Just because state and federal regulators reached a settlement with banks over foreclosure fraud – we think – doesn’t mean that the banks have rid themselves of their liabilities, even on these foreclosure fraud-related issues. A settlement cannot stop court rulings, to use one example. In Massachusetts, a new ruling by the state Supreme Court [...]

We’ve been hearing about a looming crisis in commercial real estate (CRE) for a while, which has already been the cause of dozens of community bank failures. With nearly half of CRE loans – as much as $700 billion – underwater, a wave of defaults can be expected. And yesterday offered the first indication that [...]

It was inevitable to be writing this story. The tales from Dubai, a city that seemed almost from another planet, from some cartoon sci-fi depiction of excess, grew more lurid with each passing year. They built a series of man-made islands into a scale map of the world. They built the world’s tallest man-made structure, [...]