Bono, HUD Secretary to share stage

It's not your imagination. U2 front man Bono is everywhere these days. So news that the rock star plans to attend the Mortgage Bankers Association's convention in Boston this fall probably won't raise even a single eyebrow.

Bono -- perhaps best known these days for browbeating world leaders into doing something about poverty and AIDS in Africa -- won't be performing at the MBA convention. He'll be delivering a sermon... I mean the keynote address.

Hmmm... suppose he'll touch on the problems in subprime lending? Or just deliver a standard "call to action" pitch to enlist support for his non-profit advocacy group, DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa)? It's easy to make fun of Bono's sunglasses, but the guy IS practically a saint.

The mortgage bankers are also planning to loosen their ties and rock out -- although Creedence Clearwater Revival without John Fogerty ("Creedence Clearwater Revisited") may only make some grind their teeth.

The "star-studded lineup" of featured speakers at the MBA convention also includes Richard Branson, George Foreman, Martin Short, Doug Duncan, and Alphonso Jackson. If you have accidentally landed on the Inman News blog for the first time, Duncan is the MBA's chief economist and Jackson is the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

That's Jackson pictured with Bono above. He may want to consider some flashier eye wear if he doesn't want to be upstaged.

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