William Edinger, 44, and his wife, Laura Mannetta, 35, moved their son, Billy, 12, and two daughters, Jessica, 10, and Melissa, 2, to a hotel, when they could no longer afford their $975-a-month home. Jessica often asks if she will go back to her school. “We tell her the truth, that we don’t know when…
Continue reading ›Tom Grady, a wealthy Naples resident and former Florida state representative (R-Naples), served in the Florida House from 2008 until 2010. He did not run for re-election in 2010. Instead, Kathleen Passidomo was ran unopposed in Naples. In 2011, Grady was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to be the Commissioner of the Office of Financial Regulation. He’s…
Continue reading ›“When the banks went under and the stock market went way down … I lost [most] of it,” said Charlotte Wahlstrom, 74, who lives in a trailer in a small town in Michigan and gets by on $140/month in food stamps. This wasn’t part of her retirement plan. After her divorce in 1976, Wahlstrom continued…
Continue reading ›A new report from the National Employment Law Project highlights America’s Low Wage Recovery. This is not news to anyone living in the real world outside of politics, high level government, or finance. What this report shows is that the poor and teens struggle to find any jobs at all because of the downward displacement of the formerly middle…
Continue reading ›When financed through complex credit schemes that lack basic consumer protections, homeownership and higher education can quickly become debt shackles instead of the promised brass ring of financial security and middle class status. In today’s harsh economic and jobs climate, education debt that burdens millions of young Americans is often far in excess of their…
Continue reading ›The National Mortgage Settlement which gave Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, and Citi a very easy out for massive financial and real estate crimes is getting a lot of mainstream media coverage in the wake of the release of the first report card. The full report card is here. Florida’s stats are on page…
Continue reading ›Yesterday, the first report on the progress of the National Mortgage Settlement was released. A few investigative journalists are reviewing the report with a critical eye and writing up informative articles like the one by David Dayen at FireDogLake.com here. The main problem with the settlement as most of us saw was there really wasn’t a…
Continue reading ›The Columbia Journalism Review site has a great article that dissects a terrific example of how most if not all of the mainstream media has taken on the role of being press agents for banks while using harsh inquisition tactics for those who dare to criticize too big to fail financial institutions. Neil Barofsky, former…
Continue reading ›When a family is sued for foreclosure of their home by a Wall Street investment scam, the lawsuit looks something like this, U.S. Bank as Trustee for CMLT 2007-AMC2 v Jane Smith and John Smith. In this lawsuit, U.S. Bank as Trustee for CMLT 2007-AMC2 has no problem with hiring a foreclosure mill lawyer to file papers with an…
Continue reading ›When the federal protections put in place to prevent another financial crash after the Great Depression (Glass-Steagall Act of 1933) were repealed in 1999 (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) it wasn’t long before the 2008 financial crash followed. Then came a massive bank bailout in which programs were implemented to help prop up failing financial institutions with hundreds…
Continue reading ›
