you interested in getting help with protecting your Identity feel free to visit my website for more information on that. http://geocities.com/debberchem@sbcglobal.net/<
/p>

 

 

I understand the purpose of a wheel tax to improve and maintain the roads, but isn't it a shame there is no way to recoup a wheel tax from the commuters that travel to Milwaukee everyday, add to the destruction of the roads, and then go back to their sububan homes untaxed for their contribution towards wearing down the roads?

I have officially had it with where I live at. There is nothing for me to do and not enough space for me to walk around in my own house. Not only that, the only thing people that live over where I live at like to do is stay outside and get posted (meaning stay in one spot in the same area) everyday and smoke, start trouble and cause a scene, and get loud in the building arguing with people they don't know, and ETC... That is something I cannot continue to be around of and let something bad happen to me, because many of the people where I live at don't have a life and they figure that they can just live off of getting money by selling drugs or getting money from their baby-mamma or baby-daddy, or whatever the situation is or the case may be.

Stuff like that has been going on every since I moved where I am at now till this day and I don't want to be over there anymore and I'm having some thoughts in moving again, but away from the North Side and far away from the North Side as possible.

I have two options:

Option 1: I've been thinking about other apartments on other sides of town like the Downtown, Greenfield, Oak Creek, Wauwatosa, West Allis, or West Milwaukee.

Option 2: If I don't find what I am looking for in a good and decent nice apartment in any of those areas, then my other option is to move and leave Milwaukee and I have Bloomington - Minneapolis / St. Paul (Minnesota) in my mind, Madison (Wisconsin), Waukesha (Wisconsin), Waukegan / Gurnee (Illinois) (on the border line between Illinois-Wisconsin State Line), or Chicago (Illinois).

I feel that If I just move to any of those locations for either options, I know I can fully get myself together with everything, otherwise if I stay where I am at, I feel I will still be in the middle zone and I want go from the middle zone to the high zone. Moving elsewhere is just the best option for me

PAID SICK DAYS

Ask anyone who owns a business in Milwaukee...the City of Milwaukee has created a hostile business environment and continues to drive nails in the "economic suicide" coffin for small businesses located or considering locating in Milwaukee.  On the one hand city leadership cries for jobs, jobs, and more jobs.  Then they come to you and do everything in their power to dissuade you from doing business in Milwaukee.  They want to approve your business plan like they've loaned you money or something.  They want to tell you that you need a fence here and a bush there.  Now they want to require me to provide benefits to employees that I and many other business owners simply cannot afford to provide.  To quote Ross Perot, "If this passes your going to hear a giant sucking sound and that'll be your jobs leaving (Milwaukee)."  It makes my blood boil to think about it!  People who have never run a business, and have no clue what it takes to run a business, think the more they interfere with business the more business will thrive.  What's worse, even though it's only a vote to send the question to referendum, it's expected to pass and face a challenge in court.  Is this a wise use of taxpayer's money?  To pass ordinances that they know or at least suspect might be unconstitutional and will have to be defended in court at taxpayer's expense?  The last time I can remember the City of Milwaukee being hauled into court for violating constitutional rights they settled out of court for $6,000,000.00 (that's six million dollars friends).  Things weren't even this bad for local businesses when the elected mayor was a socialist!  He was also a businessman, and as a businessman knew that the running of the city was a business.  City hall needs to wake up and realize that they are driving jobs and business away from Milwaukee!

First I would like to say it is awful what happened to Lauren, I wont attempt to spell her last name.

Here is the problem I had with the story.  In the segment it was said the "Hollywood movie that glorifies serial killers."  Did the person that wrote that piece even watch the movie to make that statement?
 Yes there was a ton of killing, but guess what, it was about how the media glorifies serial killers and violence in general, how over the top their reporting is.
I found it rather ironic actually.


 

Well here we go again, I can only say, "only in Milwaukee". Across this country American people are dealing with high fuel costs, and sacrificing, to make there dollars stretch, so only in Milwaukee could the arrogance of a Milwaukee County Supervisor come up with, we the tax payers, should be paying her a $300.00 a month allowance so she can fill her car so she can do her job, like I said, only in Milwaukee. Then we also learn that some of our aldermen are already receiving a allowance for there fuel costs. Well Milwaukee, you voted them in office, and this is what you get.  It's the same old, do as I say, not as I do. .We are suppose to pay for our government officials fuel costs, while you and I are suppose to use bus's, and trains. I still say Government officials like this should also be made to take public transportation, after all, they are working for the public, why should we sacrifice, while they live high off the tax payers back. I would tell Milwaukee voters to remember this supervisor the next time she is up for election, yet you know the Milwaukee voter, they are rather, well how do I say this, stupid, they did vote this County Supervisor into office, didn't they? if you see the interview, you see the smugness in her idea. You asked for it, you got it Milwaukee, LOL, we have become such a joke.

