When the housing bubble popped and Wall Street did a swan dive, they created an economic whirlpool that the rest of us are still struggling to escape. Two years later, Congress is trying--and failing--to pass a financial reform to stop the lending practices that led to the bubble and put the banking behemoths that speculated on it on a tight leash.
Our new book, "Understanding the Crash" (Soft Skull Press / June 8 2010), uses a graphic nonfiction format to cut through the confusion and explain how mortgage lenders and investment banks managed to crash the economy. In the book, we show how low- and middle-income homeowners became a goldmine for lenders and speculators--until it all came crashing down--and what's needed to build a financial system that instead rewards community and sustainability. Here's some of what we found.
Arianna Huffington: Life in the Age of "Much Worse Than We Thought It Would Be"
William K. Black: How the Servant Became a Predator: Finance's Five Fatal Flaws
Yves Smith: Why Is Washington Dithering With Unemployment High?
In depth coverage of Global financial crisis from the Financial Times
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http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Crash-Seth-Tobocman/dp/1593762720
Futurama could probably do a better job than the MSM financial press in explaining the crisis as well:
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/futurama/index.jhtml
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/futurama/cast/index.jhtml
http://www.nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1122nj1.htm
http://firedoglake.com/tag/murray-waas/
They watch you at work, as you are using the Internet, as you are shopping everywhere...
the mob is watching you everywhere... they have psychologists to help them!
http://www.businesspundit.com/sub-prime/
We need a "mass miIitant movement against big government interventions into the mortgage industry".
the mortgage 'industry' is THE problem
(sarcasm -- not usually recognized on Huffpost unless pointed out)
"The deregulation caused this " is a hoax, devised by those who could not get elected if not for trying to tear down the opposition with fantasy and stories.
Deregulation did not cause or allow investment firms to invent derivatives. The problem arose when the lawmakers were too busy raking in lobbyists dollars to see that everyone was going bto get screwed. But all of them weren't uncaring about the problem and a few even foresaw the pending catastrophe, but were lambasted, called names, accused of being racists and being just plain old fundamentalist religious zealots stuck in "Leave it to Beaver" land... not mention being partisan and mean spirited as well.
The device was invented by enterprising and imaginative entrepreneurs who were out to climb the corporate ladder by turning worthless straw money into pure gold. And it worked until the Fed screwed it up and raised interest rates in 2007. Mortgages that cost $1200 each month required $2400, then $3600 (educated example). People who could barely afford the $1200 payment had to walk away. December 2007 is when the housing market started tanking, bringing all the rest with it.
Regulation is not bad, neither is deregulation. It all depends on what you are changing.
How did the current recession begin again?? Your argument is a false choice. Wall Street already bankrupted 'average Americans." The idea is to stop them from doing it again.
Banks should invest in historically sound business practices and in investment firms, but we need a new way to grade those investments as the current system is corrupt. We knew this when Anderson, an accounting firm who did audits for Enron, went bankrupt after cooking Enron's books... and their own.
How many went to jail for that?
How many went to jail for this one?
Almost every other sector shows decline, but the financial sector shows growth year after year. It's almost as if they're making money out of thin air - oh wait, they are!