The Rain in Spain Something Something on the Debt-Ridded Homeless

I’m not quite sure what the Times means by “personal liability mortgages” in their fascinating story today on the insanity of foreclosures in Spain, because that phrase doesn’t really exist in English. But, yow, I did have no idea that repossession wasn’t the end of owing money on loans and mortgages, and that mortgage debt was excluded from bankruptcies in Spain. Maybe there are actually ways in which the U.S. looks out for individuals that is better for people than they way it is done in Europe! Huh. Still, it is hilarious to look back at this BusinessWeek article from 2007, which declares Europe’s mortgage and housing and banking industries to be sound and untouchable, while now we are talking about “Spain’s giddy real estate boom” and 1.4 million people there are facing foreclosure.