The Subprime Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis: Inside an American Tragedy
This panel will explain the economics of the subprime mortgage meltdown and the subsequent foreclosure crisis. It will go on to describe the political and social conditions that gave rise to these phenomena. Panelists will discuss progressive responses to predatory lending and rising rates of foreclosure nationwide, including organizing campaigns, legal challenges and legislative proposals. Panelists will also offer a progressive messaging campaign and blogosphere actions that can help change the current set of assumptions and debate on the subprime crisis.
Michael Hudson, a former staff reporter with The Wall Street Journal, is a freelance journalist and an investigator at the Center for Responsible Lending. His reporting on subprime lending has run in the Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Mother Jones and has been featured in the documentary film "Maxed Out." It has also earned him numerous honors, including a George Polk Award for magazine reporting and a John Hancock Award for business writing. Mike is now working on a book and a film documentary about America's mortgage meltdown.
Mark Winston Griffith is the Senior Fellow for Economic Justice at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a progressive think tank. Mark has also served as the co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project. In the early nineties he co-founded the Central Brooklyn Federal Credit Union and the Central Brooklyn Partner¬ship, a neighborhood-based organization that builds the capacity of local people to exert political and economic power.
Mark's articles have appeared in dozens of publications including the New York Times, the Nation, Mother Jones, the New York Daily News, the Village Voice, the Source, Spin, and Essence.
Brad Miller is North Carolina's first representative to its thirteenth and newest Congressional District, created after the 2000 Census. In 1992, Brad was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives, where he served two years. He was elected to the North Carolina Senate in 1996, where he served six years. Miller is Chairman of the Science and Technology subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, and serves on the Financial Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.
