Bail out people not bankers!

When the Mortgage Bankers Association meets in Washington, D.C., on April 16-17 at the swanky Washington Court Hotel, their gathering will draw protesters. The MBA is a national lobbying group that represents the interests of the banks, including lending firms that are directly responsible for the evictions of tens of thousands of people, including both buyers and renters, from their foreclosed homes.

The MBA plans to hold its sessions behind closed doors in order to map out policies of protecting the banks’ profits and their predatory lending policies. They also plan to reach out to members of Congress.

An Ad Hoc Committee to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions has called an emergency demonstration at the MBA meeting to demand a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions to take place immediately. The main slogan of this committee is, “Bail out people before bankers!”

Part of the call to action by the Ad Hoc Committee states: “Whether it’s rising gas and food prices; the lack of health care; losing our jobs; having our wages cut; sinking further into credit card, student loan or medical debt; or budget cuts; or the destruction of public housing; or ending this war that is costing lives and almost a half a billion dollars a day—surviving hard times is going to require that we stick together and organize.”

The organizers say the main goal of this demonstration is to help spark a united national fightback movement of those of all ages, nationalities and social backgrounds, who are directly and indirectly impacted by this growing economic crisis.

The subprime loan scandal that began to rock the housing market last year continues to further weaken an already shaky capitalist economy to its very core. All of the sugar coated, fancy terms of the bourgeois economists and “experts” cannot hide the undeniable fact that the larger part of the worldwide economy—with its epicenter in Wall Street—is in a full-blown recession with no foreseeable end in sight.

There isn’t a day that goes by when there aren’t major articles on the front pages of papers, large and small, on how the collapsing housing market is catalyst for ever deeper suffering and hardships in individual neighborhoods, cities, rural areas and states.

Subprime lenders are nothing more than profit-hungry conglomerations that prey on those who have little to no credit—particularly struggling single mothers who are Black or Latin@. These companies offer mortgages that look like a good deal on the surface but which turn out to be rife with excessive fees, high penalties for refinancing and other hidden costs. What was once considered a hallmark of “the American dream”—“owning” a home—has been transformed into “an American nightmare.”

Just how widespread is this housing crisis? According to the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit organization, 7.2 million families live in homes with a subprime mortgage. Families with a subprime loan approved in 1998 through 2006 who have lost or will lose their home to foreclosure in the next few years amount to an estimated 2.2 million.

The dollar amount of subprime loans outstanding in 2007 was $1.3 trillion compared to $332 billion in 2003. The amount of increase over these four years alone has been 292 percent. One out of five of these subprime loans made in 2005-2006 is expected to default. (www.responsiblelending.org) And these figures are just the tip of the iceberg.

Some newspapers have reported that a small but nonetheless growing number of those who are being threatened with foreclosure have taken desperate measures such as carrying out arson in hopes of collecting insurance.

“The FBI reports grew 4 percent in suburbs and 2.2 percent in cities from 2005 to 2006. ... In California, a state hit particularly hard by foreclosures, insurance companies must tell the state within 60 days if they suspect a fire is ‘questionable.’ Last year, more than 120 reports were filed, and in 14, foreclosure was named a possible factor.

“The previous year, just 70 reports were filed, with seven citing foreclosure, says the state insurance commissioner’s office. ... Arrest warrants for arson in Detroit rose 89 percent between 2005 and 2007. ‘We are up to our eyeballs in arsons,’ says Steve Varnas, of the Detroit Fire Department. ‘We’re not only dealing with hardened criminals. We’re dealing with desperate people.’” (Los Angeles Times, Jan. 28, 2008)

Go to www.StopForeclosuresandEvictions.org to endorse, volunteer or donate to this important demonstration.