Q: How do homeowners fit into the bailout? A: They don’t

Now that the bailout package has been hatched out, it looks like Bush and Congress have once again left struggling homeowners in the lurch, this time sending relief to those who helped put every homeowner in crisis in the first place. One critic says the plan is so troubling that it’s as if Congress has told homeowners to “drop dead.”

Backpedaling to nowhere: In 2007, Bernanke said ‘regulatory changes’ were to blame for subprime crisis

After the first subprime-related collapse of the market in August 2007, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke addressed the financial-services committee on September 20, 2007, to discuss subprime lending and the spate of foreclosures across the country. Of course, this…

A record week: sales, bailouts, suspensions and profits

This week has been all about history-changing events: Washington is asking for the biggest bailout for Wall Street ever; a presidential candidate “suspended” his campaign because he’s too busy campaigning via TV interviews; and now, after the implosions of…

Just say ‘no’: Could the bailout spark a new movement?

Darryl Dahlheimer, a project manager at Lutheran Social Service financial counseling in Minneapolis, points to the main reason we got into this mess: “We’ve been fetishizing free markets for the last 15 years to the detriment of the consumer and families and stable communities.”

Now consumers are experiencing anger and starting to fight back in the face of a $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

Press release of the week: ‘Take out a mortgage even if you don’t need one!’

Crisis got you down? Spend all of your home equity now! And take out another mortgage while you’re at it. Cash is king! A press release this week from the CMPS Institute, an organization responsible for training and certifying mortgage bankers and brokers, reveals the lengths the industry’s heavyweights will go to in order to get a sale and keep Americans in debt, even after it’s common knowledge that years of reckless practices brought us here today.

The great bailout: U of M expert on mortgage crisis says Paulson plan is ‘reverse criminal action’

Minnesota home prices have declined by as much as 20 percent. More than 27,000 will have their homes foreclosed on in the next year. Twenty-five percent of ARMS in the state have yet to adjust. And thousands of more homeowners are struggling with negative equity in their homes as the housing market continues to be hit with serious aftershocks.

So how will homeowners caught up in the crisis fare under the Bush Administration’s Wall Street bailout? U of M law professor and former assistant attorney general Prentiss Cox says the bailout is “like a reverse criminal action where you give restitution to the criminals and put the victims in jail.” He talks to MnIndy about how we got here and why the bailout needs to change.

McCain vs. Obama: What would ChaCha do?

ChaCha, the free texting service that answers life’s most perplexing questions, is like your nerdy know-it-all friend. A pocket wizard. A crystal ball. A modern-day Magic 8 Ball. So of course we texted ChaCha to answer our most current quandaries: “What if Sarah Palin became president?” “What if Barack Obama became president?” “Is this country doomed?” And, “Are we living on a diet of bread and circuses?” Answers inside!

Underneath the economic rubble: SEC exemptions led to the current crisis

The always interesting Big Picture blog has culled together quotes and analysis from today’s NY Sun and other sources documenting Lee Pickard, the former director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s trading and markets division, admitting that the current stock market tumble and credit crisis can be directly attributed to a purposeful SEC exemption that was given to five firms. Those five firms? Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and the now-belly-up Lehman Bros., Merrill Lynch, and Bear Stearns.

The great bundle: Wall Street’s biggest losers this week among McCain and Obama’s biggest supporters

It’s called a “bundle,” and it’s a wad of campaign cash collected by a supporter’s friends, family members and associates and delivered in one lump sum to the candidate as a gift from the supporter. According to a story…

Palin credits witch-hunting pastor with her run to the governor’s office

While the McCain campaign is touting Sarah Palin’s “hard work” and “determination” and “mom-ness” as key traits that transported her from the mini small-town mayor’s quarters to the governor’s mansion to the halls of the Republican National Convention, Sarah…