Excellent post, Barry.  I think that it is a combination of the vast majority of abstractors "not getting it," and "not caring."  I am constantly amazed by how little most abstractors understand about this industry.  Most think they are well informed and educated... that is truly sad.

I'm smiling right now because most of those that read your post probably had to Google "CDO" just to try to figure out what you were talking about... then again, they probably didn't bother.

I definitely agree with you, though.  This problem is not going to go away anytime soon.  I think that the interest rate freeze will help somewhat - it may give people some breathing room and put off unaffordable rate changes until the market improves.  I think that the proposed changes to the bankruptcy code - allowing the court to modify the terms of mortgages - would be a welcome change, as well.  Even so, I think we are looking at mid-2009 before we really see strong signs of improvement.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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