Examining the SubCrime Industry

February 21, 2008 by Marc Lamont Hill

Policy proposals are not enough to save the economy. Candidates, take note.

Subprime Is Really SubCRIME: America’s Deeper Financial Crisis
By Danny Schechter

At long last, the Democrats are talking about the economy and the need for serious relief and reforms. The reason is simple. The people are feeling the squeeze.

Reports the Baltimore Sun:

“Since January alone, the public’s perception about the state of the economy has plummeted — with just 17 percent calling the nation’s economy excellent or good — down from 26 percent last month. The percentage rating the economy poor has grown from 28 to 45 percent.”

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama now have their instant 10-point plans and programs. They have dipped into John Edwards’ tool chest for ideas on fighting poverty and listened to policy advisors who have come up with a laundry list of proposals for stop-gap measures from hikes in the minimum wage and middle-class tax cuts. All of these proposals will take time to implement and probably will be forgotten by the time one of them becomes president, if they do.

Meanwhile the economy is collapsing because of crimes and irresponsibility on Wall Street, and no one is really talking about that. An inequality gap and structural crisis compounded by profiteering in high places goes on and is largely ignored.

The media is not investigating the profiteers and, in fact, continues to contribute to the problem by accepting millions for dubious ads for more loans that end up getting more Americans in debt. Prosecutors are not prosecuting wrong doing. No fundamental new regulations and oversight are being proposed.

For the rest of the story, click here.

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7 Comments

1. DCI74 wrote:

Yes the debtor has some responsibility but that responsibility is on every end including the loan and real estate side. As someone that is on the real estate business its not as simple as reading the fine print or making sure clients ask the right questions especially if they don’t even know what questions to ask. I’ve spoken on this at length in other post so I’m not going to rehash what I’ve already stated in the past. However the process of purchasing property is far from simplistic and so is this subprime mess. Perhaps the process may have been easy for some but unless you are speaking from the perspective of knowing all the behind the scenes elements of purchasing a home then it’s a lot more complex that it appears to be on the surface.

February 24, 2008 @ 6:07 pm

2. derek alexander wrote:

I think in many aspects DC you are spot-on! If Im not mistaken wasnt there some kind of govt initiative to make more home loans available to those who might not have qualified otherwise? Wasnt it more of Bush’s society-building experimentation? I believe the sub-prime idea itself came out of congress (which should have indicated the result immediately).

I know quite a few people who are being squeezed by jumping into the sub-prime mess. ALL are rather well-off. All either bought a 2nd home to make money (renting or flipping) or bought 4000+ sq ft home for a family of 3. All should have known better. THAT is greed. plain and simple and I dont feel a bit of sympathy for them. They saw what they wanted and missed how theyre going to pay for it. Too bad. I didnt cry for them when the bank came to take their Air Stream or their ChrisCraft why should I now?

I think youre wrong with the racism charge. Commission salespeople (which mortgage brokers are) will sell their product to a cat if pawprints were a legal signature. Green trumps black/white/yellow/brown EVERY time.
Ill keep plumping for the payments on stately Alexander manor and someday…….

February 26, 2008 @ 12:34 pm

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