Kudos to Tom Sgouros for his fact-filled and very thoughtful commentaries on Ocean State matters in Rhode Island Policy Reporter. I especially like his comparative stuff with the rest of the country. The state looks at itself in a far too insular way --- more national context is needed.

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Will ordering the rejiggering of mortgages to help those facing foreclosure actually be illegal, and will it make things worse rather than better by discouraging banks, etc., from making residential mortgages and scaring away other mortgage investors?

Bill Frey, president of Greenwich Financial Services, and some other investment honchos, are challenging the legality of such curious reinterpretations of the sanctity of contracts.

See:

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2008/db2008121_173068.htm

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And readers might listen to this from Ben Fishel of Media Matters on radio talk shows:

http://clips.mediamatters.org/static/video/embed/radiomontage-20081113-2.mov