Just finished up my latest column for HousingWire. It's called Beyond Binary and in it editor Paul Jackson gives me free rein to make a fool of myself, if I choose to do so. I don't think I did with this latest column. I did ask some questions about how much transparency we all think we can handle.
President Obama made transparency one of the columns his platform rested on and has made a lot of progress in opening up the government for public inspection. We're not there yet, but in my column I talk about a recent survey where government officials think they are. That will be a problem.
When it comes to our industry, the problem won't have anything to do with technology. Of that much I'm sure. I spoke to Cy Brinn at Metavante, George Westmoreland at Fiserv and Sean Dugan at PCLender.com about the tools our industry uses to access data. Pretty powerful stuff. Pretty much if a lender or loan servicer doesn't provide information about its operation, it's because they don't want to, not because the technology makes it too difficult.
The column will appear in a future issue of HousingWire magazine. To learn more about the pub or to subscribe, see the company's website.