foreclosures

Don’t Know Who Offends Me More, Blitzer or Trump

WASHINGTON - One of Donald Trump's many business interests - his casino company in Atlantic City, NJ - is going belly-up. Bankrupt. Out-o-cash. But, he's assured us all during a lengthy segment on the CNN Wolf Blitzer show that he is more than OK. His other business interests have plenty of cash on hand, Trump told Blitzer. Huh?

Posted in financial crisis, foreclosures, healthcare, housing

Foreclosures Hit Home: A Microcosm of America’s Mortgage Crisis

On January 20th, John Marshall* joined the ranks of US homeowners who have foreclosed on their homes. The thirty-year old African-American is struggling to make sense of his surreal situation.

Posted in foreclosures

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 11, 2009
2:00 PM

CONTACT: Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Nathan White (202)225-5871

Kucinich: 'Keep People in Their Homes, the Banks Will Get Their Money as Well'

WASHINGTON - February 11 - Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement on the ongoing foreclosure crisis:

"According to today's Wall Street Journal, Moody's economy.com claims that nearly five million families could lose their homes to foreclosure between 2009 and 2011. Now is the time for our government to take a controlling interest in mortgage-backed securities and then direct loan modification, lowering principle and interest rates, extending terms of payments and keeping people in their homes.

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Posted in Economy/Trade, foreclosures

Facing Foreclosure? Don't Leave. Squat

Marcy Kaptur of Ohio is the longest-serving Democratic congresswoman in U.S. history. Her district, stretching along the shore of Lake Erie from west of Cleveland to Toledo, faces an epidemic of home foreclosures and 11.5 percent unemployment. That heartland region, the Rust Belt, had its heart torn out by the North American Free Trade Agreement, with shuttered factories and struggling family farms. Kaptur led the fight in Congress against NAFTA. Now, she is recommending a radical foreclosure solution from the floor of the U.S.

Posted in direct action, foreclosures

In the Week of the Economic Circus: Which Way Recovery?

In the old days, circuses were known for three rings and a side show. The economic debate that got underway this week feels a bit like that. It began in earnest just as police in Los Angeles announced the dramatic killing of five members of a family by a man distraught after losing his job. Rest assured: the cavalcade of economic crisis-linked suicides and murders is just beginning.

Posted in civil disobedience, financial crisis, foreclosures

Communities Foreclosed

As soon as he told her they wouldn't be able to pay the mortgage, Ruben Loera's wife's heart clenched. She started packing away the angels and pulling down the paintings. Five months later and one step away from foreclosure, half-empty boxes are piled in a corner of the living room in their home in Maryvale, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.

Posted in financial crisis, foreclosures

Right to Rent: Helping Homeowners Without Throwing Money at Banks

We got into the current economic crisis because many very smart people with outstanding credentials were unable to use simple arithmetic. If they knew arithmetic, they would have been able to see an $8 trillion housing bubble that was right in front of their faces.

The basic story was incredibly simple and obvious, at least as far back as 2002. After just following the overall rate of inflation for the hundred years from 1895 to 1995, house prices began to hugely outpace the rate of inflation in the mid-90s.

Posted in bailout, financial crisis, foreclosures

Bailout Revamp Would Restore Original Purpose: Housing Help

WASHINGTON - Democrats on Friday revealed a planned revamp of last year's $700 billion Wall Street bailout, promising to steer more money to smaller lenders and troubled homeowners, and pledging tougher oversight.

The legislation will move first through the House Financial Services Committee, and Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., wants any recipient of new bailout money to report every three months on how much its lending has increased or decreased and why. He also proposes a number other of tougher reporting and accountability requirements and limits on executive compensation.

Posted in financial crisis, foreclosures

There's No Place Like Home for The Holidays, Until There is No Home

A little box arrived from Chicago last week to my temporary digs here in Washington, DC. Inside were some of the trinkets of Christmases long past. Ornaments that used to hang on trees surrounded by mounds of gifts, plush Mickey Mouse stockings I used to fill with fruit and candy and little toys when my sons were younger, and a candle holder - absent the candle, of course, which had long since been burned on a holiday table brimming with food and with good cheer.

Posted in foreclosures, healthcare

Homes with No People, People with No Homes

$Max Rameau says he's \"matching homeless people with people-less homes.\" (By J. Pat Carter -- Associated Press)$

MIAMI - Max Rameau delivers his sales pitch like a pro. "All tile floor!" he says during a recent showing. "And the living room, wow! It has great blinds."

But in nearly every other respect, he is unlike any real estate agent you've ever met. He is unshaven, drives a beat-up car and wears grungy cut-off sweat pants. He also breaks into the homes he shows. And his clients don't have a dime for a down payment.

Posted in financial crisis, foreclosures