Category: Ecosystem

Prospero’s Europe: Part 1, Too broke to pay for fuel

5 February, 2013 (12:30) | Austerity, Economics, Ecosystem, EU, Eurozone, Greece, Spain |

By:David A. Smith   Illegal logging has surged in Greece as households suffering through three years of recession hoard wood to burn during cold winter days.   Though the body’s metabolism is not conscious, our cellular automata are rational: frostbite, gangrene, and starvation kill our extremities first, and the body lets them die to preserve [...]

A street at war: Part 2, after the City’s task force

1 February, 2013 (12:10) | Boston, Cities, Ecosystem, Foreclosure, Hendry Street, Homeownership, Housing, informality, Neighborhood, Rental, Subprime |

By:David A. Smith   [Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]   Yesterday’s post, using excellent gritty reporting from Globe reporters (Andrew Ryan, Meghan E. Irons, Akilah Johnson, Maria Cramer, and Jenna Russell) published in the Boston Globe (December 18, 2012), followed the timeline of Hendry Street (blue font) in Dorchester, one of Boston’s worst neighborhoods, in [...]

A street at war: Part 1, before the City’s task force

1 February, 2013 (12:07) | Boston, Cities, Ecosystem, Foreclosure, Hendry Street, Homeownership, Housing, informality, Neighborhood, Rental, Subprime |

By:David A. Smith   For years, if not decades, a siege war has been fought on Hendry Street in the Dorchester section of Boston.  Like most wars, this one is dominated by boredom punctuated by brief intervals of sheer terror, but unlike most wars, this one is was largely unreported until an enterprising team of [...]

Desperadoes: Part 2, why don’t you come to your senses?

30 November, 2012 (11:36) | Bankruptcy, Banks, Catalonia, deed-in-lieu, Ecosystem, Eurozone, Foreclosure, Global news, Homeownership, Markets, Restructuring, short sales, Spain, Workouts |

By:David A. Smith   [Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]   In yesterday’s post, which used an intriguing Wall Street Journal (November 11, 2012) article on the possibility that Spain will reform its antiquated and self-defeating mortgage-damnation system, we saw that under current Spanish law defaulting borrowers can never escape their debts, with destructive consequences that [...]

Desperadoes: Part 1, your pain and your hunger, drivin’ you home

29 November, 2012 (11:34) | Bankruptcy, Banks, Catalonia, deed-in-lieu, Ecosystem, Eurozone, Foreclosure, Global news, Homeownership, Markets, Restructuring, short sales, Spain, Workouts |

By:David A. Smith   When a system becomes swamped by the scale of failure, then its anachronisms become exposed and its previous protocols break down.  But what comes after, when the situation is desperate?    Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses? You been out ridin’ fences for so long now Oh, you’re a [...]