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FORECLOSURES ARE RISING AND NOT JUST HOMEOWNERS ARE AFFECTED
A Haitian Story: Loses Family Home In Earthquake, NY Home in "Bankquake"
By Danny Schechter
Author, The Crime of Our Time
The financial crisis started as a housing bubble with the financial industry convinced that home values never fall. How wrong they were even a they leveraged and securitized their investments to create a global crisis.
Now, brace yourself because not only isn't over until its over but in some respects its just begun. There will be more foreclosures this year than last and as a result more suffering for American families
Ed Harrison who monitors this industry for a website called Credit Write Downs sees a "second wave coming"---like a new tsunami in a industry that All of Obama's horses and all of Obama's Men have not been able to do anything about. The idea of challenging fraud and deception with a debt relief plan goes a bit too far for these self-styled centrists.. Writes Harrison;
"When the crisis first developed, in February of 2007, it was subprime where the worries were, with the lion's share of writedowns coming from mark-to-market losses in the securitisation market. However, subprime was a relatively small part of the overall market, making up 14% of loans outstanding at that time. Alt-A loans were 27% and prime loans were 57% respectively of loans outstandingaccording to a Banc of America Securities report.
As the 2004-2007 co-horts of Alt-A option ARM mortgages have started to reset and prime borrowers have come under stress, we have started to see defaults in markets which are an order of magnitude larger than subprime."
I love phrases like "order of magnitude" because they make problems seem too big to do anything about. As we aggregate the losses we lose sight of the individuals whose lives are at risk even as financial websites carry more and more articles about how to profit from foreclosures.
Today, it's not just that prime loans are about to go belly up but more and more tenants living in private homes are at risk--with no one looking out for them because they don't own anything and so are considered disposable.
Mounting foreclosures is an issue I have been writing and railing about. Protests against them are featured in my forthcoming filmPLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
There is a macro dimension to this crisis abut also a far more personal micro one.
Here's a story I was told about a middle class woman on Long Island, who happens to be Haitian. I am sure its not the worst case--and certainly not the best outcome. Read it and weep--but as you do remember this bell may toll for more of us.
At the same time, as a reporter, I find myself personally exposed to people experiencing these problems. One is a close friend of a close friend who found herself on the street last week.
