The Rising Body Count on Main Street
The Human Fallout from the Financial Crisis
Suicide is just one type of extreme act for which the financial meltdown has seemingly been the catalyst. Since the beginning of the year, stories of resistance to eviction, armed self-defense, canicide, arson, self-inflicted injury, murder, as well as suicide, especially in response to the foreclosure crisis, have bubbled up into the local news, although most reports have gone unnoticed nationally -- as has any pattern to these events. Troubling trends are to be expected in the years ahead, especially as hundreds of thousands of veterans of the
Dear Subprime Lender:
Our household has not been immune from this 'economy thing' and, as a result, our mortgage check will be somewhat delayed. Our financial resources have finally dwindled to the point where our ability to make payment is affected. Our living expenses have been cut back to the basics and we're still cash short to cover the mortgage payment, which is our largest expense next to taxes. We will resume paying the mortgage when our financial situation improves. It's not like we haven't been trying. It has been and continues to be very frustrating.
You may decide to proceed with eviction. Before doing so, you should know that we consider the dwelling our home and home is very important to us. Since those events that control the economy are way beyond our control, we don't plan to suffer disproportionately for something that's not entirely our fault, and since there is no safe haven from this 'economic thing', we prefer to stay in our home until whenever. You have the power to initiate or to not initiate the use of legal force that will be required to remove us from our home. Should you initiate the use of force or harassment, at whatever level, you will share proportionately. Friends who share our outlook and temperament are aware of our situation. The level of escalation is your call.
Please don't take this personally, these are just business risks that the bank must have, or should have, considered when investing in people's homes. The business climate has certainly changed.
There's no place like home.
Sincerely yours,
Subprime Debtor
Pretty Boy Floyd by Woodie Guthrie
Yes, there’s many a starving farmer
The same story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their home.
Some rob you with a six gun
Some with a fountain pen
Don Corleone, the Godfather, speaking to Sonny
“Don’t you want to become a lawyer? Lawyers can steal more money with a briefcase than a thousand men with guns and masks.”
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, 2004
Mafia bosses often start out as street thugs. But over time, the ones who make it to the top transform their appearance. They take to wearing impeccably tailored suits, owning legitimate businesses, and wrapping themselves in the cloak of upstanding society. They support local charities and are respected by their communities. These men appear to be model citizens. However, beneath this patina is a trail of blood. When the debtors cannot pay, hit men move in to demand their pound of flesh. If this is not granted, the jackals close in with baseball bats, Finally, as a last resort, out come the guns.
Articles
Bush: No Bailout for Pinched Homeowners
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/09/national/w112030D23.DTL&tsp=1
August 9 2007
President Bush said Thursday concern should be shown those who've lost their homes but it's not the federal government's job to bail them out. "Obviously anybody who loses their home is somebody with whom we must show an enormous empathy," Bush said. Asked whether he would champion a government bailout? Bush responded: "If you mean direct grants to homeowners, the answer would be `No, I don't support that.'"
Bernanke: Go Slow on Subprime Regulation
http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/17/real_estate/Bernanke_on_subprime/index.htm
May 17, 2007
Facing criticism from some members of Congress over lax regulation of the nation's mortgage market, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke came out swinging Thursday against too much government intrusion in the troubled subprime mortgage business.
In a speech before the Federal Reserve Bank of
Foreclosure Rates Still Soaring
http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/14/real_estate/April-foreclosures/index.htm?postversion=2007051505
May 15, 2007
Foreclosures continue to trouble real estate markets nationwide, with filings in April up 65 percent from a year earlier, according to a report released Tuesday. Six out of the 10 hardest hit cities were in
The Ugly Face of Foreclosure: When Foreclosures Climb, Entire Communities Can Go Down
http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/02/real_estate/face_of_foreclosure/index.htm?postversion=2007050718
May 7, 2007
Foreclosures are devastating communities across the
The vacancies look bad enough, but it's what happens next that really hurts. "The bad people in a community find out right away when a house has been foreclosed on," said Hayden. "They come in and steal the copper plumbing. I've even seen them strip the aluminum siding off to sell. The houses become havens for drug dealers."
Fighting those problems off, stabilizing the community and redeveloping blighted areas are a challenge for cash-starved municipalities. And they have less money to pay for it because foreclosures cause tax collections to suffer. Not only do foreclosures, abandonment and demolition take properties off the tax rolls; the remaining homeowners often want their assessments lowered and taxes cut to reflect their plummeting property values.
Subprime Bailout? $120 Billion
More than 1 million borrowers may be at risk of defaulting on their mortgages
http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/13/real_estate/subprimebailout_cost.moneymag/index.htm
April 13, 2007
