I don't know how Casey Serin does it. Everyday, I promise myself that I will not look at his blog. However, at some point in the day, my fingers move faster than my brain, and I end up clicking on his link and having a quick look. He never disappoints; he always has some crazy story about some madcap financial wheeze.

One recent post absolutely blew me away. It concerned the foreclosure sale on his Larchmont property. According to Casey, he bought the property for $330,000 in March 2006, with 100 percent financing. Casey claims that the property was irresistible because he negotiated a $50,000 cashback. He wanted the money to “float other properties” that he was buying at the time.

Like all of Casey's real estate investments, this one went into foreclosure. Recently, the bank sold the property for $199,000, meaning that our friend Casey now owes the bank a cool $131,000. What is more, Casey has seven other real estate investments that probably lost a similar amount of cash.

It is worth stepping back from and thinking through what actually happened here. Casey went into a bank, probably misled the bank about his true financial status and walked out with $330,000. He then bought a house that was at least $50,000 overvalued at the time of sale. A year later, he loses the house, and stacked up a debt equivalent to almost 4 ½ times his previous annual income (Casey was earning around $30,000 before he became a property tycoon).

So who gained from this ridiculous enterprise? Top of the list comes the Realtor, who probably pulled out 6 percent of the sale value. The original owner of the house also did well; selling an asset for $270,000, when a year later it was only worth $199,000.

However, the bank shareholders were the big loser. The bank has no prospect of getting back the $131,000 it lost on this loan. That loss will mean a lower dividend for shareholders this year. However, there remains a mystery; why have bank shareholders been so quiet in the face of this overwhelming mismanagement of their assets? The bank management who presided over this loan transactions are totally incompetent. How could they have allowed someone like Casey could to walk into their bank and convince a loan officer to give him such a massive loan with 100% financing? If I were a shareholder, I would be outraged at this incredible misuse of my investment.

Over the last couple of months, Casey has been the subject of an extraordinary wave of abuse. However, Casey's financial idiocy could only have taken place because there were even greater finanial idiots out there - the banks and in particular, their loan officers. This explains why I keep coming back to his blog, I keep searching for the answer to the question how could anyone seriously give Casey a loan? Unfortunately, I haven't yet found the answer on his blog, so I keep coming back.