I was perusing some archived records on the ALTA website, which contain historical issues of Title News, the publication issued by the American Land Title Association. The website offers public access to these publications going back to 1998. If you have ever asked yourself the question "How did the title insurance industry go from being a venerable force in the real estate market to being the sidekick of realtors, lenders and brokers?"- this is a good place to start.

It is interesting to note the sheer volume of articles in the Title News issues from the late 90's and early 2000's singing the praises of MERS. Of course, this isn't surprising given the financial stake ALTA had in the success of MERS. However, given the legal mess that MERS has created with its contributions to the shoddy observance of foreclosure procedures, forged signatures and disregard for basic tenets of unity of title, the following article elicited a reaction from me somewhere between laughing out loud and despondence. As a teaser, the article contains the following:

http://www.alta.org/publications/titlenews/99/9904_05.cfm

So there you have it. Let's all celebrate our good fortune!