Inside Story Americas: As Bank Profits Soar, US Foreclosure Crisis Continues

September 04, 2012 from Al Jazeera English

While US banks report tens of billions of dollars in profits in the last quarter, millions of Americans are still at risk of losing their homes. What is behind the persistent housing crisis more than six years after it began, and how much will this impact the upcoming presidential elections? Guests Cathy Albisa, Robert Hockett, and Max Rameau discuss.

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In This Video

Foreclosure

Foreclosure is a specific legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortgage lender, or other lien ho... Explore this topic

Banking in the United States

Banking in the United States is regulated by both the federal and state governments. Banking in the United States Monetary policyThe Federal Reserve System Regulation Lending Credit card Deposit accounts Savings account Checking account Money market account Certificate of depo... Explore this topic

Global Financial Crisis

The financial crisis of 2007–2008, also known as the Global Financial Crisis and 2008 financial crisis, is considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It resulted in the threat of total collapse of large financial ins... Explore this topic

US economy

Throughout this article, the unqualified term "dollar" and the $ symbol refer to the US dollar. The economy of the United States is the world's largest national economy. Its nominal GDP was estimated to be over $15 trillion in 2011, approximately a quarter of nominal global GD... Explore this topic

Politics of the United States

The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States, Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments. The executive branch is head... Explore this topic

Bank

A bank is a financial institution and a financial intermediary that accepts deposits and channels those deposits into lending activities, either directly by loaning or indirectly through capital markets. A bank is the connection between customers that have capital deficits and... Explore this topic

Take Back the Land

Take Back the Land is an American organisation based in Miami, Florida devoted to blocking evictions, and rehousing homeless people in foreclosed houses. Take Back the Land was formed in October 2006 to build the Umoja Village Shantytown on a plot of unoccupied land to protest... Explore this topic

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II (/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama served as a U.S. Senator representing the state of Illinois from January 2005 to Novemb... Explore this topic

Swing state

In United States presidential politics, a swing state is a state in which no single candidate or party has overwhelming support in securing that state's electoral college votes. Such states are targets of both major political parties in presidential elections, since winning th... Explore this topic

US presidential election, 2012

Die 57. Präsidentschaftswahl in den Vereinigten Staaten fand am 6. November 2012 statt. Formal sind am 6. November die Wahlmänner des Electoral College bestimmt worden, die am 17. Dezember ihre Stimmen für die Ämter des Präsidenten und des Vizepräsidenten abgaben. Gleichzeitig... Explore this topic

Also See

Foreclosure

Banking in the United States

Global Financial Crisis

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