Did you see my story Monday on County Supervisor Elizabeth Coggs' proposal to give supervisors a $300 a month "transportation allowance"?  Her proposal cited the growing districts they manage and of course, the growing gas prices.  In our interview she also pointed out that board members have not had a raise since 2000.  But here's the thing, Coggs only lives a few miles from the courthouse and when asked how many miles she does rack up a month, she didn't even know. 

$300 is a lot of money per month, considering they don't even keep track of their mileage.   HOWEVER-- She also pointed out that Milwaukee aldermen do get a "transportation allowance" of $337 a month.  They also make close to $23,000 a year more than county supervisors.

So what do you think?  Do the supervisors deserve a transportation allowance?  What about mileage reimbursement?  Or are they just up a creek like the rest of us?

Whew... sure, Starbucks is closing 600 stores nationwide, but residents of southeastern Wisconsin can breathe a collective grande-iced-nonfat-no whip-sugar free french vanilla-latte sigh of relief.

None of the 600 stores are in southeastern Wisconsin.

See the complete list here... and lift your mug with me! CHEERS.

There was a critique of the latest UN Report on Climate change that has received little to no attention.   This isn't all that suprising given that most of the mainstream media has been  following Mr. Obama around the Middle East like lost puppies.

Abstract The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) concluded that anthropogenic CO₂ emissions probably caused more than half of the “global warming” of the past 50 years and would cause further rapid warming. However, global mean surface temperature has not risen since 1998 and may have fallen since late 2001. The present analysis suggests that the failure of the IPCC’s models to predict this and many other climatic phenomena arises from defects in its evaluation of the three factors whose product is climate sensitivity:

 

1. Radiative forcing ?F;
2. The no-feedbacks climate sensitivity parameter ?; and
3. The feedback multiplier ƒ.

Some reasons why the IPCC’s estimates may be excessive and unsafe are explained. More importantly, the conclusion is that, perhaps, there is no “climate crisis”, and that currently-fashionable efforts by governments to reduce anthropogenic CO₂ emissions are pointless, may be ill-conceived, and could even be harmful.

 

 

In a posting to the APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,"There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution."

WHERE'S AL GORE WHEN YOU NEED HIM?????

 You can read the enire article (it is pretty scientific) @ http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/200807/monc
kton.cfm

 

 

 

About two weeks ago, in response to the increased pressure on the American economy, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a ruling against Moody's, Standard and Poor's, and Fitch Rating Service (the three recognized security credit rating agencies) for essentially not properly rating certain securities that proved to have insufficient credit worthiness then the initial rating given by those agencies. In the archaic language, the SEC essentially said that Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) were not properly rated by the credit agencies, and because of this improper rating, investors lost millions when the real estate market crashed. Now, I don't fully understand how it is Moody's, Standard and Poor's, and Fitch Rating's fault that the real estate market crashed, but I do understand that the SEC implicitly admitted that it doesn't understand a large group of securities that have been around since 1977. And that is a major problem that I would love to see corrected, but probably never will. But since I have a captive audience reading this post, I thought I'd clear up some misconceptions.

To understand CDOs, one must first understand the concept of mortgage backed securities as well as the concept of junk bonds (high-yield debt), for each influences the other in the market. A mortgage backed security is any type of security (bond, equity, etc.) that is created through money from the common American mortgage. For example, I can walk into US Bank tomorrow and apply for a home loan to purchase a piece of property at $500,000 (I wish I could do that right now, unfortunately I cannot), upon receipt of the terms of the loan (30 years at some interest rate, I'll pick 5% as my rate for ease of math) I buy my property and essentially pledge the property as collateral against my loan. If I default on my loan, the bank can repossess my property and sell it to recover some part of their money. If I continue to make minimum payments, the bank will receive the money in 30 years, plus interest. Or I could win the lottery and pay the loan off in full immediately (prepayment). Every American should understand that part of mortgage backed securities, the concept of the home loan. What most Americans do not understand is that as soon as I sign the paperwork with Mr. Smith my mortgage lender at US Bank, Mr. Smith can turn around and sell my loan to another party. US Bank is not obligated to maintain control over the mortgage note, nor is the bank obligated to inform me of any packaging of my loans with others to sell. What Mr. Smith does at most savings and loans is to turn around and sell my $500,000/30year/5% loan to an interbroker dealer, or more likely, directly to Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley is where the mortgage backed security is created, as they package several different loans together into a bond, and sell that bond to insurance companies, retirement accounts, or mutual funds. So my check to US Bank to pay my mortgage actually gets routed to whoever owns the bond attached to my loan through Morgan Stanley, maybe even my own retirement account or my insurer. So the first thing to understand is that mortgages in this country are not owned by the banks that lent the money, but by other institutional investors who are buying large swaths of mortgages through bonds.

