In January the Massachusetts supreme judicial court held in US Bank National Association vs. Antonio Ibanez that a note holder may not foreclose on a property in order to redeem a debt, if they are not also the holder of a valid mortgage (that is to say also with a valid assignment). We outlined the details of this case and its implications in our article "Ibanez – Denying the Antecedent, Suppressing the Evidence and one big fat Red Herring" on January 11th, 2011.

2nd Sunday of Luke (2 Cor. 6:1-10, Luke 6:31-36)

Love of Enemies (Parallel Matt. 5:38-48)

Exactly one year ago, on September 28th, 2010 we purchased shares of Sanderson Farms for investors. Two days later we published our opinion on Amvona in our article "Can you say 'Chicken Feet' in Russian? The case of SAFM and PPC". Three days later SeekingAlpha published the article Here.

We thought we would take a look back at the thesis in that article, now that the period for short term capital gains tax has passed and examine how the issues performed against one another, but also against the benchmark S & P 500 (Alpha).

1st Sunday of Luke (2 Cor. 4:6-15, Luke 5:1-11)

Four Fisherman Called (Matt. 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20)

Sunday after Holy Cross (Gal. 2:16-20, Mk. 8:34-38; 9:1)

Jesus' explains the meaning of the cross in the life of the believer

Sunday before Holy Cross (Gal. 6:11-18, Jn. 3:13-17)

God's Gift to the World

12th Sunday of Matt. (1 Cor. 15:1-11, Matt. 19:16-26)

Moses the Prophet & Godseer

11th Sunday of Matt. (1 Cor. 9:2-12, Matt. 18:23-35)

St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians 3:4-11

11th Wed. after Pentecost (2 Cor. 3:4-11, Matt. 23:29-39)

The Life Giving Spirit

10th Sunday of Matt. (Matt. 17:14-23)

The Disciples Lack Faith

(Parallels Mk. 9:14-29; Lk 9:37-42)

On August 11th, 2010 we acquired shares of Western Digital Corp. for others accounts at $24.15 a share in the midst of tremendous pessimism about the storage industry.  On September 17th, 2010 we outlined a few simple views that brought about this decision and published our article “640K ought to be enough for anybody…” WDC vs. STX (we used prices as of Sept. 10th, 2010 for the purposes of the article, although the shares were actually purchased on August 11th, as noted in the article itself in reference to “early August”).  On October 1st, 2010 Seekingalpha also published the article here.

Is it ethical for the American homeowner whose mortgage has been securitized to default, even If they are not financially distressed?  

First, consider it is unlikely that marketable, fee simple, insurable title can be obtained as a result of fulfilling the obligations of the related promissory note.  On the contrary the titles to some 60 million homes in America are badly clouded.  Secondly, encouraging investment in an asset class that has been artificially inflated, then deliberately destroying the price of the asset, as part of a separate profit making scheme is unethical, and any agreement based on this type of fraud is grounds to consider the original debt instrument used in the agreement null and void.  Fortunately these grounds are unnecessary, as increasingly US courts are ruling that these mortgages are already invalid for numerous other reasons.