The Great Legacy Of The Great Recession

The writers of “The Big Short” note:

“Wall Street loves to use confusing terms to make you think only they can do what they do. Or even better, for you to just leave them the f—k alone.”

Reporter Aaron Glantz doesn’t want to let that happen. His new book, “Homewreckers,” tells the story of people like Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who Glantz says made tremendous financial gains from homeowners after the Great Recession.

It also tells the stories of people like Kristin from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She moved home to Broward County after college and was immediately thrust into a fight to save her mother’s home from foreclosure. She argued the case in front of a judge at the age of 28.

Kristin left us a message, saying:

“It took six years, countless phone calls and emails, public records requests, a trial, a final judgment, down-to-the-wire negotiations and way, way, too many tears in order for me to save my mom’s house.”

Once she did, she told us she feels “glad to be putting equity into an asset and not into a landlord’s pocket.”

But at the end of the day, she told us she’s 31 years old and still living with her parents. If she hadn’t had to fight to save her mom’s home, maybe that isn’t the life she’d be living.

We talk to Aaron Glantz and Jung Choi, who focuses on housing policy at the Urban Institute, about the legacy of the Great Recession.

Produced by Jonquilyn Hill.

GUESTS

Aaron Glantz, Senior reporter, Reveal; author “Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream;” @Aaron_Glantz

Jung Choi, Research associate, Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute; @JungatUrban

For more, visit https://the1a.org.

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