Everyone who's surprised, stand on your head

WSJ:

We have posted before on how obese women have a far harder time climbing the career ladder than their slimmer female counterparts, while men actually improve their chances of reaching the corner office when they gain weight.

Now, a new study goes a step further by showing that employers seem to treat women exactly the way the fashion industry does – by rewarding very thin women with higher pay, while penalizing average-weight women with smaller paychecks. Very thin men, on the other hand, tend to get paid less than male workers of average weight. Men earn more as they pack on the pounds – all the way to the point where they become obese, when the pay trend reverses.

Here is a picture of a yellow labrador playing with a dingo pup:

Foreclosure news

In foreclosure controversy, problems run deeper than flawed paperwork

Millions of U.S. mortgages have been shuttled around the global financial system - sold and resold by firms - without the documents that traditionally prove who legally owns the loans.

Now, as many of these loans have fallen into default and banks have sought to seize homes, judges around the country have increasingly ruled that lenders had no right to foreclose, because they lacked clear title.

For big banks, "there's a possible nightmare scenario here that no foreclosure is valid," said Nancy Bush, a banking analyst from NAB Research. If millions of foreclosures past and present were invalidated because of the way the hurried securitization process muddied the chain of ownership, banks could face lawsuits from homeowners and from investors who bought stakes in the mortgage securities - an expensive and potentially crippling proposition.

For the fragile housing market, already clogged with foreclosure cases, it could mean gridlock and confusion for years.

Bank changes locks on occupied, foreclosed homes

Two Canadian tourists returning to their rental home from a day at the beach found evidence burglars had struck -- or so it seemed.

Their laptop computer and MP3 player were missing, as were six bottles of wine. A half-empty beer opened by the intruders was still cold and sitting on the kitchen counter.

But why, then, had the locks on the front door been changed?

It turns out that a Sarasota company working for a lender trying to retake the property through foreclosure sent two men to the Punta Gorda home to break in and change the locks, even though the home was obviously occupied.

It is illegal for any bank representative to enter a property if they have not yet retaken it at a foreclosure sale, especially if there is any sign the home is occupied, foreclosure experts say.

The process of banks hiring people to break into homes, even when occupied, is just the latest oddity of the messy foreclosure crisis in Florida.

Ohio sues Ally Financial alleging fraud in foreclosures

Ohio state attorney general Richard Cordray is suing Ally Financial and its GMAC mortgage unit, alleging fraud in foreclosures across the state in what could be the first in a wave of lawsuits against the nation's largest lenders.

Cordray said the alleged fraud was the "tip of an iceberg of industrywide abuse of the foreclosure process" and is asking for civil penalties of up to $25,000 for every violation of consumer laws and for Ally to pay back losses to homeowners.

He has called for courts to freeze Ally foreclosures.