Your Mouth to God's Ear, Mr. Senator

Jeff Merkly (D-OR) has submitted a bill that would fine any company that owns more than 100 single family homes.

It is an attempt to get Wall Street and hedge funds out of the landlord business.

It's nice that he is looking at resolving this problem, but the bill as I understand it would not do so, because of corporate shell games that these organizations routinely play.

Splitting their businesses into a plethora of corporations and LLCs for tax and regulatory purposes is already routine in the business:

As millions of Americans struggle to afford rent and mortgage rates, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley on Wednesday unveiled legislation intended to stop major Wall Street investors and hedge fund predators from continuing to exacerbate the nation's housing crisis.

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Merkley's End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act aims to prevent rich investors from taking advantage of renters and limiting homeownership by creating a $20,000 federal tax penalty for each single-family home owned in excess of 100--money that would go toward helping first-time homebuyers with down payments.

"Following the 2008 housing crisis, large private equity hedge funds bought large portfolios of foreclosed homes," notes a fact sheet from his office. "Regrettably, the federal government enabled this growth through bulk sales of federally-backed mortgages and foreclosed properties."

"While some of our housing challenges, including a supply shortage, will take years to remedy," the document states, "others can be addressed immediately, including a strong ban on hedge funds owning and controlling large parts of the American housing market."

Even implementation of Merkley's plan would take some time, given how much housing is already owned by Wall Street. Recognizing the need for "an orderly exit from the housing investment market," the bill would allow for sales over the next several years.

The devil on these sorts of things is always in the details.

Also, limiting this to single family homes ignores the huge number of renters who live in duplexes, apartment complexes, and town-houses.

Still, it's a good start.