The Subprime Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis: Inside an American Tragedy
This panel will explain the economics of the subprime mortgage meltdown and the subsequent foreclosure crisis. It will go on to describe the political and social conditions that gave rise to these phenomena. Panelists will discuss progressive responses to predatory lending and rising rates of foreclosure nationwide, including organizing campaigns, legal challenges and legislative proposals. Panelists will also offer a progressive messaging campaign and blogosphere actions that can help change the current set of assumptions and debate on the subprime crisis.
Michael Hudson, a former staff reporter with The Wall Street Journal, is a freelance journalist and an investigator at the Center for Responsible Lending. His reporting on subprime lending has run in the Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Mother Jones and has been featured in the documentary film "Maxed Out." It has also earned him numerous honors, including a George Polk Award for magazine reporting and a John Hancock Award for business writing. Mike is now working on a book and a film documentary about America's mortgage meltdown.
Mark Winston Griffith is the Senior Fellow for Economic Justice at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a progressive think tank. Mark has also served as the co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project. In the early nineties he co-founded the Central Brooklyn Federal Credit Union and the Central Brooklyn Partner¬ship, a neighborhood-based organization that builds the capacity of local people to exert political and economic power.
Mark's articles have appeared in dozens of publications including the New York Times, the Nation, Mother Jones, the New York Daily News, the Village Voice, the Source, Spin, and Essence.
Brad Miller is serving his fifth term from North Carolina's thirteenth Congressional District.
Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November of 2002, Rep. Miller currently serves on three subcommittees on the House Financial Services Committee - Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE); Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee; and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
Miller also serves as Ranking Member of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee and is a member of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee on the House Committee on Science, Space & Technology.
Miller spearheaded the effort in the House to pass a national Anti-Predatory Lending law and a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau bill that were included in the Wall Street Reform Act signed by the President. He has also written a Bankruptcy bill to try to help save family homes.
In his role as Ranking Member on the Energy and Environment Subcommittee, Miller will continue his push for innovation and research into alternative energy sources and energy efficient technologies that will define the world’s economy for the next generation and beyond.
Miller served one term in the North Carolina House and three terms in the state Senate. As a state legislator, he consistently supported the General Assembly's efforts to increase teacher pay across the state, reduce class size and improve rural North Carolina's access to computer technology and the Internet.
Miller is a product of North Carolina's public schools, attending Terry Sanford Senior High in Fayetteville and later the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for his undergraduate studies. He also holds a masters degree from the London School of Economics and a law degree from Columbia University.
