Wall Street and The Return of Loan Sharks

FEATURING CHUCK COLLINS – It has been ten years since the subprime mortgage crisis kicked off the Great Recession when a massive housing bubble burst, leaving behind untold numbers of Americans stripped of their homes and livelihoods.

While politicians should have taken steps to ensure that such a thing never happened again in the US, we are seeing the rise of a troubling trend with echoes of the sub-prime mortgage crisis – they are increasing numbers of so-called “contract-for-deed” financial transactions that leave homebuyers deeply vulnerable.

Writing about this new trend in The Guardian newspaper is Chuck Collins who identifies Wall Street private equity firms as the villains in this troubling phenomenon.

Read Chuck’s latest piece in The Guardian ‘Loan sharks were meant to be eradicated. Now they’re back’ HERE, for his the full investigative piece for the current issue of The American Prospect, HERE, and HERE is the link to his article with a video clip about the history of the Contract Buyers League — the video is available for educational purposes only.

Chuck Collins, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He has written a number of books including 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It, and Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good.