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Financial Fallout: Bank Failures, Homelessness
July 1st, 2008
Your bank just locked its doors. Should you worry?
Pittsburgh: Forty people wearing red tee shirts and carrying signs marched right into a National City Bank last Friday morning. They chanted “Criminal Offenders, Predatory Lenders!” and blew whistles. They demanded an immediate halt to home foreclosures.
The group dispersed after police were called and nobody got arrested, but no one got any relief from foreclosure either. The demonstration was part of a national effort by the group ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which provides free counseling to low and moderate income home buyers. As more and more families lose their homes, ACORN hopes protest actions will become more and more visible.
From shelters and coalitions for the homeless all over the country, reports are coming in of overwhelmed facilities and no end in sight as new faces join the ranks of the homeless. The ‘lucky’ ones, about 76% of renters and homeowners displaced by the continuing mortgage crisis, are moving in with relatives and friends. The rest are on the streets, living in their cars, or filling emergency shelters. It’s going to get worse.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Filed under Bank Failures, Bankruptcy, Economic Depression, Economic Recession | Comment (0)Is Bankruptcy ‘The End Of All Things’?*
June 18th, 2008
* [h/t Frodo Baggins]
The cost of everything is still rising fast, despite the influx of ready cash to taxpayers in the way of rebates going to pay arrears on the mortgage or electric bill. The number of people losing their homes and losing their jobs continues to rise as well. And in a little-publicized indicator no one likes to talk much about these days, the number of Americans declaring bankruptcy is shooting through the roof – up nearly 30% [27.0] in the first quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007. As Samuel J. Gerdano, Executive Director of the American Bankruptcy Institute says…
“Bankruptcies are rising due to the heavy burden of household debt and growing mortgage problems. We expect this trend to continue through 2008.
So there doesn’t look to be any break in the recession cloud this year, with indicators that it may well descend all the way into depression by election day in November.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Filed under Bankruptcy, Debt, Economic Depression, Economic Recession | Comment (0)