February 9, 2010

Mortgage Association Has Mortgage Problems

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The real estate situation is so bad, even the mortgage associations are having a hard time with their mortgages.

Last Friday, the Mortgage Bankers Association sold its $90 million headquarters—for $41 million.

As Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, mused to the Washington Post, “It’s a little bit of irony that in the middle of the mortgage crisis brought on by the bad lending practices of many members of the Mortgage Bankers Association that they got caught up in the same problem.”

I believe that’s what they call a taste of your own medicine.

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A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

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Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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