ebear, casey13
Excellent job of summarizing my thoughts on the matter.
At bare minimum, this will paralyze the toxic assets on the banks' and the U.S. Government's sheets. For an undetermined period.
This reminds me of the stories you hear of the housekeepers moving in and taking possession of your house in Mexico while you're away. Definitely banana republic.
It's not just on the consumer side that this problem exists.
The underlying asset could be a multi million dollar home, but if you can't establish and enforce clear title, is it really worth anything to anyone?
No. Its' mark-to market value is the amount of risk someone is willing to take to possess an unclear title. Right now, no one seems to be able to even measure that risk.
It's a multi-million dollar home that has no intrinsic value beyond the fact that it might be fine to live in.