The other concept is high-yield debt, or junk bonds. These pesky little devices have been around for a long time, but reached their zenith in the roaring 80s on Wall Street, popularized by Michael Milken. Junk bonds are bonds issued by a company that receive no credit rating from Fitch's, Moody's, and Standard and Poor's. In other words, companies that are unlikely to repay the debt incurred from the bond issuance receive a rating that turns their bonds into junk bonds, or high yield debt (so called because the bonds pay their investors a larger interest rate to compensate for the riskiness of the investment). It is important to understand that the credit agencies make their initial ratings of both equity and bond issuance based on past performance of the company. What Milken and others discovered is that the credit agencies have a flawed system of assigning risk to bond issuance, and that junk bonds, due to their higher coupon, can outperform almost any other type of bond in the market, with one notable exception (which we'll get to). What the junk bond market created in this country is an over-reliance on debt as a means to control the market. Junk bonds were generated billions of dollars through the 80s as companies pursued risk through heavy borrowing, leveraging their equity to the maximum. The American economy used to have a reliance on large companies that possessed great cash reserves and a high equity to debt ratio. When junk bonds took off, companies began to buy into a gospel of debt as better than equity, which led companies to reverse the debt to equity ratio, and go into heavy debt. The supposed benefit of high debt is that companies are forced to "cut the fat" to meet debt service. In reality, what happened is that a small group of people (Bruce Wasserstein, Joseph Perella, Henry Kravis, George Roberts, Ted Forstmann) made money through mergers and acquisitions, and a large group of people (America) got to watch this largess with no benefit to ourselves. The credit agencies couldn't do anything about the massive amount of leveraging, as the increased debt must drive down the credit rating of the bond issuance. The credit agencies were put in a bind as billions were made (Milken himself made $2.1 billion through junk bonds) but they couldn't issue different ratings, as that would throw off their entire system of credit worthiness. And when the junk bond market went through one of its occasional crashes, the SEC didn't fine or judge the credit agencies, it probably applauded them for making an accurate credit assessment, even though Milken and men of his ilk proved that the credit rating system is flawed with regards to junk bonds.

Understanding both mortgage backed securities (your home loan payment is not going to a bank, but to a German investor) and high yield debt (bonds that have zero credit rating through a flawed system) leads to an understanding of CDOs. The bond that can outperform junk in the long run is a mortgage bond, but that mortgage bond needs to have a definite maturity and a large enough package of loans underpinning it to perform better with a lower coupon than a junk bond. Hence, the creation of the first type of CDO, the collateralized mortgage obligation, or CMO. You create a CMO by taking hundreds of millions of dollars of mortgage bonds and pile them all up into a trust. The trust pays a rate of interest to its investors, and the investors received a certificate of ownership. The certificates of ownership were each different according to the dictates of the investor and the trust. Take a $300 million CMO. The CMO is sliced into three $100 million tranches. Investors in each tranche receives interest payments from the trust, but the owners of the first tranche receive all principal repayments from all $300 million held in the trust. Not until first tranche investors are paid off do second tranche investors receive a single principal repayment. And not until first and second tranche investors are paid off do third tranche investors receive a principal repayment. This concept lengthens the the third tranche and shortens the first tranche in the CMO, and because of the amount of loans and bonds shoved together, this trust performs better than the junk bond. But the thing is, the CMO can be made out of any mortgage bond and can be created to do different things. An investment bank can buy and create a CMO using the interest payments of a group of condos in downtown Chicago and the principal payments of homes in the Fox Valley, and call it the South Side Bratwurst bond. A CDO is merely an extension of this concept to any security created using another security as collateral. The book definition of CDO is a corporate entity (trust) created to hold assets as collateral (mortgage bonds, or real estate itself) and sell packages (tranches) of cash flows to investors. The CMO was the first type of security created like this, the CDO is the most recent offspring that encompasses all types of entities with collateralized debt. So, taking the CMO example above, and instead of having the loans underpinning the bonds which underpin the CMO, insert the actual condos and the actual houses as the collateral underpinning the CDO.

And therein lies the problem of blaming the credit agencies for not accurately assessing the credit worthiness of the CDO market. If the security itself is backed by actual homes and home loans, what is an analyst at Moody's supposed to do? Let's say you work for Moody's and have been asked to assess the South Side Bratwurst CDO. Should you fly to Chicago and look at the condos and ask the residents if they plan an living there for 30 years or will they pay off their loans? Should you drive to Appleton to look at the housing subdivision to see if the homes are a good credit risk? Of course the credit agencies cannot go around the country looking at the real estate that comprises a CDO. So to punish them makes no sense. Especially since no news agency is going around interviewing the people who created this mess, the investment banks. Instead of looking at Morgan Stanley, First Boston, Shearson Lehman, Goldman Sachs, and the rest, the SEC is blaming the credit agencies. What we need is an aggressive look into the complicated world of CDOs and other mortgage backed securities. What we don't need is a "cased closed" attitude because we slapped the credit agencies on the wrist.