Our national psyche has been more thoroughly revealed over the past year or so, and it has been interesting to learn more about us. Before 2007, I was only vaguely aware of the term "schadenfreude", and I certainly didn't know how to spell it. I simply had no reason to use it, nor did I spend time with anybody who did. I still don't. But that is becoming harder and harder as more and more fingers are being pointed more furiously in various directions, and few people are willing to dig into their own pockets for a solution.

The comments on posts of mine that benefit from a wider audience (those posts that appear in Seeking Alpha email alerts, for example), have betrayed a broad streak of national schadenfreude in relation to this huge mess. The failure of the first "bailout" plan was due in part to many people in this country whose sense of justice was betrayed by a "bailout". It had nothing to do with a deep concern over creeping socialism, which seemed more relevant to me, but a simple need to see others struggle too.

I really don't believe for a second that schadenfreude is part our nation's fundamental character, but I do believe there were many, many people struggling for years through the "boom" times, and they bitterly resent the flippers, rehabbers, bankers and hedge fund managers who still manage to drive their leased Range Rovers to Starbucks.

The question I wonder about now is how much schadenfreude is enough, and I hope the answer will soon be that this much is enough. The title of this blog was meant to be funny, not real. I was never prophetic enough, sadly, to foresee the carnage that would occur in the REIT sector, particularly on Monday when some Apartment REITs were down 20% for no fundamental reason in just one day, after being cut in half or more over the past six months.

I am also all too painfully aware of what happened with Mortgage REITs. Some of these enterprises deserved to be put away and forgotten even before the credit crunch, but not all of them. In order to survey what was left (of what was left...), I went looking for a list of Mortgage REITs the other day so I could see, in one place, just how bad it was. Things have changed so much that most lists where full of bad links to bankrupt companies with newly non-existent websites. Error. Page Not Found.

So I made my own list and posted it here so you can see for yourself how bad it is.