Gonzalo Liara has had a couple excellent articles up that makes clear the seriousness of the mortgage foreclosure crisis.  The crisis potentially creates an existential crisis for the banking industry and our whole rotten economic system.

Last Friday, Bank of America announced that it was suspending all foreclosure proceedings, presumably until further notice. Other banks have already suspended foreclosures in a whole truckload of states. A nationwide moratorium on foreclosures might soon happen-which would be a big deal: Global Financial Crisis, Part II-Longer, Wider and Uncut.

As a civilization, we now stand on the edge of a precipice. One could easily name a hundred concurrent crises that, even by themselves would have posed a serious, generation-defining predicament, but combined, they seem like the perfect storm to bring about an unprecedented paradigm shift. Peak oil, the ticking commercial real estate time bomb, global warming, a rapidly declining honeybee populations, the decline of the Ogalla Aquifer, our interminable wars of imperialism, the skyrocketing national debt, the Eurozone facing collapse, oceans that are on the verge of death from over-fishing and pollution, one could go on and on.

As the current order of things fades into the sunset, it is our duty to create a whole new world. A world where humanity seeks to live in harmony with itself and the rest of the planet. A world that is sustainable. A world that recognizes that we are all part of the same whole. A world of mutual respect and cooperation. A world where humanity serves as a steward, rather than an exploiter of nature.