Fed. Reserve: Flaws in Eminent Domain Mortgage Scheme

The people who are supposed to be helped have found assistance through normal, non-crazy means

A proposal that gained traction before dying in San Bernardino County, Calif., would have allowed the county to seize privately securitized mortgages to refinance them in an attempt to save underwater homeowners.

At least that's how the plan was pitched last year before it was extinguished by county officials. 

But a new blog from researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggests such a plan would have proved to be ineffective anyway. Their reasoning for this conclusion is that many of the targeted borrowers have already benefited from either falling interest rates, loan modifications or voluntary prepayments and foreclosures.