How 'Bout that Crossroads Mall?

I've been to Crossroads Mall and-- no, that's a lie. I've driven by Crossroads Mall many times and never gone in. Because there are few stores, bad selection, and it's in kinduva bad neighborhood (as bad as they get in Oklahoma City). It was failing even back before I moved to California as the anchor stores bailed one by one and the little shops followed. The shootings didn't help.

Why should you care? Oh. You own it.

That money was secured by a portfolio of Bear assets. Crossroads Mall is the only bricks and mortar acquired through bailout. The remaining billions are tied up in invisible securities spread across hundreds, if not thousands, of properties.

It is hard to be precise because the Fed has not published specifics on what it now owns. The only reason that Crossroads Mall has surfaced is that it went into foreclosure in April.

Noah Diggs, who had just successfully concluded a search for work here as a shop assistant, was surprised and somewhat alarmed to learn the U.S. central bank now owned the property.

"That is a bad thing, right?" he said, surveying the empty parking lot on a rainy morning in early October.

I think Doofus is getting the government he deserves.

Thanks to Jahiliyya.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 09:43 AM

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