Third World America - Arianna Huffington [96]
53 Troy Renault is one of them: Laura Bassett, “Middle Class No More, Families Struggle to Fight Off Homelessness,” 4 Feb. 2010, www.huffingtonpost.com.
54 Says Troy: “You wind up starting to think …”: Ibid.
55 Rebecca Admire is another: Ibid.
56 Mount Airy, North Carolina, for example: Paul Wiseman, “When the Textile Mill Goes, So Does a Way of Life,” 11 Mar. 2010, www.usatoday.com.
57 And in Mount Airy—the city where Andy Griffith grew up: Ibid.
58 “We were not prepared”: Ibid.
59 By the end of 2009, the unemployment rate: Dion Hoynes, “Blacks Hit Hard by Economy’s Punch,” 24 Nov. 2009, www.washingtonpost.com.
60 And 19.7 percent of all American men: Floyd Norris, “In Global Unemployment, a Sea of Young Faces,” 16 Apr. 2010, www.nytimes.com.
61 “Every downturn pushes some people …”: Peter S. Goodman, “Despite Signs of Recovery, Chronic Joblessness Rises,” 20 Feb. 2010, www.nytimes.com.
62 For a century, from the mid-1890s: Dean Baker, “The Great Recession Didn’t Have to Happen,” 25 Jan. 2010, www.cepr.net.
63 By 2005, subprime mortgages had skyrocketed: Gene Sperling, “Subprime Market—Isolated or a Tipping Point?” 14 Mar. 2007, www.bloomberg.com.
64 Fueling the boom was the development: Jim Puzzanghera, “Senators Grapple with Derivatives Rules in Financial Overhaul,” 19 May 2010, www.latimes.com.
65 “The Federal Reserve Board completely failed …”: Dean Baker, “The Great Recession Didn’t Have to Happen,” 25 Jan. 2010, www.cepr.net.
66 Even after a spate of accounting scandals: Charles W. Caolmiris and Peter J. Wallison, “Blame Fannie Mae and Congress for the Credit Mess,” 23 Sep. 2008, www.wsj.com.
67 Between 2004 and 2007, Fannie and Freddie: Ibid.
68 George W. Bush and the GOP also helped: George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 2005, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
69 By 2006, 62 percent of all new mortgages: Dan Dorfman, “Liars’ Loans Could Make Many Moan,” 20 Dec. 2006, www.nysun.com.
70 Among the findings: Sewell Chan, “Memos Show Risky Lending at WaMu,” 12 Apr. 2010, www.nytimes.com.
71 Enter the bankruptcy bill: Jeanne Sahadi, “President Signs Bankruptcy Bill,” 20 Apr. 2005, www.money.cnn.com.
72 They even rejected an amendment: U.S. Senate, “S. 256, the Bankruptcy Reform Bill,” Congressional Record, 109th Cong., 1st Sess., vol. 151, no. 26, 8 Mar. 2005, www.senate.gov.
73 According to the Institute for Financial Literacy: Institute for Financial Literacy, “2009 Annual Consumer Bankruptcy Demographics Report: The American Debtor in the Great Recession,” Jun. 2010, www.financiallit.org.
74 The Institute’s executive director, Leslie Linfield: Leslie Linfield, in an email communication with the author, 19 May 2010.
75 In fact, a 2009 study by researchers at Harvard: Catherine Arnst, “Study Links Medical Costs and Personal Bankruptcy,” 4 Jun. 2009, www.businessweek.com.
76 Using that rate, roughly: American Bankruptcy Institute, “Annual Business and Nonbusiness Filings by State (2007–09),” www.abiworld.org.
77 Here’s another: 78 percent of the so-called: Catherine Arnst, “Study Links Medical Costs and Personal Bankruptcy,” 4 Jun. 2009, www.businessweek.com.
78 Barry Bosworth and Rosanna Smart of the Brookings Institution: Barry Bosworth and Rosanna Smart, “The Wealth of Older Americans and the Sub-Prime Debacle,” Nov. 2009, crr.bc.edu.
79 We are facing nothing less than: Lynn Adler, “U.S. 2009 Foreclosures Shatter Record Despite Aid,” 14 Jan. 2010, www.reuters.com.
80 and an estimated 3 million more are expected: Dan Levy, “U.S. Foreclosures May Rise to 3 Million This Year,” 14 Jan. 2010, www.bloomberg.com.
81 Currently, mortgages are exempt from bankruptcy proceedings: Wenli Li, Michelle J. White, and Ning Zhu, “Did Bankruptcy Reform Cause Mortgage Default Rates to Rise?” Apr. 2010, www.philadelphiafed.org.
82 Subsequent court battles eventually eliminated their use: Doris Dungey, “Just Say Yes to Cram Downs,” 7 Oct. 2007, www.calculatedriskblog.com.
83 The banks scored a lopsided victory: Ryan Grim, “Banks Beat Homeowners: