The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged Crisis

What’s Next for the CRA?

By | 01.18.10 | 6:00 am

foreclosure-new-house

An ambitious plan to update the Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act that supporters hope to see signed into law in 2010 comes amid charges that this legislation was responsible for nothing less than the subprime crisis and the resulting collapse of the residential real estate market.

The plan, sponsored by More…

Suit Alleges Trusted Blacks Drew Minorities to High-Rate Loans

By | 09.17.09 | 2:39 pm

As the housing market began booming in the mid-2000s, Wells Fargo & Co. teamed up with prominent African American commentator and PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley and financial author Kelvin Boston, the host of “Moneywise,” a multicultural financial More…

ACORN Hits Back at Bachmann

By | 06.11.09 | 9:41 am

The Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey has the details:

Days after Rep. Michele Bachmann [R-Minn.] launched a petition against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN is shooting back with a petition of its own.

“When you pick on ACORN, you pick on ME!” the

More…

Hope for ‘Hope for Homeowners?’

By | 05.26.09 | 1:01 pm

Among the many housing policy disappointments sustained during the bust, the Hope for Homeowners mortgage refinancing program has to rank as the disappointing-est. Originally estimated as having the potential to aid nearly half a million struggling borrowers, the program has resulted in just one successful loan refinancing More…

Bush Legacy Watch

By | 01.01.09 | 9:53 am

The New York Times takes stock of the economy’s dreadful year:

In a mere 12 months, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 4,488.43 points, or 33.8 percent, its most punishing loss since 1931. Blue chips like Bank of America, More…

Report: Israeli Tanks Shell Gaza (Updated With Audio)

By | 12.30.08 | 2:11 pm

Over at our sister site, The Michigan Messenger, Todd Heywood reports that he just conducted a phone interview with Palestinian journalist Sameh Habeeb, who is on the ground in Gaza. Habeeb says an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza is currently underway. Israeli tanks are shelling More…

Banks with Deep Pockets Dodge Foreclosure Damages

By | 12.30.08 | 8:53 am

The fight that neighborhoods in Cleveland are launching against banks that dump vacant and vandalized foreclosed homes back onto the real estate market received a bit of a setback, as I noted in my story Monday. A private, non-profit housing advocacy group had filed suit in local housing court More…

Michigan and Ohio: Swing States No More?

By | 12.12.08 | 3:58 pm

Another good point made by TWI’s Daphne Eviatar and Josh Marshall, who sums it up well. From TPM:

Senate Republicans are following this course for three key reasons — first is payback against a major industrial union; second is payback against states like Michigan

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The Economy’s in Shambles and the White House Can’t Pass Its Detroit Bailout — Do You Know Where Your President Is?

By | 12.12.08 | 12:23 pm

Right. In Texas giving a commencement speech at A&M. As some folks are pointing out this morning, it brings to mind another time when Bush was reading to kids in the midst of a crisis.

Remember “My Pet Goat?”

Wall Street’s Old-Fashioned $50 Billion Swindle

By | 12.12.08 | 8:49 am

Forget credit default swaps, mortgage-backed securities and all those complicated financial instruments that are causing the economy so much trouble. Wall Street is reeling today instead from a straightforward, by-the-books, $50 billion Ponzi scheme apparently orchestrated by the once-respected investor Bernard Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock More…