subprime lending

In response to a recent TWI report, the nation’s leading financial literacy group has launched an investigation into its conflict-of-interest policies.

Stung by losses in states that either refused to authorize their high-rate, short-term loans or moved to limit finance charges, the industry isn’t ready to give up.

Journalist and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich takes on the recession’s racial divide, making the point that the hard times are hitting the black community with particular fervor. In a New York Times piece this weekend, Ehrenreich correctly pointed out that even high-income blacks were more likely than whites to wind up with higher cost subprime [...]

As lawsuits wind their way through the court system, more details and allegations about the inner workings of the subprime world are emerging.

One of the many unanswered questions about the current financial crisis is why there haven’t been more criminal investigations into what happened, including the highly suspect actions of the rating agencies, the banks, and mortgage brokers. At Salon, economist Simon Johnson and author and former investment banker John Talbott share a three-part email exchange about [...]

Here’s a huge pat on the back and a show of support for Barry Ritholtz, who truly has had it with those who keep clinging to the widely discredited belief that the Community Reinvestment Act caused the housing crisis. Ritholtz writes at The Big Picture that he’s offering a debate challenge, with a prize of [...]

If you ever got picked on as a kid, and handled it by clinging to the belief that life was fair and your nemesis would get a comeuppance, then this is for you:
Fremont General Corp. once one of the nation’s top 10 subprime lenders, has agreed to pay $10 million to resolve charges it preyed [...]

Mortgage Insider tells the sad tale of an 85-year-old widow, living alone with no surviving family members to turn to, who is about to lose her home. Rita Gillam lived in her Orange County, Calif., home for 50 years. It is scheduled for a foreclosure auction sale today.
Gillam, a widow, said she has owned hair [...]

An investigation out today from the Center for Public Integrity details the nearly $370 million spent by top subprime lenders over the past decade to fend off regulation in Washington. While that’s disturbing enough, the study make clear that some of the major banks being bailed out by taxpayers were hardly victims of those subprime [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association recently joined the chorus of those worried about the Federal Housing Administration’s growing role in the housing market, the Orange County Register’s Mortgage Insider reports. Due to the mortgage meltdown and the demise of subprime lenders, the FHA’s share of the housing market already has increased from three percent to 20 [...]